11 Pieces of Media on the Voyager Golden Record

By michele debczak | apr 11, 2021.

NASA/JPL-Caltech

At this moment, two gold-plated copper records are hurtling through space, speeding beyond our solar system. The Voyager 1 and 2 probes launched in 1977 , and they’ve since traveled billions of miles from Earth. They are currently the loneliest human-made objects in the universe—and they may stay that way forever—but they were built to make a connection.

The purpose of NASA ’s Voyager mission is to illustrate life on Earth to any intelligent aliens that come across the spacecraft. The records on board contain media selected by a committee chaired by scientist Carl Sagan. If extraterrestrials can use the instructions engraved on the disc's cover to access its contents, they’ll be exposed to animal noises, classical music, and photographs of people from around the world. Here are some pieces of media that were chosen to represent our planet.

1. Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony

Ludwig van Beethoven is one of many classical artists representing the music of Earth on the Voyager record. In addition to his Fifth Symphony , the composer’s String Quartet No. 13, Opus 130, is also included on the track list.

2. Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode”

Though there are many musical compositions on the Voyager Golden Record , the inclusion of “Johnny B. Goode” stirred controversy. Critics claimed rock n’ roll was too adolescent for a project of such significance. Carl Sagan responded by saying, “There are a lot of adolescents on the planet.”

3. A Mandarin Greeting and Invitation

The Voyager project recorded UN delegates from around the world saying greetings in 54 different languages. Most are straightforward, but the Mandarin message includes an invitation. Translated to English, it says: "Hope everyone's well. We are thinking about you all. Please come here to visit when you have time."

4. Humpback Whale Songs

The greetings section of the record features one language that doesn’t belong to humans. Interspersed between the spoken audio clips are the sounds of singing humpback whales . There’s a reason whales were included with the greetings rather than the other animal noises on the record—it was the committee’s way of acknowledging that humans aren’t the only intelligent life on Earth.

5. The UN Building

The Voyager committee chose the UN Building to represent modern urban architecture. The record includes two images of the New York City skyscraper, both taken at the same angle. One depicts the structure during the day and the other shows it at night .

6. A Traffic Jam

The Voyager record highlights many technological marvels from the time it was made, including a rocket and an airplane. The photo of a traffic jam in Thailand that was included may seem less impressive, but it accurately depicts how we use cars on our planet.

7. A Bulgarian Folk Song

The Voyager committee wanted the record's music to represent a wide range of eras and cultures. One track, titled "Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin," is a traditional folk song from Bulgaria . Sung by Valya Balkanska, it’s about a famous rebel leader from the country’s history. Folk music from Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Navajo people also made it onto the compilation.

8. Ann Druyan’s Brainwaves

While working on the Voyager committee, Ann Druyan had the idea to record her brainwaves, turn them into audio, and copy them onto the record. She spent an hour hooked up to electrical impulse-measuring systems while thinking various thoughts, including what it’s like to fall in love. She and Sagan—her collaborator on the Voyager record project—had recently gotten engaged.

9. A Map of the Solar System

The Voyager mission is designed to travel far, but it will always hold evidence of where it came from. One of the images on the record shows a picture of our solar system with a map illustrating Earth’s location.

10. People Eating

Some human behaviors are tricky to capture in one image. To show the different ways people consume food and drink, the Voyager committee included a photo of someone licking ice cream, someone else biting into a sandwich, and a third person pouring water into their mouth.

11. A Morse Code Message

Another type of communication represented on the Voyager record is Morse code . The message translates to the Latin saying ad astra per aspera , or “to the stars through hard work.”

  • Bosnia-Herzegovina
  • FYROMacedonia

40 Year Since a Bulgarian Song Launched Into Space on NASA's Voyager 1

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

40 years ago today a Bulgarian song launched into space on NASA's Voyager 1.

The Golden Record, including "Izleel e Delyo Haidutin" performed by Valya Balkanska, is still traveling through space. Valya was 35 years old when her voice took off for the stars. Today, the singer from the Rhodope Mountains is 75.

Happy 40th anniversary, Voyager 1!

Both vessels (Voyager 1 and 2)  carry copies of the "Voyager Golden Record," a sort of message in a bottle intended for potential alien civilizations. The record includes prominent Bulgarian folk  song " Izlel e Delyo Haidutin ," among others.

The  song , famously performed by  Valya Balkanska , can be heard HERE.

And the full track list can be seen HERE.

Organization

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Voyager Golden Record

Original artwork by Michael Zhang.

Original artwork by Michael Zhang .

This episode was written and produced by Leigh McDonald .

In the late '70s, NASA launched Voyagers 1 & 2 to explore the furthest reaches of our solar system and beyond. But something amazing was included on those space probes... a 90-minute time capsule of sounds, language, and music from Earth called The Golden Record. Its intended recipient? Any intelligent extraterrestrial life that might stumble upon it. What did Carl Sagan and his team put on the record to represent all of humanity? How would aliens decode it?

For the first time ever, the album will be deconstructed track-by-track. Featuring Tim Ferris and Linda Salzman Sagan , two pioneers behind the record. MUSIC FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE Polaris by SVVN Silence by David A Molina Who am I by Dario Lupo Closing Rhyme by Chad Lawson

MUSIC DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE

Greetings from Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations - Voyager Golden Record Greetings in 55 Languages - Voyager Golden Record United Nations Greetings / Whale Songs - Voyager Golden Record Sounds of Earth - Voyager Golden Record Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: I. Allego by Johann Sebastian Bach, Performed by Munich Bach Orchestra, Deutsche Grammophon Ketawang: Puspåwårnå (Kinds of Flowers), Performed by Pura Paku Alaman Palace Orchestra - Nonesuch Records Cengunmé, Mahi musicians of Benin by Charles Duvelle Alima Song by Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest - Smithsonian Folkways Barnumbirr (Morning Star) and Mokoi Song, Performed by Tom Djawa, Mudpo, Waliparu - Recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes El Cascabel by Lorenzo Barcelata, Performed by Antonio Maciel and Los Aguilillas with Mariachi México de Pepe Villa - Bicycle Music Company Jonny B. Goode by Chuck Berry - Universal Music Enterprises Mariuamangi by Pranis Pandang and Kumbi of the Nyarua clan - Recorded by Robert MacLennan Sokaku-Reibo (Depicting the Cranes in Their Nest), Arranged by Kinko Kurosawa, Performed by Goro Yamaguchi - Nonesuch Records Partita for Violin Solo No.3 in E Major, BWV 1006: III. Gavotte en Rondeau by Johann Sebastian Bach, Performed by Arthut Grumiaux - Universal Music Enterprises The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), K. 620, Act II: Hell's Vengeance Boils in my Heart by Wolfgang Amadeaus Mozart, Performed by Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus - Warner Classics UK Chakrulo by Georgian State Merited Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance - Melodiya Studio in Tbilisi, Georgia Roncadoras and Drums, Performed by musicians from Ancash - Recorded by Jose Maria Arguedas Melancholy Blues by Louis Armstong and His Hot Seven - Columbia Records Mugam by Kamil Jalilov - Smithsonian Folkways The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre Du Printemps), Part II - The Sacrifice: VI. Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One) by Igor Stravinski, Performed by Columbia Symphony Orchestra - Sony Classical The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II: Prelude & Fugue No.1 in C Major, BWV 870 by Joann Sebastian Bach, Performed by Glenn Gould - Sony Classical Symphony No.5 in C Minor, Opus 67: I. Allegro Con Brio by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Performed by London Philharmonia Orchestra - Warner Classics Izlel E Delyu Haydutin by Valya Balkanska, Lazar Kanevski, Stephan Zahmanov - Nonesuch Records Navajo Night Chant, Yeibichai Dance by Ambrose Roan Horse, Chester Roan, Tom Roan - Smithsonian Folkways The Fairie Round by Anthony Holborne, Performed by Early Music Consort of London - Warner Music UK Naranaratana Kookokoo (The Cry of the Megapode Bird), Performed by Maniasinimae and Taumaetarau Chieftain Tribe of Oloha and Palasu'u Village Community in Small Malatia - Solomon Islands Broadcasting Company Wedding Song, Performed by young girl of Huancavelica - Smithsonian Folkways Liu Shui (Flowing Streams), Performed by Guan Pinghu - Smithsonian Folkways Bhairavi: Jaat Kahan Ho, Performed by Kesarbai Kerkar - Silva Screen Music America Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson - Legacy Recordings String Quartet No.13 in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: V. Cavatina by Ludwig Van Beethoven, Performed by Budapest String Quartet - Bridge Records

Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound, and hosted by D allas Taylor . Follow the show on Twitter & Facebook . Become a monthly contributor at 20k.org/donate . If you know what this week's mystery sound is, tell us at  mystery.20k.org . To get your 20K referral link and earn rewards, visit 20k.org/refer . Get your copy of the Voyager Golden Record at ozmarecords.com.

View Transcript ▶︎

[SFX: record needle going on to record, scratchy start

Kurt Waldheim [1-01]: As the Secretary General of the United Nations, who represents almost all of the human inhabitants of the planet Earth, I send greetings on behalf of the people of our planet.]

You’re listening to Twenty Thousand Hertz. I’m Dallas Taylor.

