Jon Hopkins X NASA, unique collaboration and moon lens

Composer Jon Hopkins and Irish musician Ólafur Arnalds team up with NASA to create “Forever Held,” a musical piece dedicated to the immersive art exhibition Space for Earth. This work, which will be burned onto a NanoFiche disk intended to be sent to the Moon, is inspired by the poetic love letters from Earth to space, written by NASA creative director Erica Bernhard.

As part of the installation Space for Earth NASA invited Jon Hopkins to compose a new orchestral piece, in collaboration with Ólafur Arnalds. The inspiration behind 'Forever Held' comes from the ” love letters from Earth to space » imagined by Erica Bernhard, creative director of NASA. These letters, like poems addressed to the universe, explore the deep and invisible links between our planet and space. According to Erica, Hopkins knew how to instill “to the sound of the immensity of space while rooting us in the essence and rhythms of life on Earth. »

Jon Hopkins unveils “Forever Held”: a bridge between Earth and space

The Music video for “Forever Held,” directed by Erica Bernhard, offers a visual interpretation of this intimate relationship between Earth and space, using satellite images and NASA data. In the video, space is presented as a living dimension, where invisible communications are established between Earth and the NASA satellites that observe it.

The music, covered by Coldplay to introduce their latest album Moon Musicis at the heart of NASA's artistic experience. 'Space for Earth' is the space agency's first immersive installation open to the public. It offers a journey where art and science come together to evoke the beauty of the Earth seen from space. The images, along with letters from Erica Bernhard, capture what astronauts call ” the overview effect » – a feeling of admiration and responsibility that one feels towards the Earth seen from space.

Erica Bernhard explains in a press release that Jon Hopkins captures this idea perfectly, creating a sonic bridge between Earth and the cosmos, “she soundscapes act as a bridge between these realms, translating the awe and wonder of space and Earth into an immersive sonic journey that asks us to think about our place in the universe and our responsibility to the planet. »

This collaboration between Jon Hopkins, Ólafur Arnalds and NASA will be immortalized beyond Earth: the song and Bernhard's original letters will be engraved on a NanoFiche disk which will leave for the Moon as part of the Lunar Codex, a project which aims to preserve artistic works in space for future generations.