Tracks for inclusion, with justification:
1. United Nations Greetings / Whale Songs – Voyager Golden Record
The necessity of wild juxtapositions. Outlandishness of project, postulating communication we can scarcely perceive. Information-poor language of gilded representatives versus the impossibly noble, majestic feast of information of whales.
2. Sounds of Earth – Voyager Golden Record
The clash between mathematical precision of planetary frequencies, which could be accused of ponderousness, with the ecstatic simplicity of striking a flint creates a perfect tension. Given broad historical perspective, incredibly over-privileging of humanity’s auditory footprint, but I kind of like that. Including an EEG of a representative of earth brilliant yet absurd.
3. Ketawang: Puspåwårnå (Kinds of Flowers), Performed by Pura Paku Alaman Palace Orchestra – Nonesuch Records
Chimes and chanting – that combination is indelible. Also need to represent symbolic thinking, and this Javanese mapping of flowers to philosophical states perfectly demonstrates our genius for correspondences (though utterly incomprehensible from an intergalactic perspective). Categorizing beauty through flowers – there’s a simplicity of intention revealed there, which I love.
4. El Cascabel by Lorenzo Barcelata, Performed by Antonio Maciel and Los Aguilillas with Mariachi México de Pepe Villa – Bicycle Music Company
Dynamic and great. Mariachi horns sound like the apocalypse; it’s always been that way for me. This music captures how our species races (sometimes joyfully, other times exhaustedly) toward oblivion.
5. Jonny B. Goode by Chuck Berry – Universal Music Enterprises
We need Chuck Berry. Chuck Berry captures frenzied hormonal youth – a universal language of sexuality that aliens might recognize (not that Bach is devoid of sexuality). His music represents both our cultural cycles and primal energy – revolutionary once, now simultaneously revered yet quaintly distant.
6. Mariuamangi by Pranis Pandang and Kumbi of the Nyarua clan – Recorded by Robert MacLennan
Maximum drone effect. Need to represent fundamental gestation periods of humanity, when literally NOTHING is happening. The recording captures something primordial, those extended periods of stasis punctuating our existence where change remains imperceptible.
7. Chakrulo by Georgian State Merited Ensemble of Folk Song and Dance – Melodiya Studio in Tbilisi, Georgia
Indispensable Georgian folk song. Shows we are not above acknowledging our darker, aggressive nature – destructive tendencies, capacity to make beauty therefrom. Drinking and violence need to be represented, puncturing the sterility of space.
8. Melancholy Blues by Louis Armstong and His Hot Seven – Columbia Records
The blues is more than a genre – it’s the definitive aestheticization of suffering. All about humanity’s resilience and defiance in the face of hardship, with a profound emotional depth that transcends intellectual achievements.
9. Mugam by Kamil Jalilov – Smithsonian Folkways
This represents our interpretation of cosmic mysteries – a sound journey into the unknown. Haunting, exploratory quality. Shows long before we actually went into space that we had imagined its vastness through our traditional instruments.
10. Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground by Blind Willie Johnson – Legacy Recordings
Perfect moans and slide guitar. Is there any more universal experience than isolation? The stark, haunting quality, and the ground – there is no ground in space, yet we need ground to stand on and ground for communicating without words.