1996.09 Omni Magazine Forum
Omni Magazine Online September 1996
Away (Michel Langevin) participated along with Dr. Fiorella Terenzi on Omni Magazine‘s “Diverse Minds E-mail Dialog”. Here is a log of the posts (with Away doing most of the “dialog”)
Interests
Hello, Michel here. Having never done this before, I really don’t know where to start…First, I guess I should tell you about my present interests, which will probably turn into songs on my next album. I Recently made many Net Search on the HAARP Project.I know it’s kind of a “Sightings” subject, but still it worries me. Another interest is Quantum Physics, which became a little less abstract to me after reading about Christopher Monroe’s experiments with Beryllium atoms, in Colorado.I’m also readind about False Memory, Origin of Satan, Tesla, and Hypermatter (which I don’t take very seriously). Past interests (and songs) include Vampires, robotics, alchemy, chaos theory, nanotech and so on….Oh yeah, I’m also very scared by the possibility of a Nuclear war.
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Tuesday, September 17, 1996 at 00:21:42.
Music
I forgot to talk about music! My all time favorite band is called Van der Graaf Generator. Other influential artists: Bauhaus, Legendary Pink Dots, Nick Drake and Syd Barrett. Beck and Björk are my favorite NEW artists. I’m also looking forward to hear Dr. Terenzi’s Galactic Music.
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Tuesday,
September 17, 1996 at 00:56:58.
Cosmic Dialog
Buongiorno Carissimi Omni friends! Hello Michel! This is Dr. Fiorella Terenzi in New York City. I am very excited about this new opportunity to dialog with you, Michel, and with all the other friends who will be “listening in”. There are many things I’d like to discuss from music to science, technology and the digital medium and everything in bewteen. As you know my background is in both astronomy and music – two fields which might seems totally separated. But instead they are connected – in some way they are quite alike. My doctoral work involved transforming radio waves from galaxies into sound – a process I call Acoustic Astronomy. From these sounds I derive all of my music. I read about your musical influences and the music you are producing, Michel, and I found it very interesting. How you combine the world of science into you music?
Sent By:Dr. Fiorella Terenzi on Tuesday, September 17, 1996 at 19:36:05.
Astro Talk
Salut chers amis d’Omni. Bonjour Docteur Fiorella! First, I want to tell you that I find your way of creating music truly special. A few years back, when I first heard of SETI, I remember myself thinking that I would give anything to sample those radio signals those radio signals and use it on my albums. Then I read that you were doing this Galactic Music using radio telescopes. I find you very lucky to have access to such technology, and I’m very intrigued to hear how it sounds like. As for combining science and music, it was always easy for me. Like you, I find those fields very similar in many aspects. Younger, after reading The Morning of the Magicians, I really wanted to learn Alchemy, which is supposed to be an Art. Later, at school, I studied chemistry for two years, pure science for another two years and then one year of nuclear physics. After that I started putting those Voivod albums out, telling the apocalyptic stories of a post-nuclear Vampire. The scientific background helped me for the albums cover art as well, as I soon discovered computer graphics. Nowadays I’m using Soft Image to create the covers and animation in our videos. After being a little afraid of technology in the 80’s (I’m thinking here of Tchernobyl, Challenger and Star War Project), I decided to use it myself and create something constructive out of it. I’m happy to see that other people are doing the same, mademoiselle Terenzi…By the way, what led you to your studies in Astrophysics and Acoustic Astronomy ?
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Wednesday, September 18, 1996 at 00:38:36.
Voivod the Nuclear Vampire
Well it seems like I’m going to be awake for a few more hours so I might as well explain where the Voivod creature comes from : It was first triggered by an event that happened when I was four years old ; I was attacked by a kid armed with a razor blade and I had to go to the hospital to get stitches on my shoulder. It started a fascination mixed with horror for pointy Bio Metal Hybrids. About a year and a half later I was seriously hit by a car and it added the mechanical part to the creatures I would meet in my nightmares. The sounds were provided by a giant factory I was spying on from my bedroom window. So every morning I’d wake up and immediately draw the monsters I had run into in my dreams. A few years later, at the age of twelve, I read Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings and Stoker’s Dracula . I then started to create the saga of Voivod the Vampire living in a nuclear world called Mörgoth. When we formed Voïvod in 83 we decided to translate the story into music. It took five albums to complete the cycle ( from creation to catalepsy ). Nothingface was the last chapter. In the nineties, we covered other topics such as Sci-Fi folk tales, Chaos Theory, UFOlogy, Conspiracy Theories and Nanotechnology. Right now I’m writing a concept for the next album, involving the return of the Voïvod Vampire.