[Clip continues - Kurt Waldheim [1-01]: We step out of our solar system into the universe seeking on peace and friendship. To teach if we are called upon. To be taught if we are fortunate. We know full well that our planet and all its inhabitants are but a small part of this immense universe that surrounds us. And it is with humility and hope that we take this step.]

That was Kurt Waldheim, the fourth Secretary-General of the UN. And what you just heard is the first track from the most epic album of all time. It was made by a team of scientists, artists, and historians hoping that one day other intelligent life forms might find it. It’s the Voyager Golden Record. It’s also a time capsule, and there’s actually two of them. They’re currently over 11 billion miles away, hurtling through space at over thirty thousand miles an hour.

These literal golden records are attached to the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes. These probes were launched in the late seventies and today they are farther away from earth than any other human-made object. The Voyager probes could continue to explore worlds unknown for more than a billion years. So, there is a theoretical chance that alien life could find one of these probes.

In the seventies a committee chaired by Carl Sagan curated a record to ride on each craft. Here’s Carl talking about the record on the original COSMOS television series.

[music out]

[Carl Sagan: A phonograph record, golden, delicate, with instructions for use. And on this record are pictures, sounds, greetings, and an hour and a half of exquisite music, the earth’s greatest hits, a gift across the cosmic ocean from one island civilization to another.]

Recently, Ozma Records has re-pressed the Voyager Golden Record using the original master tapes. Before then, no one on earth could hear the Golden Record in context. But now, we’re going to explore it together, track-by-track.

Kurt Waldheim, who you heard at the beginning of the episode, is track 1 of the record. He greeted whoever might find this record on behalf of all humanity. Here’s track 2, which are hellos and greetings in 55 languages.

[SFX 1-02: Greetings in 55 Languages]

Linda: I think it was an amazing project.

That’s Linda Salzman Sagan, she was in charge of organizing all of these greetings. She was married to Carl Sagan at the time the records were made. Their son, Nick Sagan was recorded for the English greeting when he was just 6 years old.

Linda: Nick gave the greeting in English, and we never told him this. He just said “hello from the children of planet earth” and that was his greeting.

Linda: I get choked up when I think about it. I kind of appreciate his wisdom. That he made a special greeting. He’s a very remarkable young man.

[SFX 1-02: Hello from the children of earth]

The greetings continue into track 3. This time it’s from more members of the United Nations.

[SFX 1-03: UN greetings in several languages]

The UN greetings on this track are mixed with another sound: humpback whale songs.

[SFX 1-03: UN greetings mixed whale songs]

And by the track’s end, the whale songs are the only sounds left.

[SFX 1-03: Just whale songs]

The choice of Whale Songs was deliberate. Carl Sagan believed they carried a lot of information - just like human speech.

[Carl Sagan: If I imagine that the songs of the humpback whale are sung in a tonal language, then the number of bits of information in one song is about the same as the information content of the Iliad or the Odyssey.]

If this record is found by intergalactic life, it’s possible they could understand a whale’s song just as well as they could understand human speech.

That brings us to track 4, “The Sounds of Earth.”

[SFX 01-04: Sounds of Earth]

This is a 12 minute sound essay that depicts the history of our planet. The first part is known as “the Music of the Spheres”. It’s a sonic representation of the planets in our solar system rotating around the sun. The music is composed mathematically - each planet is given its own frequency. The highest pitch is Mercury. The lowest is Jupiter.

Timothy Ferris and Ann Druyan led the production of the sound essay. They wanted to present an evolution of our planet. So next comes the sound of thunder, volcanoes, bubbling lava - this is prehistoric earth.

Each minute of the track takes us through thousands of years of planetary development. From the birth of life on earth, to the modern day, and beyond. Linda also helped collect many of these sounds.

Linda: When we were going to actually record sound. I think Ann suggested that we try to do it in an evolutionary way. So I went to a professor at Columbia who specialized in anthropology and I got the sound of him striking a flint. You know there was a sense of wonder to it and a sense of the ridiculous and the sublime.

About halfway through we hear the first signs of human life:

[SFX 01-04: Sounds of Earth continue underneath VO]

A heart beat…[SFX] Footsteps…[SFX] The first tools….[SFX] Then modern tools...[SFX] Transportation….[SFX] The launch of a spacecraft...[SFX]

The last human sound is a recording of Ann Druyan’s brain activity. The hope was that extraterrestrials might be able to decode that data, and read her thoughts.

Timothy: It's an odd idea to think about whether alien civilization can make sense of an EEG but, one doesn't know.

That’s Timothy Ferris, who produced the Golden Record.

Timothy: You know when you play a piece of music for someone, you don't know what they're gonna make of it exactly. If you're playing it for them you hope they'll find something rewarding in it.

Timothy: But, I suppose that's the idea behind the Voyager record is that if someday far away in space and time you come across this thing, we hope it's meaningful to you in some way.

The essay ends with the sound of a pulsar [SFX] . The patterns of this sound, plus the image of pulsars on the cover of the record, can be used to calculate time and distance in space. It comes together as a map of Earth’s location in the Galaxy.

Timothy Ferris also led music selection for the record. Which brings us to track 5. This is the “Brandenburg Concerto” by J.S. Bach.

[Music 1-05: Brandenburg Concerto]

Timothy: I was concerned to represent some music that has strong mathematical foundations because we might well be communicating with creatures who don't have hearing or don't have hearing in the range or whose timescale is different so that our rhythms might not make sense. None of us imagined that aliens would be like us and that they would lounge back and listen to the music and experience it the way we do.

Timothy: So, I was interested in finding relationships in the music that would make sense even if you were just mathematically analyzing it. And, there are some pieces by Bach and Beethoven that are there for that purpose.

In addition to mathematical principles, Timothy also wanted to find songs that could properly introduce us.

Timothy: Much of the time, though, we were just including pieces because they were heartbreakingly beautiful and we thought they represented our human values.

Next up is track 6. It’s an Indonesian folk song called “Ketawang Puspawarna.”

[Music 1-06: Ketawang Puspawarna]

The piece is an introduction for a prince. The lyrics name different flowers. Each symbolizes a spiritual or philosophical state. Apparently, this was a favorite of Carl Sagan.

Timothy: Carl Sagan and I were friends. We both had a particular interest in extraterrestrial intelligence. How, really, would you communicate with an alien intelligence in the distant future was of great interest to us. Music was settled on quite early, to make a record with music and then we realized you could put other things in the grooves too, and so we had natural sounds and greetings and the photos and all.

Timothy: Two of my deepest interests in life had always been science and astronomy, the universe as a whole on the one hand and music on the other. So, here was the chance to bring the two together.

Determining which songs represent humanity best is an enormous task. Tim, Carl, and others listened together to album after album. At one of these gatherings they found track 7, “Cengunmé.” It’s a percussion song from Benin, a nation in Africa.

[Music 1-07: Cengunmé]

Timothy: The listening sessions themselves were great. A lot of 'em were done in my apartment in New York. At that time I was, among other things, a music critic and had thousands and thousands of LPs lining the walls and a good stereo. Which is what people used to do in those days, they’d just sit and listen to music on a stereo.

It would have been incredible to attend these listening parties. Imagine listening to music with the greatest scientific minds, trying to figure out what music should be on intergalactic greatest hits record.

Track 8 is “Alima Song” This piece is performed by the indigenous people in the rainforests of the Congo.

[Music 1-08: Alima’s Song]

This song is followed by “Australia Barnumbirr and Moikoi Song.” Track 9 sounds like this:

[Music 1-09: Australia Barnumbirr (Morning Star) and Moikoi Song]

Which is followed by track 10, “El Cascabel,” a Mariachi song.

[Music 1-10: El Cascabel]

Timothy: You have to consider the dynamic you're in if you're going to make a brief collection. 90 minutes from all the music on Earth, then you are automatically going to exclude almost all of the great music because there's so much of it. We could have done a Voyager record every year over the past 40 years and they'd all be terrific. It's not as if you're gonna run out of great music.

Timothy: We tried to get music from all around the world, not just from the culture that had created the spacecraft.

Timothy: You end up really with one piece representing each kind of thing. The one rock track on the record is “Johnny B. Goode” by Chuck Berry.

Here’s track 11.

[Music 1-11: Johnny B. Goode]

Timothy also used some creative engineering to get as much music as possible onto the record.

Timothy: The disc is the size of a record that use to be recorded at 33-1/3 revolutions per minute. I cut the Voyager record to half speed so that we could have twice the content. This took our high end response down from around 18,000 hertz to around 12.5 [SFX: “Johnny B. Goode” adjusts to 12.5 hertz], somewhere in there. I figured a little bit of high end loss was a good trade off for doubling the information content of the record.

This doubled space allowed for even more diversity and culture onto the record. Like track 12, “Mariuamangɨ,” a traditional folk song from New Guinea.

[Music 1-12: Mariuamangɨ]

Track 13 it “Sokaku-Reibo.” This Japanese folk song is played on a bamboo flute. Its title means “Depicting the Cranes in their Nest.”

[Music 1-13: Sokaku-Reibo (Depicting The Cranes In Their Nest)]

Next up is track 14. It’s from the Baroque period of Western European music. This is “Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E Major” by J. S. Bach.

[Music 1-14: Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E Major]

Timothy: Music means a lot to us and I would be surprised if something like music didn't mean a lot to at least some other intelligent species. The fact that it is non-specific and yet communicates something to everyone.

