For The Sirens, Geologist and visual artist Kyle Simon did not use the night sky as a theme added after the music was made. At Simon’s Farrington Observatory in Joshua Tree, light from the moon, stars and planets entered a telescope fitted with optical sensors and photodiodes. An analogue amplifier converted that changing light into control voltage for Geologist’s modular system, where it could affect pitch, filtering, rhythm and other parameters in real time.
The distinction matters. This is not a recording of space, and the stars are not secretly composing a melody. Light becomes one influence inside a human-built chain: telescope, sensor, amplifier, patch and performer. Every stage translates the previous one, so the final sound is neither a neutral scientific reading nor an arbitrary musical illustration.
The album, due on 16 October 2026, grows from a single composition recorded in 2024. What stays with me is the modest role assigned to the celestial data. It does not replace musical judgement. It behaves more like an unstable control source, comparable to an envelope or low-frequency oscillator whose movement originates far beyond the instrument. A modular synthesizer is usually praised for precise control. Here its value lies in making room for a signal the musician can guide but cannot fully author.
https://pitchfork.com/story/geologist-reveals-new-album-the-sirens
