NEUTRON STAR SONG CYCLE
Translating the rhythmic pulses of deep space into tactile graphic scores, The Neutron Star Song Cycle bridges the gap between astrophysics and performance to create a living melody of the universe.
The Neutron Star Song Cycle is a series of three mixed-media pieces based on the sounds of Radio Pulsars.
These are a type of collapsed star, sometimes called neutron stars. They spin and emit beams of radiation from their magnetic poles, and every time that beam sweeps across Earth, radio telescopes like the Lovell at Jodrell Bank pick up a pulse, much like a lighthouse flash.
I’ve been diving into research from the Jodrell Bank Centre for Astrophysics, where they’ve translated these electromagnetic waves into sound. Each star has its own "voice" depending on how fast it’s spinning; some have a slow, rhythmic beat to them, while the faster millisecond pulsars sound like the beat of an insect's wings.
I was really inspired by the way artists like John Cage, Cornelius Cardew, and Nam June Paik who challenged the boundaries between art, sound, and technology. I wanted to take that same experimental spirit and apply it to this "melody of the universe."
The pieces themselves are a real mix of processes. I started with digital prints of the data visualisations and then layered over them with painting and drawing to create a series of graphic notation/scores. Much like Cardew’s Treatise, these aren’t traditional musical scores; they use shapes, lines, and textures to guide the performers, leaving room for their own intuition and interpretation.
I wanted these to be living pieces, so they’re designed to be responded to by musicians to add another layer to that cosmic harmony.
For this particular performance, I worked with Natasha Elliott, a Mezzo-Soprano, and Aimee Truesdale on the violin. Seeing (and hearing) how classical musicians respond to these deep-space "scores" has been fascinating—it’s like we’re taking raw data from stars thousands of light-years away and turning it into something very human and tactile.
SHOP THE COLLECTION
Bring the Cosmos Home
If you’d like to own a piece of the universe's melody, I’ve released a series of limited edition digital prints of the Neutron Star Song Cycle scores.
Each print captures the intricate layers of the original mixed-media works—blending the sharp, rhythmic data from Jodrell Bank with the fluid lines and textures of the hand-drawn notation.
While the original pieces were designed as a "map" for the musicians you heard in the recording above, these prints stand alone as a visual tribute to the hidden textures of deep space.
