Massive Attack, The Avalanches, more send music to the Moon in new art installation

Massive Attack, The Avalanches, Moses Boyd are among a number of artists to transmit their music to the Moon as part of a new immersive art installation.

For the Picadilly Un:Plugged installation, a project brought to realisation by the Piccadilly Circus-based Art of London gallery, music was transmitted to the Moon and back using what is described as “Earth-Moon-Earth” technology and received by Jodrell Bank’s Lovell Telescope. A press release explains that “the audio signal spreads across the Moon’s nearside, penetrating several metres into the surface before returning to Earth with a unique, otherworldly sound that blends the original with echoes from the Moon and cosmos.” It’s the work of artist and designer Dr. Nelly Ben Hayoun-Stéphian, and is open to the public for free until tomorrow (Saturday, 8th March).

Massive Attack’s contribution to the installation sees them cover Russian punk band GrOb’s 1988 song ‘Everything Is Going According To Plan’, which you can listen to via the Instagram post below.

In a statement, Massive Attack said: “‘Everything Is Going According To Plan’ was written by Yegor Letov in the 1980s. It was performed live in Russian by Massive Attack in 2013 as part of a collaborative show with filmmaker Adam Curtis.”

Other tracks included in the project include ‘POME(GRANITE) ‘by EOBIONT, ‘We Will Always Love You (feat. Blood Orange)’ by The Avalanches, ‘A Sense of Reality’ by Ayse Hassan and ‘Only You ft. Klein’ by Moses Boyd.

Speaking about the project in a statement The Avalanches said: “It’s such an interesting and exciting concept to have audio bounced to the Moon and back, and to hear the interpretations and alterations that occur along its 768,802 km journey. We’re honoured our song ‘We will Always Love You’ was chosen to take the interstellar ride. ”

Find out more about the installation here.

Last year, Jon Hopkins worked with NASA on a single to be sent to the moon. ‘Forever Held’ was specially commissioned for NASA’s Space for Earth installation at NASA HQ in Washington DC, an audio-visual experience that allowed small groups of viewers to “experience Earth as can only be seen from space—as an interconnected world, lacking boundaries or limits”.

That wasn’t the first of NASA’s music-led projects either. Last this year, the US government agency broadcast hip-hop into space for the first time, sending Missy Elliott’s debut 1997 single ‘The Rain (Supa Dupa Fly)’ towards Venus (Elliott’s favourite planet). Kerri Chandler previously spoke to DJ Mag about broadcasting his track, ‘Atmosphere’, into space.  The NASA Kennedy Space Centre also hosted an after-hours “techno party” in February.

Massive Attack are set to play a “100% battery-powered” gig at London’s LIDO festival this summer amid their drive to make their live shows more environmentally friendly.

Last year, the group’s Robert Del Naja revealed that the group turned down an invitation to play at Coachella festival due to its climate impact.