Track 15 moves us forward in history, to the Classical period. This is from the Mozart Opera, “The Magic Flute”

[Music 1-15: The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte)]

Timothy: There's something fundamental about rhythms that it's difficult to imagine any intelligent species not having some familiarity with. I thought music was a good way of, maybe communicating isn't perhaps the right word but memorializing the human species.

Track 16 is an ancient drinking song from the country of Georgia. It dramatizes preparing for battle.

[Music: 1-16: Chakrulo]

We’re now halfway through the Voyager Golden Record. At the end of one side of a record, there are wide grooves that catch the needle. These are known as the “take out grooves” or “run out grooves”.

Popular bands sometimes used to leave secret messages hand etched in between these grooves.

Timothy: So, I had composed a dedication and cleared it with the other members, which was "To the Makers of Music, all worlds, all times." When the record was completed and was sent to NASA there's something called a Compliance Officer whose job it is to make sure that every part going on to a spacecraft meets exact specifications. When the Compliance Officer checked The Voyager record here was this handwriting and there was nothing about that in the blueprints, so he rejected the part.

So with the project near completion, a simple hand written message almost derailed the entire thing. We’ll flip the record to Side B and finish the story, after the break.

11 billion miles from here, the twin Voyager spacecraft carry golden records. These discs are time capsules - memorials of our global culture. But a tiny visual detail of the record almost stalled the entire project.

Here’s Timothy Farris again.

Timothy: We went through an anxious week or two when NASA was preparing a blank disc to replace the ones we had worked so hard on for fear that the non-standard part might threaten the launch. Carl had to go to the head of NASA to get a waiver. His argument was that this would be the sole example of human handwriting on the spacecraft and that argument carried the day. So, it was with a certain amount of relief that Carl and I and our collaborators watched the launch of the first of the two Voyagers down at the Cape because there were times when we weren't sure it was going to work out at all.

Thankfully it did work out. So it’s time to flip the record.

[SFX: Record flip, needle drop]

[Music 2-01: Roncadoras and Drums]

This song, “Roncadoras and Drums,” is track 17. It’s from the Ancash Region of Peru.

[music continues]

The Voyager probes were launched in 1977. Compared to the spacecraft of today, they used simple technology. So NASA engineers had to use special techniques to reach deep space.

Timothy: The Voyagers are accidentally interstellar. They used a sophisticated technique to fly past the giant planets; Jupiter, Saturn, on out to Uranus and Neptune in such a way that they were able to accelerate to ever higher velocities. So their velocities exceed the escape velocity of the solar system. That means they'll leave the Sun and our planets behind forever and drift in the Milky Way Galaxy. Because they're going to last so long in space, a billion years is the lower bound on their likely lifetime, it seemed appropriate to put some kind of time capsule aboard the craft.

Each probe travels in a completely different direction. Their billion-year journey is likely to be lonely, It’s fun to imagine a lonely spacecraft drifting through space to track 18, “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and the Hot Seven.

[Music 2-02: Melancholy Blues]

Next is track 19 “Muğam”by Azerbaijani musician Kamil Jalilov.

[Music 2-03: Muğam]

Both Voyagers are now interstellar. That means they’ve completely left our solar system. They are the first and only human-made objects to do so.

The Voyagers will fly on for a billion years, but unfortunately they won’t function for that long. Soon, scientists may have to start shutting down instruments to try and save power. They still send data back to Earth each day. But eventually the probes will go dark, and become hunks of metal hurtling through the void.

This is Carl Sagan again.

[Carl Sagan: We do not know whether there are other space faring civilizations in the Milky Way. If they do exist, we do not know how abundant they are, much less where they are. But there is at least a chance that sometime in the remote future one of the Voyagers will be intercepted and examined by an alien craft.]

The Voyagers’ themselves will die. But their mission won’t.

So , back to the music - track 20 is from a ballet, Igor Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring.”

[Music 2-04: The Rite of Spring]

By the way, when this was premiered in Paris in 1913 - people rioted - this was not what they expected from a ballet.

The next piece, track 21, is prelude and fugue no. 1, from Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier.

[Music 2-05: The Well-Tempered Clavier]

And coming up next is track 22.

[Music 2-06: Symphony No. 5]

An epic symphony for an epic journey. This is Beethoven’s “Symphony No. 5”.

This music sounds familiar to us, but we really have no idea what aliens might make of it. If they can hear like we do at all, they might only be able to hear the higher frequencies...

[SFX: Symphony No. 5 high frequency]

Or maybe the low frequencies...

[SFX: Symphony No. 5 low frequency]

Or maybe they’ll interpret the grooves of the record in a totally different way, and they won’t hear music at all….

[SFX: Symphony No. 5 vibrations only]

Seems like miscommunication is a big possibility. Could we anger aliens with the Golden record? Track 23 is “Izlel E Delyo Haydutin.” This Bulgarian folk song is about an unkillable rebel hero.

[Music: Izlel E Delyo Haydutin]

Could aliens interpret this as a threat?

Timothy: I never took that part of it very seriously, the idea that we'd somehow be threatening someone. There is just nothing in the history of human species or any other relatively intelligent species to suggest anything of the sort. So, I saw no reason to get into such considerations in making the Voyager record.

The Voyager Gold Record is truly a message of peace. Much of the music is friendly and joyful.

Next up is track 24. It’s a Navajo Night Chant called the “Yeibichai Dance.”

[Music 2-08: Navajo Night Chant]

Track 25 is “The Fairie Round,” by British composer Anthony Holborne.

[Music 2-09: The Fairie Round]

Track 26 is from the Solomon Islands. It’s name, “Naranaratana Kookokoo,” which translates to “The Cry of the Megapode Bird”.

[Music 2-10: Naranaratana Kookokoo]

If he had to do it all over again, Timothy says he would still use a record over newer, digital technology.

Timothy: People say "Well, with digital technology, we could include so much more information" but more isn't necessarily better. A 12-hour feature film is not necessarily better than a two-hour feature film. So, just shoveling large amounts of data in to a time capsule does not necessarily create a work of art. With the Voyager record, we were interested in creating a work of art.

There’s also the question of durability. Remember these records are supposed to last 1 billion years. They’re not vinyl records, like you’d find at home on your shelf. The Voyager Golden records are made of copper and plated in gold.

Timothy: If I were doing the Voyager record today, I would use exactly the same technology because I can warrant that the information on that disc will last for a very long time. There is no digital medium that would give me the same assurance. So, the technology of making the record, I would have done the same. That would probably be a little harder to do today than it was in the '70s when that was the universal industry standard.

Track 27, “Wedding Song,” is a Peruvian folk song. The young woman singing the song laments marrying too young. It’s a haunting melody.

[Music 2-11: Wedding Song]

Track 28 is “Liu Shui.” The title means, “Flowing Streams,” in Mandarin. It captures the feeling of ever-moving water.

[Music 2-12: Liu Shui]

The Voyager craft will flow through space almost endlessly. And possibly long after we’re gone.

Timothy: I have no way to estimate the odds that the record would ever be encountered by an alien civilization. There's so many variables. We don't yet know at what rate intelligence emerges on planets that have life. I imagine that life itself is fairly widespread in the universe.

Timothy: Another big variable is we don't know how long intelligence typically lasts. A powerful species, technologically powerful species like ours might still be here in a hundred thousand years or it might not.

Timothy: You then get to the question of how many of those intelligent species get involved in space exploration or wire up a whole part of the galaxy so that they would even be able to detect something like Voyager. We don't know that either. The Voyager probe would be pretty easy to pick up. It doesn't look like a space rock. Discovering its out there in the first place, though, is pretty much a random chance.

The next track, track 29, “Jaat Kahan Ho.” from India.

[Music 2:13 - Bhairavi: Jaat Kahan Ho]

The Voyagers will travel huge scales of time and distance, truly entering the unknown. Carl Sagan talks about this in his book, Pale Blue Dot.

Quote - “Perhaps no one in five billion years will ever come upon them. [In that time] the evolution of the Sun will have burned the Earth to a crisp or reduced it to a whirl of atoms.

Far from home, untouched by these remote events, the Voyagers, bearing the memories of a world that is no more, will fly on.”

[Music 2-14: Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground]

We’re nearing the end of the record. This is the second to last the track on the record. Track 30.

Timothy: My very first suggestion was the track, “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground,” a field recording from decades ago in the American South.

This song is about enduring a cold night with nowhere to sleep.

Timothy: Everything on the Voyager project was both personal and universal. We're trying to represent the whole human species. The first meeting we ever had on the Voyager record, I proposed two goals. The first that we try to be as inclusive as possible.

Timothy: And second, that we make a good record.

[Music 2:15 - String Quartet No. 13: in B-Flat Major, Opus 130: V. Cavatina]

The final track, track 31, is Beethoven’s “String Quartet No. 13: Cavatina”.

This record is about humans. It could be our first introduction to alien life - or, It could become the only remaining evidence of our existence. Or, it might just be for us.

Linda: You know Einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. There's a certain wonderfulness that this project was wrapped up in.

Timothy: The Voyager record says about humanity that however limited or small or primitive we may be or have been when we made the record, we had the imagination and the intellect to think about scales of time and space far beyond our own.

The Voyager Golden Record will circle our Galaxy essentially forever. That means there is plenty of time for it to be found - If there is anyone out there to find it.

