美国国家公共电台 NPR

One Giant Leap For Music: NASA's Sonic History Inspires This Duo

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, HOST:

This is Lulu's log, stardate July 23, 2017, where we consider matters of space, the stars and the universe. We all know what NASA's space missions look like. Think rockets shooting off into the sky. But what do they sound like?

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR'S "WEMBLEY")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #1: (Unintelligible) Commander has made a final guide...

GARCIA-NAVARRO: A musical duo have been inspired by the sonic history of NASA to create a new album. It's called "Hip¹ Mobility²," and it uses sound recordings⁴ and archival material from the Apollo and Skylab missions. The group is called Quindar. And in it is Wilco's Mikael Jorgensen. He joins us from the KCRW studios in Santa Barbara, Calif. Welcome to the program.

MIKAEL JORGENSEN: Thank you for having us.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: The other part of the team is art curator James Merle Thomas, who is with us from the studios of WHYY in Philadelphia.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Hello, James.

JAMES MERLE THOMAS: Hello. It's a pleasure to be here.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: So James, I'm going to start with you. I have to say, this music is nerd heaven. How did this come about (laughter)?

THOMAS: Nerd heaven might be an apt description to describe the genesis of the project (laughter). And a few years ago, I was a fellow at the Air and Space Museum and was really embedded⁵ within the space history division there. I kept on encountering a lot of very rich archival material - 16 mm film, audio recordings from utterly⁶ mundane⁷ sessions. And the material was just immensely rich.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR SONG)

JORGENSEN: One of the conversations we had early on was maybe we could use this material as - it would sort of take the place of lyrics⁸. It would provide a story, some of the more humanizing, smaller moments of what life in space might be like, you know, from looking out the window as you catch a moment between some sort of rigorous note taking or scientific duties and looking down at the Earth hundreds of miles below.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR SONG)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I have to say, I love the name Quindar. And I didn't realize that Quindar tones are the beeps that you hear in the old NASA communications. Let's listen to what they sound like.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING³)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #2: Tranquility, this is Houston. Do you copy my mark?

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR TONES)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #3: Roger, very good.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You used one of these in one of the tracks on the new album, "Honeysuckle This Is Houston."

JORGENSEN: Well, the "Honeysuckle This Is Houston" track was written during the very first session that James and I had back in 2011. And he's like, oh, check out this clip here. You know, they're testing the telemetry systems.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR'S "HONEYSUCKLE THIS IS HOUSTON")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: Honeysuckle, this is Houston...

JORGENSEN: To me - I was like, oh, that reminds me of a drummer clicking off a song in a rock band.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR'S "HONEYSUCKLE THIS IS HOUSTON")

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: One.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR TONES)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: Two.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR TONES)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: Three.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR TONES)

UNIDENTIFIED MAN #4: Four.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR TONES)

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I want to know if you guys were both into space and science as kids. Clearly, you were brought together by music initially⁹. What's the science connection?

JORGENSEN: Man, it was straight up "3-2-1 Contact" for me growing up.

THOMAS: (Laughter).

GARCIA-NAVARRO: PBS show.

JORGENSEN: I remember recording the first space shuttle landing on Betamax.

(LAUGHTER)

JORGENSEN: I remember at the time, like, feeling like, oh, this is important. I should probably tape this.

(SOUNDBITE OF QUINDAR'S "TWIN-POLE SUNSHADE FOR RUSTY¹⁰ SCHWEIKART")

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Last question - any reviews from NASA (laughter)?

JORGENSEN: We're waiting.

THOMAS: My colleagues at the Air and Space Museum have certainly been pleased to know that - this is probably the first gatefold LP that's come out of a fellowship from the space history department.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I can imagine (laughter). So they must be thrilled. Mikael

Jorgensen and James Merle Thomas make up the duo Quindar. Their album is called "Hip Mobility." Thank you.

JORGENSEN: Thanks so much for having us.

THOMAS: Thank you very much.

1 hip   

n.臀部，髋；屋脊

参考例句：

• The thigh bone is connected to the hip bone.股骨连着髋骨。
• The new coats blouse gracefully above the hip line.新外套在臀围线上优美地打着褶皱。

2 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

3 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

4 recordings   

n.记录( recording的名词复数 )；录音；录像；唱片

参考例句：

• a boxed set of original recordings 一套盒装原声录音带
• old jazz recordings reissued on CD 以激光唱片重新发行的老爵士乐

5 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

6 utterly   

adv.完全地，绝对地

参考例句：

• Utterly devoted to the people,he gave his life in saving his patients.他忠于人民，把毕生精力用于挽救患者的生命。
• I was utterly ravished by the way she smiled.她的微笑使我完全陶醉了。

7 mundane   

adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的

参考例句：

• I hope I can get an interesting job and not something mundane.我希望我可以得到的是一份有趣的工作，而不是一份平凡无奇的。
• I find it humorous sometimes that even the most mundane occurrences can have an impact on our awareness.我发现生活有时挺诙谐的，即使是最平凡的事情也能影响我们的感知。

8 lyrics   

n.歌词

参考例句：

• music and lyrics by Rodgers and Hart 由罗杰斯和哈特作词作曲
• The book contains lyrics and guitar tablatures for over 100 songs. 这本书有100多首歌的歌词和吉他奏法谱。

9 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

10 rusty   

adj.生锈的；锈色的；荒废了的

参考例句：

• The lock on the door is rusty and won't open.门上的锁锈住了。
• I haven't practiced my French for months and it's getting rusty.几个月不用，我的法语又荒疏了。