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Huygens Lands On Titan

from Cassini: A Musical Tribute by Jesse James Allen

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The Mission:

The Huygens probe that was attached to Cassini had broken away on December 23rd, 2004, and descended to Titan on January 13th, 2005. The world watched in awe as the European Space Agency made this historic landing.

During Huygens descent to Titan, mission control had little control over the probe as communication times were extreme at that distance. The probe was fully programmed to automatically run the mission. It wasn’t fully known what was happening until rumor got around that the Green Bank Radio Telescope was picking up the Huygens carrier tone. The radio silence as the parachutes opened kept the Huygens mission team on edge with anticipation until they noticed a monitor slowly filling up with data. Huygens survives the two-hour and 27-minute entry and successfully lands on the alien moon. The ESA made history that day, this was a huge milestone in space exploration.

Titan had been the source of much intrigue in the scientific community since the Voyager missions detected that it had a thick atmosphere and could possibly have water on the surface. Huygens would reveal a stunning landscape with seas of liquid methane.


The Music:

This track has 3 movements. The first movement runs for about two minutes. This Motif is intended to represent the moon of Titan from the exterior perspective. After that, we hear Huygens entering the upper atmosphere on fire. Next, we hear the parachute opening as Huygens falls from the sky along with the power-up sound of the carrier tone. There is tension in the second movement as stated in the mission because there was no indication if the probe was capturing data. At 3:27 we hear telemetry, the voice of Huygens to its creators across a billion-mile sea. The victorious theme in the third movement is of course the moment the team realized the mission was successful and history was made.

The opening of this track was primarily done with the Arturia Moog Modular that offered up such a wonderful sound with its pattern arpeggiator. Some of the airier ambient effects were created with the Oberheim Matrix 12. The main motif for Titan was scored with the crisp digital sounds of the 90’s Korg Wavestation. I kept coming back to the Wavestation because of the unique textures this synth can produce so easily with its vector mix engine. I also loved the chime sounds from this synth that gave the track a very retro feel, a bit like 80’s fantasy films. I am very fond of the overmodulation of the Moog Modular lines toward the end of this opening part.

The choir that follows represents the hopes of mission control who had vested so many years for this moment.

The descent was built primarily with two synths: NI Absynth and Prism. For the keen ear, you may notice the sound here from Prism is a close derivative of the sound used for the Enceladus track, which was intentional to tie the two moons together in feel. The percussive foundation was built with Heavyocity Mosaic Tape.

The final motif is primarily the Korg Wavestation again, but this time joined with a gliding Mini Moog lead and an over-modulated NI Prism synth to add a visceral horn-like texture.

This track was one of the first scores for the project obviously because this was a major milestone for the Cassini mission. It really defined the style and tone for the whole album.


Notable sounds from the Arturia Moog Modular, Pigments 2, UVI Falcon, and Korg Wavestation

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from Cassini: A Musical Tribute, released July 4, 2021

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Jesse James Allen Orlando, Florida

Jesse James Allen is a 9-time internationally award-winning experiential media artist and composer.  

At heart, he is a sound designer and synthesist. His affinity for classical styles and choral music came from his early years recording for the prestigious Denver Center for the Performing Arts and National Theater Conservatory.

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