It’s message may not be understood, but it’s intent may be. The Voyager Spacecraft itself is a message to the cosmos, it simply says “we are here, and we are listening”.

Twenty Thousand Hertz is produced out of the studios of Defacto Sound, a sound design team dedicated to making television, film, and games sound incredible. Find out more at defacto sound dot com.

This episode was written and produced by Leigh McDonald...and me, Dallas Taylor. With help from Sam Schneble. It was sound designed and mixed by Nick Spradlin.

Thanks to science writer Timothy Ferris. Timothy was the lead producer on the Voyager Golden Record. You can find him online at timothyferris dot com. Thanks also to artist and writer Linda Salzman Sagan.

We absolutely couldn't have made this episode without Ozma Records. They recently repressed the Golden record from the original master tapes. For 40 years before that, no one on Earth could listen to it. It also comes with an incredible book that I keep in my own studio. It outlines the history of the project in much greater detail than we had time for. It also includes all of the photos that were on the record. Go buy it at Ozma Records dot com. Thats, O-Z-M-A records dot com.

The non-Golden Record music in this episode was from Musicbed. Find out more at musicbed.com

Lastly, what would you include on a contemporary Voyager Golden Record? Let us know what music and sounds you’d choose on Facebook, Twitter or by writing hi at 20k dot org.

Thanks for listening.

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Saturday song – Valia Balkanska In Voyager Of NASA – MYSTERY Of Bulgarian Voices

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Valya Balkanska – A Space Woman at 78!

Whose unearthly voice roars in the cosmos!

Her most famous recording – a solo performance of the song “Delivered Heidutin” – was made in the late 1960s by American researcher of Bulgarian folklore Martin Koening and was released on a record in the USA.

A few years l

ater, a copy of the plate falls by accident among the purchased recordings in preparation for the Golden Plate, a message from Earth that would fly outside the solar system aboard two identical NASA Voyager spacecraft.

The song was included in the final 90-minute selection of Carl Sagan musicals and first flew Voyager 2, which was launched on August 20, 1977, and two weeks later on September 5, 1977 – and Voyager 1. On August 25, 2012, Voyager 1 becomes the first human-made object to leave the Heliosphere and enter the Interstellar environment

Information https://www.edna.bg/

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lacho59 music songs folklore Bulgaria

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Written by lacho59

That’s another special song. It’s great you share Bulgarian music here.

The singer has a very amazing voice.

What an incredible voice, thank you for sharing this.

and interestingly Voyager is off its projected course by nearly 18 million miles. It pushes Newton’s theory of gravity a little!

love the song, love the voice!

Sorry I forgot to upload the text. When I found out it was late, the post was published. I bow to this majestic voice of this woman.

the text would have helped but I found it on the internet.

she has an amazing voice!

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A Bulgarian folk song conquered the world and flew into space

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM CENTRAL EUROPE AND THE 3 SEAS INITIATIVE

The bulgarian folk song flying in space .

In 1977, a vinyl record featuring the Bulgarian folk song "Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin" (Eng: Come out rebel Delyo) began its journey aboard the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 spacecrafts. The song's journey continues to this day.

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In the late 1960s, American explorer of Bulgarian folklore Martin Koenig recorded and released on vinyl in the United States a Bulgarian folk song performed by Valya Balkanska . A few years later, a copy of the song was among the recordings included on the Golden Record, a message from the Earth prepared to fly out of the Solar System aboard two identical spacecrafts from the NASA Voyager program.

Valya Balkanska, village of Arda, Rhodopes, Bulgaria, 1968

She was born to a Bulgarian Muslim family as Feyme Kestebekova, one of the hundreds of thousands of descendants of Bulgarian Slavs who converted to Islam during the Ottoman rule. At the age of 18, Valya Balkanska took off her traditional headscarf.

Music in Space: an out-of-this-world masterpiece

A gifted singer, she auditioned to join the Rodopa State Ensemble for Folk Songs and Dances in the city of Smolyan in southern Bulgaria. She made the cut. But the first time she appeared on stage, she got so nervous she had to hide backstage.

Today, Valya Balkanska has more than 300 folk songs in her repertoire , but her cosmic song, “Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin,” remains by far her most popular rendering. The song, originating in the central Rhodope Mountains, is about Delyo, a rebel leader who was active in the struggle against Ottoman rule in the late 17th and early 18th centuries.

“The songs I sing really are magic to me. As for “Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin,” it comes from the heart. That’s where its strength lies. It awakens you,” she says in conversation with 3Seas Europe. Balkanska joined the ensemble without having graduated from music school. At the time, the song was known for its performance by singer Nadezhda Hvoineva.

Balkanska asked Hvoineva for permission to perform the song but received a negative answer. She sang it anyway and saw it flying off into space years later. “There is something fatal in this song,” Balkanska says.

“This is a present from a small, distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts, and our feelings. We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours,” US President Jimmy Carter said of the Voyager Golden Records music in space at the time.

Envisioned as a time capsule, the records contain sounds and images showcasing the diversity of life and culture on Earth. They are intended for any intelligent extraterrestrial life form who may find them. The Voyager 1 probe is currently the farthest human-made object from Earth.

Folk traditions to unite the people

Back on Earth, Vanya Balkanska continues to make audiences cry with the song. She is adamant that folklore brings nations closer together. “The Rhodope Mountains with its centuries-old forests ennobles people,” the singer sums up. She is convinced that “[her] strength comes from my native land.”

Today, Balkanska enjoys a quiet life on her ranch close to Smolyan. She never considered living abroad – “Water, when it spills in different directions, loses its fullness,” she says philosophically, but being “a child of the Rhodope Mountains,” she doesn’t see herself living in the city either. The ranch is where she belongs and where she takes air straight from the mountains.

Songs that bring tears … of pain and joy

She also happens to sing when she is sad. Days after her husband died, she was asked to sing at a wedding. At first, she refused, but her children scolded her, saying, “Mom, Dad will turn in his grave if you refuse to sing. Snap out of it. It’s like you’re going to sing a prayer.”

From her ranch, she feels her country is going through a very difficult period. “We need young people to come back. We need unity among people, not division. When the bread is broken, the crumbs are hard to pick up,” Balkanska tells 3 Seas Europe. But she is blessed to have her family, including eight great-grandchildren, near her. Her happiest moment is when the entire family sits together at the table.

At 80, Valya Balkanska continues to perform. She pledges to sing for as long as she can. We ask her, “Is the bow you make after each performance a bow to Bulgaria?” “To Bulgaria and to its people,” she answers. “This nation has honored me by standing before me; I am obligated to bow to it.”

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Galina Ganeva

a journalist with experience working for some of the most influential Bulgarian publications. She mostly writes about the intersection of society and culture

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Voyager 1, Bulgarian Song Set to Reach Interstellar Space

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

NASA 's Voyager 1 , launched 35 years ago with various messages from the Earth, is on the verge of moving into interstellar space.

Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers) from Earth and hurtling away at a rate of 13 kilometres a second, The Telegraph informs. Its sister craft, Voyager 2 , is not far behind.

Both Voyagers are now on the very edge of a protective bubble that the sun throws around the solar system , known as the heliosphere.

Current data from Voyager 1 in the past week has shown that the solar wind has fallen by 90 per cent the level it has been for the past seven years while the level of cosmic rays has increased to its highest level, a clue that the craft is about to leave the bubble.

Scientists expect to see the final clue - the shift in magnetic field - any day now.

Both vessels carry copies of the "Voyager Golden Record," a sort of message in a bottle intended for potential alien civilizations. The record includes prominent Bulgarian folk song " Izlel e Delyo Haidutin ," among others.

The song , famously performed by Valya Balkanska , can be heard HERE.

And the full track list can be seen HERE.

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golden record  /  whats on the record

Music from earth.

The following music was included on the Voyager record.

  • Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40
  • Java, court gamelan, "Kinds of Flowers," recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43
  • Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08
  • Zaire, Pygmy girls' initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull. 0:56
  • Australia, Aborigine songs, "Morning Star" and "Devil Bird," recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes. 1:26
  • Mexico, "El Cascabel," performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México. 3:14
  • "Johnny B. Goode," written and performed by Chuck Berry. 2:38
  • New Guinea, men's house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan. 1:20
  • Japan, shakuhachi, "Tsuru No Sugomori" ("Crane's Nest,") performed by Goro Yamaguchi. 4:51
  • Bach, "Gavotte en rondeaux" from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux. 2:55
  • Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor. 2:55
  • Georgian S.S.R., chorus, "Tchakrulo," collected by Radio Moscow. 2:18
  • Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima. 0:52
  • "Melancholy Blues," performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven. 3:05
  • Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow. 2:30
  • Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor. 4:35
  • Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano. 4:48
  • Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor. 7:20
  • Bulgaria, "Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin," sung by Valya Balkanska. 4:59
  • Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes. 0:57
  • Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, "The Fairie Round," performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London. 1:17
  • Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service. 1:12
  • Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen. 0:38
  • China, ch'in, "Flowing Streams," performed by Kuan P'ing-hu. 7:37
  • India, raga, "Jaat Kahan Ho," sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar. 3:30
  • "Dark Was the Night," written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson. 3:15
  • Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String Quartet. 6:37

Written by Mark Smotroff • January 17, 2018 • 4:13 am • Audiophile Music

The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition

Mark Smotroff sets the controls for interstellar overdrive…

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One of the most fascinating collections to be released at the end of 2017 is a three disc — and digital download (and eventually CD) — commemorating the 40th Anniversary of the Voyager space mission. In case you didn’t know about this, in 1977 NASA sent out two robotic space probes to study the far reaches of the solar system. Included on these probes — called Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 — are a pair of golden discs (one each) containing audio representations of life on earth. 

