NEW FILM: SEAS OF THE SUN - THE STORY OF CLUSTER
We’re incredibly pleased to announce the upcoming release of Seas Of The Sun: The Story of Cluster — a Space Rocks film produced for the European Space Agency, featuring an original soundtrack from Icelandic composer Karlotta Skagfield, additional music from Bruce Dickinson, and data-inspired space sounds from Klaus Nielsen and Napalm Death’s Shane Embury.
It’s a feature-length documentary telling the story of ESA’s pioneering Cluster mission which braved an invisible solar storm for a quarter century and changed our our understanding of our nearest star forever.
This groundbreaking mission consisted of four spacecraft which were designed to study a very special form of matter called space plasma — superheated gas which is produced by stars like our Sun. The mission began with disaster and became a celebrated comeback story, and the task of telling it took us on a real journey of discovery.
The film saw producer and director Alexander Milas of Twin V Ltd and Space Rocks and co-director Ryan Mackfall traveling to ESAC, the European Space Astronomy Centre near Madrid for the final Cluster science meeting last September to witness the the planned de-orbit of Salsa, the first of Cluster’s four spacecraft to return to Earth. Filmed simultaneously at the European Space Operations Centre in Darmstadt and at Easter Island, near to where Salsa made its fiery return to Earth, the mission’s end was where our filmmaking journey began.
Seas of the Sun will make its worldwide debut on ESA’s YouTube channel at 18:00 GMT / 19:00 CET on October 30th. We’ll be hosting an online live chat on on the evening with scientists and engineers who worked on Cluster, as well as the team behind the film as well.
See you there, and go deeper with the links and our special behind-the-scenes podcast below!
THE MISSION NOTES PODCAST
Seas of the Sun is the story of a science mission and the people who made it possible. The source material was so rich that we decided to create a limited podcast series to go deeper with the people behind the film and the mission it depicts.
Episode 1: The Story of Cluster, with co-director Ryan Mackfall of Crashburn Studios and Cluster veteran Gill Watson of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory on the unique challenges and opportunities of telling a story of this kind. LISTEN NOW
Episode 2: The Science of Cluster, with Science Operations Support scientist Matt Taylor and Lucile Turc of the University of Helsinki. We explore the world of heliophysics and Cluster’s contributions to this burgeoning field of study. LISTEN NOW
Episode 3: The Sounds of Cluster, with Seas of the Sun composer Karlotta Skagfield and data sonification contributors Klaus Nielsen (Maplepools) and Shane Embury (Napalm Death) who used science data to create a unique interpretation of the data that Cluster produced. LISTEN NOW
ABOUT KARLOTTA SKAGFIELD
Space Rocks has always been about the intersection of space science and the creative fields, and it’s been our firm belief that we use science to explain what’s out there, and art to explain the way it makes us feel. Seas of the Sun is all about space plasma, the unusual form of matter that’s responsible for producing the aurora borealis. What better way to connect this fascinating field of study with culture than to bring in an Icelandic composer whose beautiful score brings a deep feeling of wonder to the story that unfolds.
MORE ON SONIFICATION
One of the unique challenges of heliophysics is that unlike other areas of space science, space plasma is usually invisible except for when it interacts with the Earth’s magnetosphere to produce the aurora borealis. You can hear it through, using a process called data sonification — making sound out of the information that missions like Cluster are responsible for producing.
Seas of the Sun was a unique opportunity to put data sonification into practise, and we used two prominent musicians: Klaus Nielsen, aka Maple Pools, and space enthusiast and sound pioneer Shane Embury of Napalm Death and Dark Sky Burial to create the sonification segment you hear in the film. You can learn more about Klaus’ work here and some fantastic examples of data sonification here.
ABOUT BRUCE DICKINSON
So there we were having just completed a day of filming at the European Space Astronomy Centre outside of Madrid and our cinematographer Sam Breeze stuck Navigate the Seas of the Sun by Bruce Dickinson onto our crew van’s stereo. The lyrics couldn’t be more appropriate to the subject matter of Cluster, and we couldn’t be prouder to see a song from the Iron Maiden legend’s solo career included in our film. As we’re sure you’ll agree, it’s as if he was writing it about Cluster. A cosmic coincidence to put it mildly.
ABOUT OUR FILM POSTER
If you know much about 2001: A Space Odyssey, then you’ll know it’s an absolute masterpiece that’s still as visually arresting as the day it was released. Its mind-bender of a finale spoke powerfully to the psychedelia of the time and a generation of young viewers who’d ultimately make the film a success.
Our Seas of the Sun poster, masterfully illustrated by Sam Williams of Magic Torch and Space Rocks’ very own creative director James Isaacs of Black Finch Design, is a loving tribute to that poster that takes an artful approach to the bow shock produced by the Earth’s magnetosphere which the Cluster mission helped us to understand.
GET THE SHIRT
Courtesy our creative director James Isaacs, these Cluster tour shirts featured in Seas Of The Sun: The Story Of The Cluster Mission were commissioned by the ESA mission team behind Cluster and feature a front design depicting Earth's magnetosphere interacting with space plasma, and the back features a list of significant Cluster mission dates -- just like a tour shirt, because as we know, space rocks! We’re pleased to make them available here.
