"This piece works with a complicated moment in the history of space music, electronic music, and political music.
"Part of the design of China’s first satellite, Dongfanghong 1, was to make music using the satellite’s telemetric system. Specifically, it was designed to play the world the Maoist anthem “The East is Red," from which it took its name. An oral history of the project relates that during ground tests the song was out of tune. Care needed to be taken musically - the advice was to “add harmonic waves” - and technically, with insulation that would prevent pitch modulation in orbit due to changes in temperature or electromagnetic interference.
"During the broadcast, the satellite sounds transition suddenly from cadenced song to chaotic telemetry. The radio announcers explain repeatedly that the first forty seconds are the music, and the next 20 seconds are telemetric data. But the result is a mixed broadcast that splices together different orders of communication, encoded ver
