mmHg - The Planets: Venus

This is the first part of my attempt to do something akin to the work by Gustav Holst. The difference with me is that it's electronic music, and that I'm being more astronomical than mythological. We start with Venus.

I'm opening with Venus — the almost-Earth, but not quite, and that makes all the difference. The music expresses this through heavy use of tritones — an almost perfect fifth, but not quite, and that makes all the difference. Venus does not want you, and it does not like you. Thunder rages, and it rains sulfuric acid. The temperature rises above 900ºF. It's everything it can be to be inhospitable for life. Completely planetary rage.

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posted by dacre (2 comments total)

Your tritone-heavy theme really is well suited to the modern understanding of Venus. In a way, the sound still isn't nasty enough to really suit the planet, but it definitely works for me. Somewhere out there I know there's a simulated flyover of Venus based on the Magellan radar mapping data. It's disappointingly short, but it would be pretty awesome to put this as a soundtrack to that. This also reminded me of spacy synth music from the Cosmos series, but less ambient and much more propulsive.
posted by Wolfdog at 7:52 AM on June 27, 2011 [1 favorite]

Yes, indeed. If you watch this animation with its sound off and this on instead, the whole thing gets way cooler.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:44 AM on June 27, 2011 [1 favorite]