The vast majority of humanity can only imagine what it's like to spend your days travelling around the planet and watching its changing clouds, landscapes, cities and lights from far, far above.
But we're lucky to live at a time when astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) can use the internet to readily share the beautiful things they see - for example, by creating a mind-blowing music video that's haunting and mesmerizing all at once.
NASA's Johnson Space Center has a very active social media presence, including their amazing YouTube channel which has brought us such hits as the fidget spinner in microgravity, liquid pingpong, and this hour-long festival of Earth in 4K.
But their latest video compilation of footage taken by current Expedition 53 members is truly something, not least thanks to their great choice of music.
Two years ago, American heavy metal band Disturbed released a dramatic, haunting cover of the classic Paul Simon piece The Sound of Silence, which quickly propelled up music charts and even earned them a Grammy nomination.
Now the NASA Johnson media team have outdone themselves by combining this beautiful music with stunning visuals captured from aboard the ISS, courtesy of Commander Randy Bresnik and flight engineers Sergey Ryazanskiy and Paolo Nespoli.
In the video, we get sweeping vistas from across our planet's surface, with brief glimpses of thunderstorms as seen from space, myriad city lights glittering in the night, and even auroras swirling across the skies.
The footage and photography was captured in low-earth orbit from August to October this year, making up just a small slice of the thousands of photosastronauts have taken while making a full orbit of our planet every 90 minutes.
The Sound of Silence is a lovely metaphorical choice as well, since we often associate space with being this vast vacuum where we can't hear any sound travelling. However, the reality for ISS astronauts isn't quite as silent.
As former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman explained to Slate a few years ago, there are still noises when an astronaut steps outside the airlock of the ISS to perform a spacewalk.
"Mostly what you hear is the sound of the pumps and fans that circulate air and water through your suit," he said.
"It's not terribly annoying or anything, but it's not the silent lonely environment with no sound other than your own breathing like often depicted in the movies."
But you can still get an eerie experience of silence due to the vacuum surrounding the space station.
"[S]ound cannot travel in a vacuum so you do not hear things outside. When you drive a bolt or tap a piece of equipment with a tool, you don't hear a thing," said Reisman.
Certainly, for an astronaut hanging out in the cupola of the station, watching the planet below, Earth looks distant and very much silent.
"Sharing the incomparable silent beauty of our planet with all our fellow travelers on this, our Spaceship Earth," NASA Johnson writes in the video caption.
"Our thanks to all the people within the partnership of the International Space Station who show us daily what heights we can achieve together."
http://loudwire.com/disturbed-the-sound-of-silence-nasa/
ReplyDeleteDisturbed’s cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s “The Sound of Silence” is one of the most successful covers the modern age has seen. The song truly gained traction after the band’s dominant performance on Conan and its since gone on to further popularize Disturbed and has helped the band reach a new audience. Even NASA is enamored with the song, which they used as the music bed for a video shot from the International Space Station during Expedition 53.
The gentle yet brooding first half of the song perfectly pads the spacey atmosphere and shots of our blue, white and green marbled world as seen from afar pan across the screen. Other images highlight human kind's mark on the planet as we see grids of cities illuminating an otherwise pitch black sky alongside bursts of sunlight bending around the curvature of the Earth and more.
Since its release in 2015 as part of Disturbed’s chart-topping comeback record, Immortalized, “The Sound of Silence” has been certified double platinum by the RIAA and was nominated for a Grammy at the 2017 Grammy Awards. When we spoke to singer David Draiman about the Grammy honor and the cover receiving the nod of approval from Paul Simon, he said “Your ultimate wish is for the artist to hopefully give you their blessing. It's rare if they end up getting pissed off by it (laughs), but it is a possibility and it is really, really nice when you get a songwriter as terrific as Paul to reach out to say that he appreciated what you did with one of the most well known songs of all-time."
Disturbed have finished their touring cycle for their most recent album and have vowed to return with a new acoustic EP before fans will be able to bite into another riff-charged studio record rife with new and empowering anthems to stand alongside the classics.
Disturbed’s ‘Sound of Silence’ Soundtracks New NASA Video
ReplyDeleteIn space no one can hear you scream.
October 27, 2017 11:10 AM
Filed Under: Disturbed - David Draiman
By Scott T. Sterling
Disturbed’s GRAMMY-nominated version of Simon & Garfunkel’s 1964 classic, “Sound of Silence,” introduced new fans to the band’s music without chasing away too many of the diehard metalheads. And now, the track has gone even further, serving as the soundtrack to a new NASA video.
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The clip for “The Sound (& Visions) Of Silence” was filmed aboard the International Space Station during Expedition 53 by Commander Randy Bresnik and flight engineers Sergey Ryazanskiy and Paolo Nespoli. It features stunning footage of Earth and outer space from the space station’s orbit 250 miles above the planet.
Disturbed’s version of “Sound of Silence” is from the band’s 2015 album, Immortalized, and was up for Best Rock Performance at this year’s Grammy ceremony, but lost the award to David Bowie’s “Blackstar.”
Watch the NASA video for “The Sound (& Visions) of Silence” below:
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