AR-VoyagerGoldenRecordTurntableMat225.jpg

From the Kickstarter page, we learn “ A year in the making (and many more years on our minds), the Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition is the first vinyl release of the stunning golden phonograph record launched by NASA in 1977 aboard the Voyager spacecraft, one of which is now traveling through interstellar space. The deluxe 40th Anniversary Edition box set will only be available through October 20 on Kickstarter.”

I got my order in and it arrived just in time for the Winter holiday season. And generally I am super pleased with it.  Falling only one step short of having a physical reproduction of the exact Voyager disc, this three LP set pressed on thick, quiet and well centered vinyl is the next best thing. And its something we can enjoy here and now today. You see, the original Voyager disc was not created in a form adhering to our current audio standards; according to the Wiki,  the audio on the original Voyager Golden Record was d esigned to be played at 16⅔ revolutions per minute.

AR-VoyagerGoldenRecordCover225.jpg

I still have yet to really explore the included 96-page full-color soft-bound book which contains all images included on the original Voyager Interstellar Record, gallery of images transmitted back from the Voyager probes, and a new essay by original disc producer Timothy Ferris , producer of the original golden record. But it is interesting to consider some details from the Wiki about how this collection came together: “The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. The selection of content for the record took almost a year. Sagan and his associates assembled 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made by surf, wind, thunder and animals (including the songs of birds and whales). To this they added musical selections from different cultures and eras, spoken greetings in 55 ancient and modern languages, other human sounds, like footsteps and laughter (Sagan’s), and printed messages from U.S. president Jimmy Carter and U.N. Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim. The record also includes the inspirational message Per aspera ad astra in Morse code.”

Musically, the three LP set does not disappoint for the most part, presenting a fairly breathtaking array of music and sound ( Click here for a full run down of everything that is on the disc).

Some of my favorites from the set include: “ Alima Song” by Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest, a haunting tribal chant type piece.  “Chakrulo” by Georgian State Merited Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance/Anzor Kavsadze sounds sort of like a male backing track to a Kate Bush song. 

AR-VoyagerGoldenRecordSet225.jpg

“Melancholy Blues” performed by legendary Jazz pioneer Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven is wonderful as is “Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground” by blues great Blind Willie Johnson, both from 1927.  It is wonderful that they included a section from Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring respectfully using a version conducted by the composer himself (although I wish they had used a performance by Pierre Monteux , who conducted the world premiere of the piece back in 1914). 

Perhaps the only sonic let down for this writer is, oddly enough, due to an audiophile-ish issue: the version of Chuck Berry’s rock ‘n roll classic “Johnny B.Goode” sounds a little wonky and is likely a reprocessed version, not a tight crisp original Mono version. This one is drenched in additional reverb and some sort of processing, so much so I can’t really tell if it is fake Stereo… but it does sound odd. I have to guess that the original Voyager Record producers weren’t quite obsessing about audiophile issues just went with whatever version they were given permission to use for the set. If that is the case, then Ozma Records is to be applauded for giving us that same version and not some 21st Century digitally remastered update. This is one of the rare instances where having an inferior version might perhaps be desirable in so far as maintaining the authenticity of the collection. 

]]> Perhaps my favorite — and admittedly record collector geekiest — part of the set is the brilliantly designed felt DJ tie table mat which depicts the Voyager mission trajectory through space. My inner 16-year old science geek let out a big  “squeeeee”  upon opening the package for the first time.

AR-VoyagerGoldenRecordBox225.jpg

So while there is potential audiophile joy on this set, the real reason you want to listen to this collection is simply for the glorious snapshot it presents of mankind to the rest of the universe.  Taken as a whole — from Kesarbai Kerkar’s haunting “Jaat Kahan Ho” to Glenn Gould’s interpretation of  Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Prelude & Fugue No. 1 in C Major” (The Well-Tempered Clavier) to the 12-minute sound collage titled “The Sounds of Earth” — you realize what a powerful and creative creatures we are here on this planet we call Earth.

Hopefully by the time other civilizations find this music out in the cosmos and contact us to hear more, we’ll still be here to play them more of these amazing sounds. 

I’ll close here with another quote  from the album’s website  because it really sums up this importance of the Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition  neatly:  “As an exquisitely curated music compilation, the Voyager record is an inviting port of entry to unfamiliar yet entrancing sounds from other cultures and other times. As an objet d’art and design, it represents deep insights about communication, context, and the power of media. In the realm of science, it raises fundamental questions about who we are and our place in the universe. At the intersection of those three perspectives, the Voyager record is a testament to the potential of science and art to ignite humanity’s sense of curiosity and wonder.”

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Mark Smotroff is a freelance writer and avid music collector who has worked for many years in marketing communications for the consumer electronics, pro audio and video games industries, serving clients including DTS, Sega, Sony, Sharp, AT&T and many others. www.smotroff.com Mark has written for EQ Magazine, Mix Magazine, Goldmine/DISCoveries Magazine, BigPictureBigSound.com, Sound+Vision Magazine, HomeTechTell.com and many others. He is also a musician / composer whose songs have been used in TV shows such as Smallville and Men In Trees as well as films and documentaries. www.ingdom.com Mark is currently rolling out a new musical he's written: www.dialthemusical.com.

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New Box Set Will Recreate the Golden Documentation of Humanity We Sent Into Space

Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition is the brainchild of David Pescovitz, Timothy Daly and Lawrence Azerrad, and will mark the first public vinyl release of the Golden project.

By Marc Schneider

Marc Schneider

The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition

Programmed with earthly sounds like Beethoven’s fifth, Chuck Berry ’s guitar and a baby’s cry, the two original copies of the Voyager Golden Record are, right now, flying through space, billions and billions of miles away. The discs were mounted to two NASA spacecraft, Voyager I and II, in 1977, and sent on an interstellar journey that its visionaries — including Carl Sagan — hope will end someday with their discovery by other intelligent (and curious) beings and help tell the story of our planet.

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The Voyager Golden Record was packed with songs by Louis Armstrong and Blind Willie Johnson, along with popular music from Japan, Peru, India and other parts of the world. It also contained more than a hundred images, scientific knowledge, greetings in 55 languages and sounds ranging from a heartbeat to the chugging of a train.

Just how organizers crammed all that knowledge onto single discs is ingenious as well. The original was cut to be played at 16 2/3 revolutions per minute, making it possible for the material to fit, and the images were encoded in analog form. The cover of the record contained the diagram and scientific explanation on how to play it.

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The project has always been a fascinating chapter in NASA history, but given the exclusivity of those records — considerably less accessible than that one-off Wu-Tang Clan album — few have had a chance to hear what its creators envisioned on vinyl. An ambitious new project to mark the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Voyager launches will change all that. 

Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition is the brainchild of David Pescovitz , Timothy Daly and Lawrence Azerrad , and will mark the first public vinyl release of the Golden project. (The only other time the entire record was made public was in a 1992 CD-ROM, packaged with the book Murmurs of Earth . It’s long out of print, but can often be found on eBay .) The special box set is a year in the making and the subject of a just-launched Kickstarter by the trio to go towards the high production costs, licensing and creation of the reissue.

“The Voyager Golden Record was a testament to the power of science and art to ignite humanity’s sense of curiosity, delight, and wonder,” writes Pescovitz on the team’s Kickstarter page. “And that is the mindset with which we approached this project.”

The limited edition, cloth-covered box set will include three translucent gold vinyl LPs, a digital download card (MP3 and FLAC formats), a lithograph of the record cover’s how-to diagram and a hardbound book containing historical images, essays and photos taken on Voyager’s 40-year journey. “It is the ultimate album package of the ultimate album package,” organizers say. It is only available through Kickstarter (by donating $98 or more) and will be the debut release from a new record label called Ozma Records, co-founded by Pescovitz and Daly.

Timothy Ferris , the producer of the 1977 Golden Record, has signed on to help remaster the original audio for vinyl.

The Kickstarter project has already raised over $55,000 towards a goal of $198,000, with 29 days to go. Organizers say that if they hit the goal, they’ll donate 20 percent of their net proceeds to the Carl Sagan Institute: The Pale Blue Dot and Beyond at Cornell University.

Pescovitz tells Billboard that they’ve committed to delivering the box set in August 2017, in time for the 40th anniversary of Voyager I’s launch, but that they “may deliver sooner than that.”

