New Stuff From the Knife! (If You Wish to Make an Apple Pie From Scratch, You Must First Invent the Universe)

Earlier today, the Swedish siblings that make up the Knife released a new song called "the Colouring of Pigeons," and it has already become quite a sensation.  It is 11 minutes long, and many people are referring to it as an opus already.  The song stems from an opera project that the Knife are doing and planning on releasing at the beginning of March.  The opera is based off of Darwin's the Origin of Species and everything is supposed to reflect the grand impact and scale of Darwin's work.  The Knife apparently went to the Amazon and used the sounds they heard as inspiration for a lot of the stuff... if you are not getting the picture it is this: the album (by the way it is entitled Tomorrow, In a Year) is supposed to represent the diversity of the world.

The music itself does feel very worldly to me.  The drum beat throughout the song sounds like it is on some sort of tribal drum and time.  The thing that I find really interesting about the song is that even though it is supposed to be very inspired by nature, it does feature electronic noises, in particular a drone-like sound.  I think that it works well because it is something that you are not really expecting in the song, making it grab your attention and set it apart from say the soundtrack to Avatar.

mp3: The Colouring of Pigeons

And now, since we are on the topic of something related for science, I feel obliged to show this video, seeing as I'm a bit of a science-lover.  It came out last year towards the end of the summer and kind of made a big deal, so I'm sure most of you have seen it already, but even if you have it is worth watching again because it is so good.



It features Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking (I am actually currently reading one of his books; if you are at all interested in science, in particular cosmology, I really suggest that you read it - it is called A Brief History of Time), two of the greatest cosmologists/physicists of the past few centuries.  Carl Sagan is certainly one of the most inspiring men in the world; his television show "Cosmos" made many people fall in love who otherwise would not have, just because of his charisma.  This song is genius; the music certainly captures the wonder of space, and the lyrics certainly express why that wonder is present.  The "woop, woop" (I don't really know how to write it) that runs throughout the song certainly captures the weirdness of the universe.  As just a song without any meaning, it would be great but the content of the song, IMHO, makes it one of the best things of 2009. Plus what could be better/funnier than Stephen Hawking rapping/soloing?  I don't know if anybody else is as into it as me, so tell me what you think.

mp3: A Glorious Dawn

-- A Teenage Elephant

"If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe."  -- Carl Sagan