NEW ALBUM BY THE MYTHICAL Kronos Quartet RETURN TO AMERICAN COMPOSER TERRY RILEY In the summer of 2000, the NASA Art Program invited the Kronos Quartet to listen to the sounds of space collected by physicist Don Gurnett. These sounds, little known to the general public and coming from plasma waves, were recorded by the Voyager probe in the vicinity of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. The common idea that space is totally silent, in the absence of air to carry sound, is not accurate. Plasma waves travel through it, in some ways comparable to radio waves or sound waves, revealing a rich variety of fascinating sounds. According to Terry Riley, the ten “spacescapes” included in Sun Rings were composed as so many specific musical atmospheres with the intention of letting the sounds of space influence the string quartet, and of encouraging an interaction between the “live” performance and these pre-recorded sounds. In certain movements, the aim was to place the quartet as if it were moving through these different atmospheres, in the manner of the Voyager and Galileo probes traveling through our solar system. In some cases, fragments of melodies heard in these sounds form the basis of the themes developed for the quartet. The addition of two movements with choir reminds us that this work is dedicated above all to human beings, who never cease to expand their knowledge of the universe.