Archean

I have released a new album Archean. A collection of works from the previous 12 months. There was no specific theme to these piece but during the creation of the album I visited the Rio Tinto in southern Spain and inspiration came as to the title, track names and a retroactive connection to the music. Hence I see the pieces as imaginary soundscapes for real landscapes.

The Rio Tinto is a unique river and landscape that due to its chemical makeup that is extremely acidic and with very high levels of iron and heavy metals which makes it bright red, and flows for 50Km like this. The surrounding area is very mineral rich and has been mined for over 5000 years. The downside of this is that is there is a lot of chemical pollution in the area, partly naturally due to the rivers make-up but also the mining. There is a huge mine in the area.

In recent years the river has gained renewed interest within the scientific community and in particular NASA. Although there is no life in the river due to its chemical makeup, the presence of extremophiles has been detected. These micro-organisms date back to the time when the geology was formed in this area, from the Archean eon. These findings, coupled with the fact that the geology closely resembles that in certain areas of the Martian surfaces suggests that similar life make exist on Mars and within other extreme environments in the Universe. This connection to Mars and in particular the area known as the Meridiani Planum informed the titles of the piece, most are named after rivers on Mars, though with an obvious connection to Earth.