SLAnet PatUrn – Patterns Seen Within Saturn’s Ring System

This track uses an algorythmic modulation that “naturally” allows rhythmic complexity to develop and evolve in a similar process to the way the Saturnian ring system has developed.

SLAnet PatUrn by the Orange Hut studio

Basically a self-consistent system of the Boltzmann equation and Poisson equation (as discussed in “Modeling of the Saturnian Ring System” by Griv, E., Liverts, E., Gedalin, M., & Yuan, C. in the Journal of Astrophysical Supercomputing using Particle Simulations, IAU Symposium #208, held 10-13 July 2001 in Tokyo, Japan. Edited by Junichiro Makino and Piet Hut, San Francisco: Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 2003., p.45 Bibliographic Code: 2003IAUS..208…45G) has allowed scientists to understand how the dynamic evolution of Saturn’s main A, B and C rings came about.

Saturn’s rings disk consists of mutually gravitating particles that are highly dynamic and subject to various instabilities by gravitational disturbances from more massive objects within the system i.e. like shepherd moons, etc. This dynamism mainly occurs because the evolution of the system is primarily driven by angular momentum redistribution.

In a similar manner within the rhythmic content of this track, lower frequencies present stronger gravitational like disturbances that have greater inertia, while higher frequency content are lighter and provide less gravitational disturbances. Timing cycles are centred on 8, 4, 1 and 0.5 bar divisions.

Nearly all the sounds were originally generated using our Arp 2600, and most of them were then modulated and “enhanced” using original patches that I developed in the Symbolic Sound Corp’s Kyma program.

We also used some of the original sounds that “Voyager 2” recorded while it passed nearby in August of 1982 at only a mere 110,000 Km from Saturn’s Ring system. These were effected, using Kyma, with formant filters and appear quite noticeably in the outro of the track.