PJ Harvey is terug

En dat heeft drie jaar geduurd.

In 2023 was er PJ Harveys album'I Inside the Old Year Dying'. Nu is er al een eerste nummer uit het volgende album dat via Partisan Records zal verschijnen.

Voyager, zoals het nummer heet, had al enigszins vorm gevonden voor fysicus Professor Brian Cox haar uitnodigde om een nummer te schrijven voor zijn 'Emergence' tour. Het werd opgenomen met een volledig orkest en haalt de naam bij de sonde, die NASA lanceerde in 1977, met daarin Carl Sagans 'Voyager Golden Record', die nog steeds rondjes draait in de ruimte.

Over de track zegt Harvey: "I was excited for the challenge to compose a song in the 'voice' of Voyager 2. I have long been fascinated by the spacecraft and its journey, and asked myself what it might say to us if it could? This was an inspiring route to take to develop the song.

The song had already started life as part of the ongoing work towards my new album, so when Professor Brian Cox invited me to write a piece for his new show, I sent him the voice memo of this song to see if it resonated. It immediately made him think of the Voyager craft and the sound of its signal being sent back to Earth. With these ideas as my starting point I let the song develop, and discussed an orchestral accompaniment with Dario Marianelli.

I'm very happy with the end result, and it's wonderful to hear the orchestral score bring such expansiveness to my music. I thoroughly enjoyed researching the history and journey of Voyager 1 & 2, and was glad to be able to quote the great Carl Sagan within the song, and his famous description of our fragile and beautiful 'pale blue dot'."