Spatiality: another critical point in the Elements music is the use of particular places and spaces assigned to sounds. In Francium and other alkali metal musics there is a variety of spatially moving sounds, not just by ping pong echoes but in much more complicated ways. Often such placement is linked to gates and envelopes derived from the sounds themselves. Not only is this music created by the creation and by the composition of sounds, but it is also largely composed by composing a virtual space for each of these sounds and for a virtual space created by all of this together. As opposed to a live performance of music in a certain room or hall which is in itself not composed nor part of the music itself, here the space is very much a part of the composition, and this can be a different experience in a room through speakers: sounds will appear to not really come from the speakers. A final element is the always intentional semi-permeability in van Dillen’s electronic music: this music is intended to sound in and with the world around, so random surround “noise” shall be incorporated into the listening experience.

Though similar to Potassium, Rubidium has no function in any known living organisms. Yet is easily absorbed into the human body due to this similarity and thus a radioactive isotope of it is used in MRI imaging.

In technology Rb is sometimes used in solar cells, and a possible projected future use might be in deep space exploration, as it would enable the creation of ion drives, which effectively inspired the music in this album.

“The new BIG STORIES are all told by science, their scope is vast, and their telling has only begun relatively recently. We are daily getting updates on answers to all the ancient basic questions of life that inspired human art, cultures, and religions for millennia, and we are getting verifiable answers this time. Most important is perhaps that we are also facing completely new questions.

It is high time the old myths and beliefs are abandoned and replaced by contemporary, that is to say: scientific sources of information, imagination, and inspiration. The vast field of modern science is far more complex, has a verifiable and direct relation to reality, and it offers a far greater abundance of possible stories and references for artists in all disciplines than any older belief or myth system, however poetic, could ever come up with[1].

In our times we need new and innovative operas and symphonies, whether electronically or no; let these forget the simpler stories of our past and use these new narrative sources of our present and future for reference and inspiration.”

–Oscar van Dillen