Journey (CP1919) – Aurora Orchestra

Like many of Richter’s works, Journey (CP 1919) is a “What if?” project. The proposition looked at in this case is “What if, instead of being earthbound by gravity, we were released upward?” The music is played in darkness, and appears continually to rise, reaching for something beyond itself. These rising lines pulsate at various speeds, and this rhythmic dimension is governed by the same ratios supposed by the ancient astronomers to describe the orbits of the planets; a kind of music of the spheres, pointing ever upward and outward. In our own time we have discovered a class of celestial bodies which have this rhythmic dimension; the pulsars. Jocelyn Bell Burnell described the first pulsar on November 28, 1967, in the constellation of Vulpecula. Initially it was called “LGM-1” (for Little Green Men), but is now classified as CP1919. This star, which pulses every 1.33 seconds, is the imaginary destination of our Journey.