See below for a full list of audio tracks from the Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition:

  • Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor
  • Java, court gamelan, “Kinds of Flowers,” recorded by Robert Brown
  • Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle
  • Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull 
  • Australia, Aborigine songs, “Morning Star” and “Devil Bird,” recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes 
  • Mexico, “El Cascabel,” performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México 
  • “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry 
  • New Guinea, men’s house song, recorded by Robert MacLennan 
  • Japan, Shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguch
  • Bach, “Gavotte en rondeaux” from the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin, performed by Arthur Grumiaux 
  • Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor 
  • Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow 
  • Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima 
  • “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven 
  • Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes, recorded by Radio Moscow 
  • Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor 
  • Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano 
  • Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor 
  • Bulgaria, “Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin,” sung by Valya Balkanska 
  • Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes 
  • Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, “The Fairie Round,” performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London
  • Solomon Islands, panpipes, collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service 
  • Peru, wedding song, recorded by John Cohen 
  • China, ch’in, “Flowing Streams,” performed by Kuan P’ing-hu 
  • India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar 
  • “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson 
  • Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina, performed by Budapest String Quartet 
  • Greetings from the Secretary General of the United Nations, Kurt Waldheim 
  • Greetings in 55 languages 
  • United Nations greetings 
  • Whale greetings 
  • The Sounds of Earth: “Music of the Spheres” by Laurie Spiegel, Volcanoes, Earthquake, Thunder, Mud Pots, Wind, Rain, Surf, Crickets, Frogs, Birds, Hyena, Elephant, Chimpanzee, Wild Dog, Footstepts, Heartbeat, Laughter, Fire, Speech, The First Tools, Tame Dog, Herding Sheep, Blacksmith, Sawing, Tractor, Riveter, Morse Code, Ships, Horse and Cart, Train, Tractor, Bus, Auto, F-111 Flyby, Saturn 5 Lift-off, Kiss, Mother and Child, Life Signs, Pulsar

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THE  GOLDEN RECORD

A documentary experience.

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THE GOLDEN RECORD: A DOCUMENTARY

More than 40 years after the launch of the Golden Record upon NASA’s Voyager Spacecraft in 1977, this film aims to explore the  27 TRACKS  of world music through the cinematic lens. Each song will be documented as a live musical performance, interpreted by contemporary musicians of the respective musical tradition and located in the place of origin of the song. This film will feature these contemporary musicians from around the globe as spoke-people for their musical tradition, guiding the viewer through each song's history & cultural significance. The voices weave together to create a universal narrative for music as the visual performances ignite our senses and take us deeper into the corners of our Earth.

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University. They assembled  115 images  and a variety of natural and urban sounds  from Earth. To this they added musical selections from different regions of the world,   spoken greetings   from Earth-people in fifty-five languages, and printed messages from President Carter and U.N. Secretary General Waldheim. The Voyager Spacecrafts1 and 2 - and the Golden Record aboard each - were launched respectively on September 5th and August 20th, 1977.

THE MUSIC FROM EARTH included aboard this record is the framework for our project.

From Beethoven to Bach, from Chuck Berry to Louis Armstrong, from ancient Chinese string music to wedding chants from Andean regions of Peru, the music selected for the Golden Record was a long and laborious labour of love spearheaded by Carl Sagan's wife Anne Druyan, the Creative Director of the Voyager.

In 2017, for the first time ever, Ozma Records released the Record for purchase, complete with a full-color 96 page hardcover book about the Voyager Interstellar Project.

CLICK HERE to be redirected to Ozma Records to purchase your copy. 

The Voyager Interstellar Message - The Golden Record - is at the core of our project. Much like the original mission's desire to explore the solar system and beyond, we wish to explore and make discoveries back down here on Planet Earth about the content included on the Record. Specifically, the music.

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

EL JINETE FILMS

a filmmaking duo working in music documentary and globally conscious cinema

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

CINEZOIC MEDIA

experienced cinematic storytelling and content production

The Grozdanova Sisters are a filmmaking duo working in music documentary and globally conscious cinema.

Biliana and Marina founded their own production company in 2012 under the name of EL JINETE FILMS ,  inspired by the long time they lived in Spain. After shared years at the University of Chicago, they co-directed two feature music documentaries: “Ortigueira: Ecos de Finis Terrae” and “The Last Kamikazis of Heavy Metal.” After spending several years apart working in the film industry and developing the Golden Record Film - Biliana in the US and Marina in Japan - they now reside in NYC.

Originally from Bulgaria, the sisters grew up traveling the world. From Australia's East Coast to Canada's West and many places in between, they were exposed to a diversity of cultures and developed an immense passion for the documentary arts in order to preserve their travels beyond their own memories. As a curious fact, the story of the Golden Record has been with them since a very young age, as Bulgaria is a proud worldly representative aboard the Record with the immortal voice of Valya Balkanska.

As co-producer of the film is the media collective CINEZOIC MEDIA and its founder Cameron Wheeless.

1977: THE MISSION OF VOYAGER

The primary mission of the twin Voyager spacecraft 1 and 2 was the exploration of our solar system. Voyager 1 would explore Jupiter and Saturn. After making a string of discoveries there — such as active volcanoes on Jupiter's moon Io and intricacies of Saturn's rings — the mission was extended. Voyager 2 went on to explore Uranus and Neptune, and is still the only spacecraft to have visited those outer planets. The adventurers' current mission, the Voyager Interstellar Mission (VIM), will explore the outermost edge of the Sun's domain and beyond.

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

Pioneers 10 and 11, which preceded Voyager, both carried small metal plaques identifying their time and place of origin for the benefit of any other spacefarers that might find them in the distant future. With this example before them, NASA placed a more ambitious message aboard Voyager 1 and 2: a kind of time capsule, intended to communicate a story of our world to extraterrestrials. The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record, a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth.

The Golden Record Film is fiscally sponsored by Video Veracity, Inc . All donations are tax-deductible and will help us make it one step further in the production of this project.

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DIRECTED & PRODUCED BY

Biliana & marina grozdanova, in association with.

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The songs they sent to space

In 1977 nasa chose music to from across our globe and launched it to infinity. 40 years later, late junction wants to know what songs you would send to space today.

Hurtling ever deeper into space are two very special Golden Records, sent to the outer solar system aboard the Voyager probes. As well as 115 images, a variety of natural sounds and greetings in 55 languages, they contained music chosen to best represent our species to any extra-terrestrials that might discover it. Those tracks (listed below) haven’t yet been heard by aliens, but they are journeying further from Earth’s orbit as each day passes.

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

Late Junction marked the 40th anniversary of the launch of the Golden Records by playing some of the tracks sent into the skies 40 years ago and much more besides. The original playlist was chosen by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan, but Late Junction took a more democratic approach, asking for your ideas of the music you would like to send to another species. Find out what was chosen here .

Music included on the original Golden Records

• Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement , Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor • Kinds of Flowers , recorded by Robert Brown (Java, court gamelan) • Percussion , recorded by Charles Duvelle (Senegal) • Pygmy girls' initiation song , recorded by Colin Turnbull (Zaire) • Morning Star and Devil Bird , recorded by Sandra LeBrun Holmes (Australia, Aborigine songs) • El Cascabel , performed by Lorenzo Barcelata and the Mariachi México (Mexico) • Johnny B. Goode , written and performed by Chuck Berry • Men's house song , recorded by Robert MacLennan (New Guinea) • Tsuru No Sugomori (Crane's Nest) , performed by Goro Yamaguchi (Japan, shakuhachi) • Bach, Gavotte en rondeauxfrom the Partita No. 3 in E major for Violin , performed by Arthur Grumiaux • Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich, Wolfgang Sawallisch, conductor • Tchakrulo , collected by Radio Moscow (Georgian S.S.R., chorus) • Panpipes and drum , collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima (Peru) • Melancholy Blues , performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven • Bagpipes , recorded by Radio Moscow (Azerbaijan S.S.R.) • Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance , Columbia Symphony Orchestra, Igor Stravinsky, conductor • Bach, The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 2, Prelude and Fugue in C, No.1. Glenn Gould, piano • Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement , the Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, conductor • Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin , sung by Valya Balkanska (Bulgaria) • Night Chant , Navajo Indians recorded by Willard Rhodes • Holborne, Paueans, Galliards, Almains and Other Short Aeirs, The Fairie Round , performed by David Munrow and the Early Music Consort of London • Panpipes , collected by the Solomon Islands Broadcasting Service (Solomon Islands) • Wedding song , recorded by John Cohen (Peru) • Ch'in (Flowing Stream) , performed by Kuan P'ing-hu (China) • Jaat Kahan Ho , raga sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar (India) • Dark Was the Night , written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson • Beethoven, String Quartet No. 13 in B flat, Opus 130, Cavatina , performed by Budapest String Quartet • Music of the Spheres – Johannes Kepler's Harmonices Mundi realized by Laurie Spiegel (included in the sounds of Earth section)

Nick Luscombe presented the Golden Records-themed edition of Late Junction (with guests Moor Mother and Rahsheedah Phillips aka Black Quantum Futurism) on BBC Radio 3.

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The Vinyl Factory

The Voyager Golden Record that NASA launched into space is getting a full box set release

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By Gabriela Helfet

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An audio visual capsule of humanity, curated by Carl Sagan.

In 1977 NASA launched two robots – Voyager 1 and 2 – into space, with a golden record attached to each spacecraft.

Read more: Steering the Voyager Golden Record back to earth 

Created as a way to communicate with alien life-forms, the Voyager Golden Record ,   a gold-plated copper phonograph cut at 16 2/3 rpm, was overseen by legendary scientist Carl Sagan, took nearly a year to make, and featured music ranging from Mozart to Azerbaijani folk to Chuck Berry, alongside hundreds of audio and visual selections, morse code and more.

