Sounds of Deep Space Revealed by ‘The Logos’ sonic artwork at Oulu2026
Rather than illustrating astronomy, his new work, The Logos, explores humanity’s relationship with time, scale and existence through sound. The piece's philosophical framework emerged through an ongoing dialogue with philosopher Timothy Morton, whose writings on ecology, deep time and humanity’s relationship with the non-human world have informed Melchior’s artistic practice. For Melchior, astronomy is not the subject of The Logos but its material. The installation asks what happens when phenomena measured by science are transformed into experiences capable of provoking reflection, emotion and wonder.
"The logos is the silence between stars – and that silence already lives inside the human mouth." — Timothy Morton, philosopher
Since first being discovered in 2007, curious signals from outer space, known as Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs), have sparked the world’s imagination. In The Logos, these well-travelled pulses of energy – rendered through a special 4.4.4 Genelec loudspeaker system – become music, so listeners can "hear the universe".
The installation premiered in Oulu Cathedral over the Easter weekend, a fitting moment as The Logos takes its title from the Greek λόγος, the concept of reason, word and ordering principle from which Western ideas of creation emerged. Much like Easter itself, the work is symbolic of creation and the essence of life.
"Cathedrals were always designed to evoke a sense of wonder and amazement." — Andrew Melchior
Melchior says he aimed to offer the chance to contemplate "What are we doing here and what can create such tremendous energy on the other side of our cosmos – and does that evoke anything in you?" He adds: "I wanted to provoke a conversation and a dialogue. An inner dialogue about what you think you’re doing here – something that’s more than just the day to day."
Melchior's diverse portfolio spans immersive installations, spatial sound and mixed reality, including work with Björk on her pioneering VR and exhibition experiences, and with Massive Attack on projects exploring DNA data storage, robotics and emerging technologies.
"The youngest signal in The Logos is 50 million years old. The oldest is approximately 8 to 9 billion years old. Something very far away, a long, long time ago, made a sub-millisecond burst of radio energy that has taken billions of years to reach us, and we now have the technology to play it into a cathedral using speakers," says Melchior.
Using eight loudspeakers and four subwoofers from Genelec, The Logos surrounds visitors with rich, pristine spatial sound – the technical infrastructure through which Melchior’s artistic vision becomes physical experience. Yet, due to the nature of the radio bursts, significant processing was required to bring the signals into the audible range.
The sonification at the heart of The Logos emerged from an extended dialogue between Melchior and Dr Kiyoshi Masui, Associate Professor of Physics at the MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, about the nature of Fast Radio Bursts, the limits of perception, and what it means to translate astrophysical phenomena into sound. "We’ve sonified the data and turned them into signals that the human ear can understand," explains Melchior. "Sound and FRBs both have energy evolving over time and frequency – the mapping is more direct than you might expect." Working closely with Melchior, Software Engineer Oliver Larkin built the bespoke software instrument to Melchior’s specification.
"Some of these signals were emitted when the universe was a billion years old. It’s a form of heritage, on a cosmic scale." — Dr Kiyoshi Masui, MIT Kavli Institute
Dr Masui’s words speak to the deepest resonance of the work. The sounds Melchior performs in Oulu Cathedral are neither invented nor simulated: they are generated from real observational data. The radio signals encoded in that data may have travelled billions of years before reaching Earth; The Logos translates their structure into sound within the cathedral.
"You feel it in your stomach." — Oliver Larkin, Software Engineer
Where some may consider large halls, like those of a cathedral, a challenge for acoustics, Melchior found the lively sonic environment a highly stimulating and rewarding space for the work.
"We have these amazing acoustics to work with and these fantastic loudspeakers," says Larkin. "We’ve chosen a relatively simple solution with four corners of sound, essentially to maximise the impact of the acoustics.
Andrew can also choose whether to play sounds only up high or only in the middle or only on the subs, or make sounds that sweep between the different speakers."
The four-subwoofer configuration of the Genelec system proves particularly striking. "Often, for surround sound projects, you only have one subwoofer, so the bass frequencies are mono. Here we have four big subwoofers, and you can really hear the spatialisation in the low frequencies, which is very rare and nice sonically," Larkin notes. "You feel it in your stomach."
"It’s something that no one has ever heard. Literally." — Dean Satu Saarinen, Oulu Cathedral
Dean of Oulu Cathedral Satu Saarinen is delighted with the project, saying "The Logos is such a wonderful, powerful, yet very gentle piece of art" and "Churches have always been venues of art and music. So, this is what we’ve been doing for centuries."
Saarinen truly appreciates the unique angle of the piece, adding that, "I was immediately enthusiastic about the idea. I mean, who wouldn’t be? It’s something that no one has ever heard. Literally." She hopes that it "will bring people together. Together with each other, together with themself, and then also together with the universe", and extends a very warm welcome for all to come and experience it for themselves.