A Prominence on the Sun

“THEOLOGIAN has a new vinyl LP out on NOTHING UNDER THE SUN, and we’ve had some press coverage courtesy of VICE/NOISEY, a video premiere via HEATHEN HARVEST, and a full album stream on CVLT NATION.”

Check this video out from the new LP out Friday from Theologian. The video is great.

We have the Theologian LP coming out in 2 weeks (August 28th). We have pre-orders up on our site (link for that on the attached link as well) and Noisey is streaming a track right now. We’re pretty excited about it and glad it’s getting some positive attention before it’s even out. 

World’s largest natural sound archive now fully digital and fully online.

“In terms of speed and the breadth of material now accessible to anyone in the world, this is really revolutionary,” says audio curator Greg Budney, describing a major milestone just achieved by the Macaulay Library archive at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. All archived analog recordings in the collection, going back to 1929, have now been digitized and can be heard at www.MacaulayLibrary.org

“This is one of the greatest research and conservation resources at the Cornell Lab,” said Budney. “And through its digitization we’ve swung the doors open on it in a way that wasn’t possible 10 or 20 years ago.”

It took archivists a dozen years to complete the monumental task. The collection contains nearly 150,000 digital audio recordings equaling more than 10 terabytes of data with a total run time of 7,513 hours. About 9,000 species are represented. There’s an emphasis on birds, but the collection also includes sounds of whales, elephants, frogs, primates and more.

“Our audio collection is the largest and the oldest in the world,” explained Macaulay Library director Mike Webster. “Now, it’s also the most accessible. We’re working to improve search functions and create tools people can use to collect recordings and upload them directly to the archive. Our goal is to make the Macaulay Library as useful as possible for the broadest audience possible.”

The recordings are used by researchers studying many questions, as well as by birders trying to fine-tune their sound ID skills. The recordings are also used in museum exhibits, movies and commercial products such as smartphone apps.

“Now that we’ve digitized the previously archived analog recordings, the archival team is focusing on new material from amateur and professional recordists from around the world to really, truly build the collection,” Budney said. “Plus, it’s just plain fun to listen to these sounds. Have you heard the sound of a walrus underwater?  It’s an amazing sound.“ 

Sample some fascinating Macaulay Library sounds:

Earliest recording: Cornell Lab founder Arthur Allen was a pioneer in sound recording. On a spring day in 1929 he recorded this Song Sparrow sounding much as they do today Youngest bird: This clip from 1966 records the sounds of an Ostrich chick while it is still inside the egg – and the researchers as they watch Liveliest wake-up call: A dawn chorus in tropical Queensland, Australia is bursting at the seams with warbles, squeals, whistles, booms and hoots Best candidate to appear on a John Coltrane record: The indri, a lemur with a voice that is part moan, part jazz clarinet Most spines tingled: The incomparable voice of a Common Loon on an Adirondacks lake in 1992 Most erratic construction project: the staccato hammering sounds of a walrus under water Most likely to be mistaken for aliens arriving: Birds-of-paradise make some amazing sounds – here’s the UFO-sound of a Curl-crested Manucode in New Guinea

Announcement of the August 28th release date for the initial release on the Nothing Under The Sun imprint. More information on this to come.

All the Colors of the Sun

Sunspot Group AR 2339 Crosses the Sun

Check out the time I had at Apex Fest VI this past weekend 15 seconds at a time. There are some videos from the first night with full sets here: https://www.youtube.com/user/unARTigNYC - I’m also hoping unARTig will have more of the weekend up later. And there are a bunch of photos here: http://www.gregcphotography.com/2015/06/08/apex-fest-vi-at-trans-pecos/ Had a great time thanks to all the bands and Lee (of Theologian whose record we have coming out we’re hoping sooner than later with nothingunderthesun). 

Across The Sun: A long solar filament stretches across the relatively calm surface of the Sun…

Promotional mix for Apex Fest VI in New York City June 5-7 2015 (facebook event). Set by Theologian Prime (aka Theologian).

Corona from Svalbard

Diamond Rings and Baily's Beads  

NASA | SDO: Year 5 February 11, 2015 marks five years in space for NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which provides incredibly detailed images of the whole sun 24 hours a day. Capturing an image more than once per second, SDO has provided an unprecedentedly clear picture of how massive explosions on the sun grow and erupt ever since its launch on Feb. 11, 2010. The imagery is also captivating, allowing one to watch the constant ballet of solar material through the sun's atmosphere, the corona. In honor of SDO's fifth anniversary, NASA has released a video showcasing highlights from the last five years of sun watching. Watch the movie to see giant clouds of solar material hurled out into space, the dance of giant loops hovering in the corona, and huge sunspots growing and shrinking on the sun's surface. The imagery is an example of the kind of data that SDO provides to scientists. By watching the sun in different wavelengths – and therefore different temperatures – scientists can watch how material courses through the corona, which holds clues to what causes eruptions on the sun, what heats the sun's atmosphere up to 1,000 times hotter than its surface, and why the sun's magnetic fields are constantly on the move. Five years into its mission, SDO continues to send back tantalizing imagery to incite scientists' curiosity. For example, in late 2014, SDO captured imagery of the largest sun spots seen since 1995 as well as a torrent of intense solar flares. Solar flares are bursts of light, energy and X-rays. They can occur by themselves or can be accompanied by what's called a coronal mass ejection, or CME, in which a giant cloud of solar material erupts off the sun, achieves escape velocity and heads off into space. In this case, the sun produced only flares and no CMEs, which, while not unheard of, is somewhat unusual for flares of that size. Scientists are looking at that data now to see if they can determine what circumstances might have led to flares eruptions alone. Goddard built, operates and manages the SDO spacecraft for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington, D.C. SDO is the first mission of NASA's Living with a Star Program. The program's goal is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to address those aspects of the sun-Earth system that directly affect our lives and society. This video is public domain and can be downloaded at: http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/goto?11742

Fibrils Flower on the Sun