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

Following the success of its 2016 Kickstarter campaign , OSMA Records is releasing the Voyager Golden Record  for the first time as part of a deluxe vinyl boxset and record book x 2CD set to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Voyager 1 and 2’s launch.

The deluxe 3xLP box set, priced at $98, contains three translucent gold vinyl, a Voyager trajectory slipmat, a full-colour 96-page softcover book containing all images form the original record, gallery of images, plus essay from golden record producer Tim Ferris, gold foil print, and digital download card.

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

The book x 2CD set, priced at $50, contains audio of all the Voyager Golden Record  music alongside the full colour 96 page hardcover version of the book.

Pre-order via OZMA’s site .

Listen to the full contents via NASA and checkout the OZMA vinyl track list below.

Vinyl track list:

1. Greeting from Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations

2. Greetings in 55 Languages

3. United Nations Greetings/Whale Songs

4. The Sounds of Earth

5. Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047: I. Allegro (Johann Sebastian Bach) – Munich Bach Orchestra/Karl Richter

6. Ketawang: Puspåwårnå (Kinds of Flowers) – Pura Paku Alaman Palace Orchestra/K.R.T. Wasitodipuro

7. Cengunmé – Mahi musicians of Benin

8. Alima Song – Mbuti of the Ituri Rainforest

9. Barnumbirr (Morning Star) and Moikoi Song – Tom Djawa, Mudpo, and Waliparu

10. El Cascabel (Lorenzo Barcelata) – Antonio Maciel and Los Aguilillas with Mariachi México de Pepe Villa/Rafael Carrión

11. Johnny B. Goode – Chuck Berry

12. Mariuamangɨ – Pranis Pandang and Kumbui of the Nyaura Clan

13. Sokaku-Reibo (Depicting the Cranes in Their Nest) – Goro Yamaguchi

14. Partita for Violin Solo No. 3 in E Major, BWV 1006: III. Gavotte en Rondeau (Johann Sebastian Bach) – Arthur Grumiaux

15. The Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte), K. 620, Act II: Hell’s Vengeance Boils in My Heart (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) – Bavarian State Opera Orchestra and Chorus/Wolfgang Sawallisch

16. Chakrulo – Georgian State Merited Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance/Anzor Kavsadze

17. Roncadoras and Drums – Musicians from Ancash

18. Melancholy Blues (Marty Bloom/Walter Melrose) – Louis Armstrong and His Hot Seven

19. Muğam – Kamil Jalilov

20. The Rite of Spring (Le Sacre du Printemps), Part II—The Sacrifice: VI. Sacrificial Dance (The Chosen One) (Igor Stravinsky) – Columbia Symphony Orchestra/Igor Stravinsky

21. The Well-Tempered Clavier, Book II: Prelude & Fugue No. 1 in C Major, BWV 870 (Johann Sebastian Bach) – Glenn Gould

22. Symphony No. 5 in C Minor, Opus 67: I. Allegro Con Brio (Ludwig Van Beethoven) – Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer

23. Izlel e Delyu Haydutin – Valya Balkanska

24. Navajo Night Chant, Yeibichai Dance – Ambrose Roan Horse, Chester Roan, and Tom Roan

25. The Fairie Round (Anthony Holborne) – Early Music Consort of London/David Munrow

26. Naranaratana Kookokoo (The Cry of the Megapode Bird) – Maniasinimae and Taumaetarau Chieftain Tribe of Oloha and Palasu’u Village Community in Small Malaita

27. Wedding Song – Young girl of Huancavelica

28. Liu Shui (Flowing Streams) – Guan Pinghu

29. Bhairavi: Jaat Kahan Ho – Kesarbai Kerkar

30. Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground – Blind Willie Johnson

31. String Quartet No. 13 in B-flat Major, Opus 130: V. Cavatina (Ludwig Van Beethoven) – Budapest String Quartet

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NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is talking nonsense. Its friends on Earth are worried

Nell Greenfieldboyce 2010

Nell Greenfieldboyce

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

This artist's impression shows one of the Voyager spacecraft moving through the darkness of space. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption

This artist's impression shows one of the Voyager spacecraft moving through the darkness of space.

The last time Stamatios "Tom" Krimigis saw the Voyager 1 space probe in person, it was the summer of 1977, just before it launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida.

Now Voyager 1 is over 15 billion miles away, beyond what many consider to be the edge of the solar system. Yet the on-board instrument Krimigis is in charge of is still going strong.

"I am the most surprised person in the world," says Krimigis — after all, the spacecraft's original mission to Jupiter and Saturn was only supposed to last about four years.

These days, though, he's also feeling another emotion when he thinks of Voyager 1.

"Frankly, I'm very worried," he says.

Ever since mid-November, the Voyager 1 spacecraft has been sending messages back to Earth that don't make any sense. It's as if the aging spacecraft has suffered some kind of stroke that's interfering with its ability to speak.

"It basically stopped talking to us in a coherent manner," says Suzanne Dodd of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who has been the project manager for the Voyager interstellar mission since 2010. "It's a serious problem."

Instead of sending messages home in binary code, Voyager 1 is now just sending back alternating 1s and 0s. Dodd's team has tried the usual tricks to reset things — with no luck.

It looks like there's a problem with the onboard computer that takes data and packages it up to send back home. All of this computer technology is primitive compared to, say, the key fob that unlocks your car, says Dodd.

"The button you press to open the door of your car, that has more compute power than the Voyager spacecrafts do," she says. "It's remarkable that they keep flying, and that they've flown for 46-plus years."

valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

Each of the Voyager probes carries an American flag and a copy of a golden record that can play greetings in many languages. NASA/JPL-Caltech hide caption

Each of the Voyager probes carries an American flag and a copy of a golden record that can play greetings in many languages.

Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, have outlasted many of those who designed and built them. So to try to fix Voyager 1's current woes, the dozen or so people on Dodd's team have had to pore over yellowed documents and old mimeographs.

"They're doing a lot of work to try and get into the heads of the original developers and figure out why they designed something the way they did and what we could possibly try that might give us some answers to what's going wrong with the spacecraft," says Dodd.

She says that they do have a list of possible fixes. As time goes on, they'll likely start sending commands to Voyager 1 that are more bold and risky.

"The things that we will do going forward are probably more challenging in the sense that you can't tell exactly if it's going to execute correctly — or if you're going to maybe do something you didn't want to do, inadvertently," says Dodd.

Linda Spilker , who serves as the Voyager mission's project scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, says that when she comes to work she sees "all of these circuit diagrams up on the wall with sticky notes attached. And these people are just having a great time trying to troubleshoot, you know, the 60's and 70's technology."

"I'm cautiously optimistic," she says. "There's a lot of creativity there."

Still, this is a painstaking process that could take weeks, or even months. Voyager 1 is so distant, it takes almost a whole day for a signal to travel out there, and then a whole day for its response to return.

"We'll keep trying," says Dodd, "and it won't be quick."

In the meantime, Voyager's 1 discombobulation is a bummer for researchers like Stella Ocker , an astronomer with Caltech and the Carnegie Observatories

"We haven't been getting science data since this anomaly started," says Ocker, "and what that means is that we don't know what the environment that the spacecraft is traveling through looks like."

After 35 Years, Voyager Nears Edge Of Solar System

After 35 Years, Voyager Nears Edge Of Solar System

That interstellar environment isn't just empty darkness, she says. It contains stuff like gas, dust, and cosmic rays. Only the twin Voyager probes are far out enough to sample this cosmic stew.

"The science that I'm really interested in doing is actually only possible with Voyager 1," says Ocker, because Voyager 2 — despite being generally healthy for its advanced age — can't take the particular measurements she needs for her research.

Even if NASA's experts and consultants somehow come up with a miraculous plan that can get Voyager 1 back to normal, its time is running out.

The two Voyager probes are powered by plutonium, but that power system will eventually run out of juice. Mission managers have turned off heaters and taken other measures to conserve power and extend the Voyager probes' lifespan.

"My motto for a long time was 50 years or bust," says Krimigis with a laugh, "but we're sort of approaching that."

In a couple of years, the ebbing power supply will force managers to start turning off science instruments, one by one. The very last instrument might keep going until around 2030 or so.

When the power runs out and the probes are lifeless, Krimigis says both of these legendary space probes will basically become "space junk."

"It pains me to say that," he says. While Krimigis has participated in space missions to every planet, he says the Voyager program has a special place in his heart.

Spilker points out that each spacecraft will keep moving outward, carrying its copy of a golden record that has recorded greetings in many languages, along with the sounds of Earth.

"The science mission will end. But a part of Voyager and a part of us will continue on in the space between the stars," says Spilker, noting that the golden records "may even outlast humanity as we know it."

Krimigis, though, doubts that any alien will ever stumble across a Voyager probe and have a listen.

"Space is empty," he says, "and the probability of Voyager ever running into a planet is probably slim to none."

It will take about 40,000 years for Voyager 1 to approach another star; it will come within 1.7 light years of what NASA calls "an obscure star in the constellation Ursa Minor" — also known as the Little Dipper.

If NASA greenlights this interstellar mission, it could last 100 years

If NASA greenlights this interstellar mission, it could last 100 years

Knowing that the Voyager probes are running out of time, scientists have been drawing up plans for a new mission that, if funded and launched by NASA, would send another probe even farther out into the space between stars.

"If it happens, it would launch in the 2030s," says Ocker, "and it would reach twice as far as Voyager 1 in just 50 years."

