Jon Hopkins and Ólafur Arnalds Unite for New Song in Collaboration With NASA: Listen

Jon Hopkins and Ólafur Arnalds have joined the NASA payroll, composing a song, for the space agency’s new art installation, that will be sent to the moon on a NanoFiche disk. Composed by Hopkins with Arnalds string arrangements, “Forever Held” is inspired by “love letters from Earth to space” written by NASA’s creative director, the artist Erica Bernhard, who says Hopkins infuses “sound with the expansiveness of space while grounding us in the essence and rhythms of life on Earth.” Watch Bernhard’s video for the song below.

The song—which Coldplay excerpted for the intro to Moon Music—accompanies Space for Earth, bills as NASA’s first immersive experience open to the public, housed at its headquarters in Washington, D.C. Bernhard’s original letters and stills from her video will also make their way to the moon.

In a press release, Hopkins said, “I took this opportunity to create a full orchestral piece. I wanted to make something timeless that would transmit the feeling of being ‘held’ by the Earth. I was thinking about the fragility and power of our planet, and of the human race’s role in its own destiny.”

Bernhard adds, “Space is not merely the backdrop to human existence, but a living, breathing dimension. There are invisible communications happening between Earth and the NASA satellites that observe our planet. The view from space offers a profound shift in perspective - astronauts call this the overview effect. Hopkins’ compositions capture that shift - infusing sound with the expansiveness of space while grounding us in the essence and rhythms of life on Earth. His soundscapes act as a bridge between these realms, translating the awe and wonder of space and Earth into a sonic and immersive journey that asks us to consider our place in the universe and our responsibility to the planet.”

Hopkins released his latest LP, Ritual, this year, and has since featured on Charli XCX’s Brat and It’s Completely Different but Also Still Brat. He will perform a composition made with the National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner during a screening of the short film All of This Unreal Time at London’s Southbank Centre in December.