With “Perseverance”, named after the Mars rover of which he sampled audio from, Norwegian electronica producer Niilas marks his name down in history as the first artist ever to compose a song using the sounds from the surface of a foreign planet. The artwork you are seeing features a shot from the NASA Perseverance rover’s new Terrain-Relative Navigation technology it uses to avoid hazards and find a safe place to land in Jezero Crater on Mars (the dot in the middle), an ancient river delta where the rover and its accompanying helicopter will be searching for, amongst other things, ancient microbial life.
“The track started with layering the mars-sample onto different drums and background noise. The noise shines throughout the track, weaving along with the percussion. I added a bassline and melodies that are based off real instruments but played and arranged in a digital way. Creating a feeling of familiarity in an alien way. I’ve also vocoded the noise to the melody, creating a truly interplanetary unique feel. This can be heard isolated in the outro, like melodics dripping from a Martian cloud.
«Perseverance» is my interpretation of a cosy at home track for the future mars-colonies. I wanted to create a melody that someone’s grandmother could be humming in her kitchen, something we all remember fondly from our childhood. Referring to nostalgia to a situation that does not exist yet or feeling at home in the most inhospitable place we’ve reached.”
The exploration of new frontiers in space resonates very deeply with us as humans. The desire to discover, to learn, to create new possibilities for our species and the future of Earth based life are all extremely powerful. It is only natural that artists seek to explore these moments, to make sense of them and to relate them to human emotion in mediums that touch the human soul. When news of the Mars rover Perseverance landing started gaining momentum, we at 777 wanted to find a way to mark the occasion and commissioned one of our favorite producers to create the first piece of music inspired by and incorporating the first audio recordings from Mars.
Niilas is the moniker of Peder Niilas Tårnesvik, electronica producer from Bergen, Norway who has recently received widespread acclaim for his newest album “Also This Will Change”. He has established himself as one of Norway’s most interesting electronica producers with his innovative and detailed soundscapes, perfectly suited for such a commission.
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