This episode of The Radio Art Hour features Celeste, a radio artwork by Glass Salt, and is introduced by Wave Farm Radio Art Fellow Austin T. Richey.

Celeste is a radio art piece that fuses scientific exploration with artistic innovation and expression. Created by Glass Salt, the experimental music duo of Caylie Staples and Johann Diedrick, this project showcases their ability to transform natural and cosmic phenomena into auditory experiences. Celeste marks the intersection of two important events in the summer of 2022: the Perseid meteor shower, and Glass Salt’s residency at Wave Farm, where the piece was created and broadcast.

At Wave Farm, the duo used two devices engineered to sonify the electromagnetic frequencies present in the Earth's atmosphere and deep space—capturing and transforming the frequencies from both terrestrial and celestial sources into music. One, a Very Low Frequency receiver by Steve McGreevy, captures very low frequencies in the atmospheric range of 3 to 30 kHz and the high-frequency gamma radiation from stellar sources above 30 exahertz. The second instrument, The Harvester, is an open-source sampler created by Diedrick that “that lets you make music with everyday sounds.” The project’s timing with the annual Perseid meteor shower brings a dynamic auditory and, if you were present at Wave Farm, visual dimension to Celeste. As shooting stars lit up the night sky over the residency, the duo’s interfaces listened for the accompanying signals.

The use of radio broadcast further amplifies the reach and impact of Celeste by expanding access to this unique sonic event. As Diedrick explains, “by taking one site of sonic events and recording it, making an artifact of it through the recordings and placing it a site-specific locale, and representing “there” through local terrestrial radio gives people the opportunity to listen to radio in a new way. You’re transported to different place you wouldn’t have access to if you didn’t have the technology.” Through this, Glass Salt took a rare celestial event, and made it re-presentable to those who could not be part of the research and broadcast, or even those who could not witness the meteor shower. By artifacting the moment, Celeste acts as a sonic memory of a visual spectacle.

The piece contains four distinct sections, with The Harvester serving as a melodic framework for the VLF’s percussive additions: a fragile, repeated melody layered with electromagnetic noises and Staples’s voice; a shambling loop of clicks and clacks accompanied by Diedrick’s electric bass; a subtle mix of low flute and voice; a humming voice and distant thunder-like crashes, underpinned by an ethereally shimmering chorus. These re-presented soundscapes are punctuated by interview excerpts with Trevor Diedrick, Johann’s father and Amateur Radio Operator, and Abram Morphew, a Portland-based experimental music maker and self-described “RF/audio junkie.” Glass Salt adds to these vocal moments by including star reports tracking the movements of the meteor shower over the course of the residency; Diedrick would spend time on the Wave Farm porch, observing and writing down celestial movements, which were then recorded and layered into the final piece. These moments provide deeper insights into the technical and conceptual underpinnings of the project.

These reports and discussions enrich the narrative of Celeste, offering a behind-the-scenes look at how the duo morphs their research into radio art. Further, Glass Salt plays with the very idea of collaboration and the interfacing of multiple dualities, writing “This combination of a musical duo engaging with a duo of extreme frequency bands allows for the creation of adventurous new radio artwork that brings the unhearable into the range of human listening and performance.” Radio not only amplifies the message but allows for an interchange between natural forces and interpersonal music making. -Described by Wave Farm Radio Art Fellow 2024, Austin T. Richey

Celeste was first broadcast on Wave Farm 90.7 FM, as part of Glass Salt’s 2022 Wave Farm Artist Residency, on August 6, 2022.