Created in 2017 at ‘mobile messor’ (Den Haag, Milano, Zurich, Cagliari, Copenhagen, Mmabolela) and ‘Dune Studio’ (Loosduinen).


‘untitled#354’ created from original environmental sound matter recorded worldwide between 1995 and 2016. This piece was commissioned by Sónar Festival for their 2018 25th Anniversary project ‘Sónar Calling GJ273b’ (www.sonarcalling.com/en), in which they invited a few artists to create short audio pieces for outer space transmission.

Original liner notes:
The outer space transmission of a 10-second sound piece (digital audio file) to planet ‘GJ 273 b’ of Luyten’s Star (12.5 light years from Earth) required dramatic levels of data compression: mono 8kHz 8-bit. Changes in resolution such as these, however, are not the only possible form of compression. The classic analog technique of pitch shifting by speeding up playback is, in a literal way, also a form of (relatively) reversible temporal compression.

Using this idea, I proceeded by: (1) creating a sound piece with 10x 1-minute sections from original environmental recordings I did in wilderness locations around the world [see timeline notes below]; (2) speeding up by pitch-shifting enough octaves to have those 10 minutes time-compressed into 10 seconds; (3) finally applying the required resolution compression for the transmission digital file. Interestingly, the resulting audio from this process distinctively resembles signals from satellites and some celestial bodies, as received and heard from Earth.

If any intelligent beings in exoplanet ‘GJ 273 b’ can receive, decode, make sense of, and reverse data compression of the audio digital file (by means of any equivalents of reconstruction algorithms or analytic inversion formulas in their culture), I am pretty sure they will easily figure out its time-compression reversibility. If they do –and assuming they have the techno-anatomical/cognitive equivalents of D/A converters, amps, speakers, ears, and brains– they will be able to have a sonic glimpse of Earth’s ecosystems and some of their non-human creatures (as of the turn of the 21st century; or 12.5 Earth-years into their past). This way, they will be able to make a more informed decision as to how to proceed.

‘untitled#354’ Timeline:

00:00 Costa Rica – Rainforest (Mesoamerican)
01:00 Peru – Rainforest (Amazonian)
02:00 Argentina (Patagonia) – Desert
03:00 Spain/Morocco (Chafarinas Islands) – Ocean
04:00 South Africa – Savanna
05:00 Nepal (Himalayas) – High mountain
06:00 Myanmar – Swamp
07:00 Malaysia (Borneo) – Rainforest (Southeast Asian)
08:00 Japan – Park
09:00 New Zealand – Forest


‘untitled#357’ created from original environmental sound matter recorded at Mmabolela Reserve (South Africa) during the Austral summer of 2017.


Thanks to Barbara Ellison, Sergi Caballero, Enric Les Palau, Jorge Simonet and Pablo Blanco.

Photograph by Francisco López.

(c) francisco lópez 2017 – www.franciscolopez.net
Immaterial reissue by nowhere [worldwide] 2022

Previously released on CD audio (edition 300 copies) by Auf Abwegen (Germany) in 2019:
www.aufabwegen.de/label/?p=690