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Voyager 1 and Voyager 2

After completing the first in-depth reconnaissance of the outer planets, the twin Voyagers are on a new mission to chart the edge of interstellar space.

Science Investigations

Interstellar science.

Five investigation teams are participating in the Voyager interstellar mission.

Interstellar Mission

The objective is to extend exploration to the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence.

Planetary Voyage

The primary mission was the exploration of the outer planets beyond the asteroid belt.

Planetary Approaches

The first detailed look at the solar system's gas and ice giants.

Science In Depth

Computer-generated view of a Voyager spacecraft far from the Sun.

Principal Investigator Home Institutions

Many institutions contribute to Voyager science.

Publication Biography

A Voyager science publications archive.

Science Data Access

Voyager science data are available online.

Science News Archive

Past presentations on Voyager discoveries.

The Deep Space Network complex in Canberra, Australia

Spaceflight Operations Schedule

Communication through NASA's Deep Space Network.

Glossary of Abbreviations

Learn the shorthand of Voyager scientists.

IMAGES

  1. Valya Balkanska

    valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

  2. 90 SECONDS of Valq Balkanska in space

    valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

  3. Valya Balkanska in Space: The Voyager Interstellar Record

    valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

  4. Valya Balkanska

    valya balkanska in voyager of nasa

  5. Valya Balkanska: Magic Bulgarian Voice in Outer Space

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  6. Pin page

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VIDEO

  1. Amazing facts about Voyager

  2. Valya Balkanska

  3. Valya Balkanska: Provodi ma, maichinko

  4. Kintar

  5. Zavrsna priredba P.U. „Nasa radost“ Varvarin 10.06.2016

  6. Why NASA sent these 116 IMAGES to ALIENS?

COMMENTS

  1. Valia Balkanska In Voyager Of NASA

    http://www.bulgarian-music.bg-market.comOther Performers

  2. Valya Balkanska

    Valya Mladenova Balkanska ( Bulgarian: Валя Младенова Балканска; born 8 January 1942) is a Bulgarian folk music singer from the Rhodope Mountains known locally for her wide repertoire of Balkan folk songs, but in the West mainly for singing the song "Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin", part of the Voyager Golden Record selection of music included in the t...

  3. 40 Year Since a Bulgarian Song Launched Into Space on NASA's Voyager 1

    40 years ago today a Bulgarian song launched into space on NASA 's Voyager 1. The Golden Record, including "Izleel e Delyo Haidutin" performed by Valya Balkanska, is still traveling...

  4. Valia Balkanska

    The most beautifull song ever.This is Bulgarian Folklore song

  5. The Bulgarian folk song „Излел е Дельо хайдутин" in Space (Voyager

    Listen to the Bulgarian song "Izlel je Delyo Hajdutin" from the Central Rhodope mountains, sung most famously by Valya Balkanska (Валя Балканска) and included in the Voyager Golden Record. The hero in the song, Delyo, was a Bulgarian rebel leader from the mountains in the late 1700s when the region was under the Ottoman empire.

  6. 11 Images and Sounds on the Voyager Golden Record

    The purpose of NASA 's Voyager mission is to illustrate life on Earth to any intelligent aliens that come across the spacecraft. The records on board contain media selected by a committee...

  7. 40 Year Since a Bulgarian Song Launched Into Space on NASA's Voyager 1

    40 years ago today a Bulgarian song launched into space on NASA's Voyager 1. The Golden Record, including "Izleel e Delyo Haidutin" performed by Valya Balkanska, is still traveling through space. Valya was 35 years old when her voice took off for the stars. Today, the singer from the Rhodope Mountains is 75. Happy 40th anniversary, Voyager 1!

  8. Valya Balkanska in Bucharest

    Valya Balkanska, the only voice which has been sent in space by the Voyager shuffle, sang for the enthusiastic audience gathered in Bucharest on the occasion...

  9. Voyager Golden Record

    In the late '70s, NASA launched Voyagers 1 & 2 to explore the furthest reaches of our solar system and beyond. ... Izlel E Delyu Haydutin by Valya Balkanska, Lazar Kanevski, Stephan Zahmanov - Nonesuch Records ... The Voyager Spacecraft itself is a message to the cosmos, it simply says "we are here, and we are listening". [music out] [music ...

  10. Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin

    "Izlel ye Delyo Haydutin" (Bulgarian: Излел е Дельо хайдутин, lit. 'Delyo has become a hajduk') is a Bulgarian folk song from the central Rhodope Mountains about Delyo, a rebel leader who was active in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. The song is most famously sung by Valya Balkanska, a 1970 recording of which was included on the Golden Record carried on ...

  11. Saturday song

    Valya Balkanska - A Space Woman at 78! Whose unearthly voice roars in the cosmos! Her most famous recording - a solo performance of the song "Delivered Heidutin" - was made in the late 1960s by American researcher of Bulgarian folklore Martin Koening and was released on a record in the USA. A few years l

  12. A Bulgarian folk song conquered the world and flew into space

    "Izlel is Delyo haidutin" is a folk song from the Zlatograd region. In 1977, the song, performed by singer Valya Balkanska, was included in Voyager's Gold Voyager of Voyager 2 and Voyager 1 as a music message from the Earth to the far cosmos. There are 100 formations on the plate that flies in space.

  13. Bulgarian song in space. Valya Balkanska music

    2 August 2022 Latvia / Travel & Food / Business Bulgarian folk singer Valya Balkanska's song Izlel e Delyu Haydutin, recorded by American ethnographer Martin Koenig, was chosen for inclusion on the Golden Record sent into space on Voyager II to bring a greeting from Planet Earth to the Galaxy.

  14. Valya Balkanska

    Valya Mladenova Balkanska (born January 8, 1942) is a Bulgarian folk music singer. She is most famous for performing the song Izlel je Delyo hajdutin, ... NASA put copies of the record in the Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes and launched them on August 20, 1977. According to Carl Sagan, one of the creators of the Voyager Golden Record, only ...

  15. Voyager 1, Bulgarian Song Set to Reach Interstellar Space

    NASA 's Voyager 1, launched 35 years ago with various messages from the Earth, is on the verge of moving into interstellar space. Voyager 1 is about 11 billion miles (18 billion kilometers)...

  16. Voyager

    Music From Earth The following music was included on the Voyager record. Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F. First Movement, Munich Bach Orchestra, Karl Richter, conductor. 4:40 Java, court gamelan, "Kinds of Flowers," recorded by Robert Brown. 4:43 Senegal, percussion, recorded by Charles Duvelle. 2:08

  17. The Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition

    From the Kickstarter page, we learn "A year in the making (and many more years on our minds), the Voyager Golden Record: 40th Anniversary Edition is the first vinyl release of the stunning golden phonograph record launched by NASA in 1977 aboard the Voyager spacecraft, one of which is now traveling through interstellar space.

  18. New Box Set Will Recreate the Golden Documentation of ...

    The discs were mounted to two NASA spacecraft, Voyager I and II, in 1977, ... Bulgaria, "Izlel je Delyo Hagdutin," sung by Valya Balkanska ; Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard ...

  19. Valya Balkanska

    Valya Mladenova Balkanska (Bulgarian: Валя Младенова Балканска) (born 8 January 1942) is a Bulgarian folk music singer from the Rhodope Mountains known for singing the song Izlel e Delyu Haydutin, part of the Voyager Golden Record selection of music included in the two Voyager spacecraft launched in 1977.

  20. About

    THE GOLDEN RECORD: A DOCUMENTARY . More than 40 years after the launch of the Golden Record upon NASA's Voyager Spacecraft in 1977, this film aims to explore the 27 TRACKS of world music through the cinematic lens. Each song will be documented as a live musical performance, interpreted by contemporary musicians of the respective musical tradition and located in the place of origin of the song.

  21. BBC Radio 3

    Hurtling ever deeper into space are two very special Golden Records, sent to the outer solar system aboard the Voyager probes. As well as 115 images, a variety of natural sounds and greetings in ...

  22. Voyager 1

    In May 2022, NASA reported that Voyager 1 had begun transmitting "mysterious" and "peculiar" telemetric data to the Deep Space Network (DSN). It confirmed that the operational status of the craft remained unchanged, but that the issue stemmed from the Attitude Articulation and Control System (AACS). ... Chuck Berry and Valya Balkanska. Other ...

  23. The Voyager Golden Record that NASA launched into space is getting a

    In 1977 NASA launched two robots - Voyager 1 and 2 - into space, with a golden record attached to each spacecraft. ... Izlel e Delyu Haydutin - Valya Balkanska. 24. Navajo Night Chant, Yeibichai Dance - Ambrose Roan Horse, Chester Roan, and Tom Roan. 25. The Fairie Round (Anthony Holborne) - Early Music Consort of London/David Munrow ...

  24. NASA is trying to fix Voyager 1, but the old spacecraft's days are

    NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft is talking nonsense. Its friends on Earth are worried. This artist's impression shows one of the Voyager spacecraft moving through the darkness of space. The last time ...

  25. Science

    Five investigation teams are participating in the Voyager interstellar mission. Explore. 02. Interstellar Mission. The objective is to extend exploration to the outer limits of the Sun's sphere of influence. ... NASA explores the unknown in air and space, innovates for the benefit of humanity, and inspires the world through discovery. About ...