Dr Kevorkian & The Suicide Machine: The Loneliest Of Creatures [2002]
The Loneliest of Creatures is the story of a space probe sent out into the universe in search of intelligent life. The story starts long after the probe has left earth and has gone into deep stasis. The probe is awakened to a message of unknown origin - after restating its systems and listening for some time, it attempts to contact Houston - for permission to liaise with the message source.
The Loneliest of Creatures was released in September of 2002.
Launch the T.L.O.C. Mini-site. Here...

Houston is of course long dead. The probe never receives a reply. It eventually breaks its programming and decides to fly past the planet of the message origin. This track is the green planet and features the sounds of a busy earth that is interested only in what is happening on its own surface. The probe then continues on, and sends its final message to Houston – in the vague hope that Houston might hear...
The story features a large number of communications from packet radio to morse code captured at CIT's Radio Lab. The probe transmissions were recorded on a kitset AM radio. The sound of the earth at the start and finish of (T4) "The Green Planet" are real.

When the electromagnetic frequencies emitted by the earth are recorded and converted to audible frequencies this is an example of the sounds produced. The sound of Sputnik, one of earths first satellites is a public domain sample. At the time of launch this sound could be heard on citizen band radio and thousands tuned in.

"The Loneliest of Creatures" is one of the most etherial and hauntingly beautiful albums to be released this year. Jordan Reyne is a truly experimental musician, willing to overthrow any preconcieved notions of "how music should be" in order to expand her art" Chaff (Massey University Student Press)

Space Info: In 1972, Pioneer 10 was launched. In 1983 it became the first human made artifact to leave the solar system - carrying a plaque designed to convey information about earth to possible alien civilizations. It is now nearly 7 billion miles away from the sun, though its signal continues to be heard by NASA. Pioneer 11 followed, its mission ended on 30 September 1995, when the last transmission from the spacecraft was received. In 1977 the probe Voyager left earth. It is now the most distant human-made object in the universe. It too carries a plaque intended to convery information to any intelligent life-forms it should encounter. As of January 2001, Voyager 1 was 12 billion kilometers from the sun.

Personnel: All songs written, performed and recorded by Jordan Reyne at DDV Laboratories except : Transmissions : strings written by Victoria Kelly, performed by Ashley Brown and recorded by Andre Upstart at Helen Young Studios. Artwork by Mary McGreggor-Reid. Mastering by Johnny Chrome. Website design by johnnychrome webdesign. Samples from: CIT Radio Lab, Radio New Zealand, Sounds of India (Zero G) Mastering & technical input by Johnny Chrome. Executive Producer: Robert McDermott.
Acknowledgements: Samples: field recordings (thanks to the CIT radio Lab), Zero G (Sounds Of India), Pro Samples (Choirs), Gravis Ultrasound & Soundblaster (Synth Patches) and Stephen P McGreevy's ground-based ELF-VLF recordings.