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Thursday, September 19, 1996 at 00:28:03.
CD-ROM
Hello Dr.Terenzi. I just checked out the Voyagerco Web site, where there are many details about your Invisible Universe Cd-rom. It looks very instructive (the Jupiter photos are incredible!).Now I can’t wait to have it in my hands. I’m supposed to get it by the middle of next week. By the way, did you know that Voivod also have a Cd-rom out ? It contains, among other things, some of the Soft Image animation I was telling you about. I can send you one if you are interested.
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Friday, September 20, 1996 at 01:16:13.
Galactic Communication
Dear Michel and dear OMNI friends, To answer to your question, what led me to Astrophysics, I have to tell you that it was a dream, a fantasy that got me interested in what’s going on out there. I remember spending the summer in the country outside Milan with my grandmother, looking up to stars to fantasize and dream about what those shinning objects were. Nothing related to reality, it was a fantastic flight of the imagination and I felt since then, fascinated by the power of the might sky. Today, after spending several years studying astronomy, my love for the Universe is unchanged. Through my Universities I can access astronomical observatories and other astronomical sites. That’s also how I got to use the data from the Very Large Array Radiotelescope to transform galactic radio waves into sound, what I call, Acoustic Astronomy. I am glad you like my Invisible Universe CD ROM. You can explore with it more than 400 objects and travel throughout the Universe with me as a special guide to the Stars! How do you like Music From The Galaxies? You can download samples of it on my site at www.fiorella.com and I am curious to know what kind of feelings and insipirations you get by listening to galactic sounds 180 million years old. Ciao!
Sent By:Dr. Fiorella Terenzi on Saturday, September 21, 1996 at 18:14:58.
Space Chat
Hello Readers . Allo Dr.Terenzi, I did not think that your Galactic Sounds were THAT old. 180 000 000 years is a long time…That makes me want to hear it right now ! I’ll download those from your site right when I’m finished with my post. All this remind me of a documentary about this meteorite prospector. I can’t remember his name, but he was also a rock musician. Anyway, he had found a rock, which he thought was older than Earth !!! I remember being pensive for the longest time after hearing him say that. By the way, when do you think we’ll be ready to hear the Big Bang ? I’d love to sample THAT !!! Now I want to answer J Barnes question on the bulletin board: Yes we are reading the exact same book, The Origin of Satan by Elaine Pagels. Isn’t it interesting ? Since I started this dialog, I’ve been receiving an increasing amount of E-mail from Voïvod fans wanting to discuss the weirdest subjects. It is very healthy for my brain, thanx to Omni, Dr.Terenzi and all of you….Speaking of Omni, I just visited the site’s Fine Art Gallery, and there are some beautiful paintings by Robert Venosa and others. My favorite painters are Dali, Giger, Robert Williams and of course Bosch. I was also influenced by an artist named Phillipe Druillet. A book of his called “Urm le Fou” is truly brilliant. Also on the site, I found a very disturbing article called “Nonlethal Weapons, The Future of War”, about Low-Frequency Beams, Psycho-Corrective Devices and more…. And now, you’ll have to excuse me…I’m gonna go have bad dreams… Au Revoir !
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Monday, September 23, 1996 at 01:19:30.
