recorded on the 12th of July – by Marleen de Bakker & Rodin Rosendahl, commissioned for an upcoming solo album
1. Lyra
The constellation of Lyra; as seen with the naked eye. The composer is full of excitement because of the clear night sky and goes outside stargazing. The constellation’s beauty and shape is well worth the effort of going outside in the dark of night.
This small, but very characteristic constellation represents the lyre (or harp) of Orpheus, but the Arabs considered it to be an eagle diving with folded wings. It is a summer constellation and very well visible when stargazing on a nightly walk. It consists officially out of 6 stars and its parallelogram shape is hard to miss.
2. Alpha Lyrae
The star Vega; as seen with binoculars. The composer thinks about all the scientific and historic facts of the star, but it doesn’t make it seem to be any warmer. It looks almost alien, very cold and distant, simply a white ball of gaseous material.
This star is the 5th brightest star in the night sky and the brightest star in Lyra. It is historically one of the most important stars and was 12.000 years ago our pole star, in contrast to today’s pole star Polaris. The stellar designation of Vega is ‘Alpha Lyrae’.
3. The Ring Nebula
The Ring Nebula; as seen with a high-grade telescope. The composer looks at the beautiful and colourized gas clouds and fantasizes about being able to get close to it.
The Ring Nebula, a planetary nebula, is literally the remnant of a star. When a star nears the end of its existence, it burns out and its atmosphere is dissipated into space. The remaining core of the star (a white dwarf) emits ultraviolet radiation which lights up the gaseous clouds. This makes for some stunning and dreamy imagery.