Chinese astronaut Wang Yaping played a zither rendition of the song "The Jasmine Flower" in China's Space Station on Feb 15 this year to celebrate the Lantern Festival. Music isn't only a method for astronauts to keep connected with people on Earth, but also a carrier of messages sent into orbit in the hope of reaching out to other intelligent life and to ex ... Show More
Feb 2026
Galloping strings--The spirit within the bow
In this episode, the hooves are replaced by horse-hair: the Morin Khuur speaks, sighs and gallops in the hands of the soloist Morin Khuur performer Chaoke Jiletu. You’ll feel 180 nylon filaments tremble like prairie grass, and learn why the bow is called the instrument’s “two leg ... Show More
26 m
Sep 2025
Mustafa Alim: Choosing rhythm over the pulse
This episode follows Mustafa Alim, a musician from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China, who fell in love with the accordion. Actively promoting accordion culture, he has engaged in cross-cultural exchanges through domestic and international accordion festivals and ... Show More
22m 34s
Nov 2021
Daniel K. L. Chua and Alexander Rehding, "Alien Listening: Voyager's Golden Record and Music from Earth" (Zone Book, 2021)
In 1977 NASA shot a mixtape into outer space, and it remains the only human-made object to have left the solar system. The Golden Record aboard the Voyager spacecrafts contained world music and sounds of Earth to represent humanity to any extraterrestrial civilizations. Alien Lis ... Show More
48m 40s