Extraterrestrial Rocks

Created by award-winning eco-feminist artist Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian, founder of NASA’s International Space Orchestra, these otherworldly installations will bring the mysteries of the universe to the heart of the West End.

The rocks host an audio installation composed of sounds that have journeyed 768,800 km to the Moon and back via the Lovell Telescope at Jodrell Bank Observatory.

Moonbounce or Earth-Moon-Earth (EME) is a technology that allows radio signals to be sent from one location on Earth to another using the Moon as a natural satellite. The audio signal travels about three metres inside the Moon’s crust before returning to Earth, picking up Big Bang static along the way—creating a distorted, alien sound that is unfamiliar and unsettling to the human ear.

Included in this playlist is a newly produced track in collaboration with the late noise artist EOBIONT (Láwû Makuriye’nt), featuring the heartbeats of women in Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stépanian’s Armenian family for International Women’s Day. Recordings from the West End streets and institutions, produced by multi-instrumentalist Ayse Hassan (Savages, Esya), add another layer to this cosmic symphony. A series of original tracks from Nelly and the University of the Underground’s long-term collaborators, including Massive Attack, The Avalanches (feat. Blood Orange), Pussy Riot, Mirrored Fatality, and Moses Boyd, complete this sonic journey.

In loving memory of Láwû Makuriye’nt (aka EOBIONT, Mango, half of Mirrored Fatality).