Radioactive Orchestra – Radioactive Orchestra Featuring Axel Boman

Cover text:

"Radioactive Orchestra is an attempt to interpret gamma radiation, which has its origin in the nuclei of atoms, and translate it into sounds and music.

Gamma radiation consists of photons and is, in essence, the same kind of radiation as light and radio waves - electromagnetic radiation - but with a very high energy level.

It is present in everything around us all the time, even in our own bodies, sometimes naturally occurring and sometimes from man made sources.

An isotope is a specific configuration of the atomic nucleus of an element. Each element, for example copper, can have many different isotopes, all behaving differently on a physical level. This is due to the number of neutrons in the atomic nuclei.

Some isotopes are naturally radioactive but every isotope can be made to emit gamma radiation if it is put in a higher energy state and thus becoming "excited".

Every isotope emits radiation in its own unique patterns. These patterns tell the physicists what the innermost part of the atom “looks like”. Gamma rays emitted from the nuclei of various atoms provide physicists, and us, with a window into the smallest building blocks of the universe. Scientific instruments and mathematical models enable us to discover the rules that govern all matter.

In collaboration with nuclear physicists Bo Cederwall and Torbjörn Bäck, music producer Axel Boman and media artist Kristofer Hagbard have created musical algorithms based on the scientists’ models of how radiation is emitted from various isotopes. The resulting output of melodies and sounds have been arranged into the following musical experiments."