A forgotten satellite deteriorates in low orbit. Lost to the atmosphere or ready to come back to Earth? 

ETHER/ORBIT, a companion release to 2020’s BLACK ARROW, sets a more funereal tone than its predecessor, soundtracking the Prospero satellite’s slow decay in low orbit and the final attempts to contact it. Without human intervention, it is estimated that it will eventually break up by 2070, almost 100 years after being launched, survived only by a few faint, uncertain transmissions on 137.560 MHz; signals that can be heard in the ghostly sonic ether by those who choose to listen carefully to them. 

A contemplation on quiet disintegration and the conflicting allures of distance and connection, using the satellite as a skyward centre-point; ETHER/ORBIT considers the romanticism of the space age versus the reality and how we’re always listening for something in the darkness.

BLACK ARROW is an EP documenting the true story of one woman’s work in the British Space Programme of the 1960s, as a seventeen-year-old rocket engineer. BLACK ARROW was also a rocket developed in the 1960s on the Isle of Wight, UK (where I live), at a test facility overlooking The Needles. The project helped launch the British satellite Prospero in 1971. This release is a soundtrack inspired by BLACK ARROW; intended to serve as an audio documentation of British space endeavours, specifically highlighting women’s work in the field, using an interview with one of the few female rocket engineers working in such a role at the time, interwoven with experimental sonics and field recordings from what is left of the concrete rocket testing facility amongst nature's resplendent reclamation of the site. It has been made possible with the exceptionally kind support of Wight Aviation Museum and The National Trust staff at the original site at High Down. I've also been lucky enough to have Matt Horn and Mike James of the Portsmouth punk band Horseflies playing on the record, providing encouragement and sonic rocket fuel. 

According to Marlene Irving, whose interview is at the centre of this release, many people on the island still don't know about the rocket testing at High Down, because of the secretive and previously classified nature of the work. In recent times, there has been an excellent art exhibition by Katayoun Dowlatshahi (in 2011) and also a detailed documentary by Joe Myerscough dedicated to BLACK ARROW and, now, there is an audio artefact which provides a record of women's contributions to the programme. I hope this release builds on what has gone before and gives people another way of discovering or remembering the ghosts of the British Space Programme. I also hope it inspires women in STEM and in music to pursue the work they want to do and to align with the stars that we all strive to reach.