Right to Fly
Bonsoir Everybody. I was just reading “Timothy Leary, The Final Interviews” on Omni’s site and I couldn’t help but be saddened by such a great mind’s departure. It must be specially hard to accept for you, Dr.Terenzi, as I read he was a personnal friend of yours. Not only was he a great philosopher and writer, he was also a very good artist (I’m listening to his last CD ‘Right to Fly’, at this very moment). I was also reading the bulletin board, and it’s starting to be truly interesting ! To J Barnes: The first time I saw the name Voïvod, I was about twelve and reading a book called ‘Bob Morane, le Talisman des Voïvodes’. In the story, a Voïvod was the Lord of all Gipsies in Bohemia. About a year later, I was reading Dracula by Bram Stoker. It was a french edition and it had an introduction about Vlad Dracula the Voïvod. Voïvod meant Prince, in Transylvania. So my Voïvod is sort of a Cyber Dracula. To David Leigh: You’re right, The Lost Machine is not a depressive song, it’s about big things you can do with little resources, or how to outsmart the Machine. In the song the human slave destroys the Giant Machine by throwing a small rock in the Main Engine. Speaking of things you can do, check out John Haley’s Process 7 Studio and see what happens when a blacksmith listens to Voïvod ! See you tomorrow….
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Wednesday, September 25, 1996 at 02:30:24.
A day in the life of a moon
Yesterday was an interesting day; I woke up after dreaming I was standing on a huge building, looking at planes coming out of the foggy sky and crashing on the ground. It weirded me out all day . When I finally went to rehearse with my band, something was in the air and we wrote some amazing stuff for our next album. After, we sat in front of the TV and watched a very cool documentary called “Chariots of the Gods”, featuring Erich von Däniken himself. The Mayan Calendar part reminded me of the Lunar Eclipse so I rushed to the roof to check it out. The Moon was half darkened by an orange-brown shadow and the ambiance was very much like in my dream ( minus the crashing planes ). Now, we happen to rehearse right by a place called “Planetarium” where they set up telescopes for the public during such events. So I took a walk down there and got to see the craters and everything. Saturn was right under the Moon so I asked the guy if I could watch it but he wouldn’t readjust his telescope. Too bad, I really wanted to see those rings. When I came back home, two hours ago, I went right to the NASA site and downloaded all those photos of Neptune, Saturn etc…My favorite is Phobos, moon of Mars, because of its strange behavior and also because it looks like a screaming head in silent space. And then at the very last word of this post, my computer crashed and I had to rewrite the whole thing. Such is life and now I can go back to my nightmares… Bonne nuit !
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Friday, September 27, 1996 at 01:58:56.
The Myth
Salut People et Bonjour Dr.Terenzi. I looked at the reader bulletin board and I would like to comment on a few posts. To Fan: I have heard of the YB family of viruses. Although YB-1 had nothing to do with computer viruses, I am proud ( I don’t know if I should ) that such a famous virus was named after one of my creatures. YB-1 was an automaton working in a giant mechanical spider digging for aluminum in the song Pre-Ignition on the Nothingface album. Thousands of those spiders were crawling around and the small planet was soon enveloped in a very thick smog. The result was further discussed in another song, Missing Sequences, from the same album. In that song, all the inhabitants of the planet were wandering about, struck by Alzeimer. However, since I was doing the album cover with Amiga, I had my share of problems with viruses, so I decided to write a story based on it on the following album, called Angel Rat. The story stretched over two songs, Nuage Fractal and Freedoom, and talked about a virus sent from another galaxy, taking over all computer networks. The virus, based on Chaos Theory, was undetectable at first, but, with the infamous Butterfly Effect, soon turned out to be unstoppable. To John Haley: In the song Tribal Convictions (from the album Dimension Hatröss), the Voïvod materialized midway through a ritual exercised by a primitive tribe, therefore he was believed to be a deity. Now that’s obviously not a status that appeals to my band. Over the years, we’ve become a cult band, and were referred as ‘The Myth’ in Italy and Eastern Europe, but I’d like to think that it is based on respect, not worship (even though some people yell Voïgod at concerts). In History, the Voïvod was always linked to mythology (vampires etc…) so that’s an aspect I wanted to keep when I resurrected the creature for my stories. So, as you so nicely put it, John, I really wish the Voïvod would play some kind of role in a modern mythology. Now if all of this sounds confusing, please forgive me; English is my second language, and it is very difficult for me to make it totally clear. Thanks to everybody who posted on the reader bulletin board ,it is a real sparkler in the dialog. Cheers !!!
Sent By:Michel Langevin on Monday, September 30, 1996 at 01:15:40.
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