Earth Music Theater Live will headline Astronomy Day at Bombyx Center for the Arts on Oct. 3, performing their unique and celestial show that brings together live music, astronaut imagery of Earth from the International Space Station, and real human stories from space. Northampton-based composer and guitarist Steve Thomas is the mind behind Earth Music Theater Live and hopes the performance can inspire all those who attend.
Photo credit: Jack Frisch
NORTHAMPTON — Bombyx Center for the Arts & Equity will host Astronomy Day on Saturday, Oct. 3, headlined by Earth Music Theater Live and their unique and celestial performance bringing together live music, astronaut imagery of Earth from the International Space Station, and real human stories from space.
Earth Music Theater Live is an ensemble featuring world-class musicians who weave together genre-straddling music and immersive soundscapes that evolve in real time with astronaut imagery. It is a concept experience the blurs the boundaries between live performance, film and science communication, inspiring audiences to see our planet through new eyes.
The pilot behind EMTL and this immersive multimedia performance is Northampton-based composer and guitarist Steve Thomas.
“I’m piloting a rocket ship,” Thomas said of the performance.
Using a Microcosm sonic processor made by Hologram Electronics of Nashville, also known as his “wacky box”, Thomas focuses on creating different textures including some elements from the original Windows on Earth soundtrack. Commissioned for that work 18 years ago by TERC, a nonprofit STEM education organization, the soundtrack that would go on to accompany the 2008 Richard Garriott mission to the ISS.
Evolving and featuring an element of improvisation with each life performance, Thomas uses guitarscapes, an evolving collection of ambient guitar works. Listening to input, his wacky box calculates, rearranges and reinterprets creating real-time harmony and spontaneous movement.
Add in the folktales and fusion, an esthetic Thomas has been working on, the two styles combine and are the contemporary forms of music that are the backbone of the show, bringing a great sense of wonder along with the outer space visuals.
“They work really well with this presentation, these visuals. They just flow and are the right kind of material as it turns out for the show,” Thomas said. “When I’m playing the wacky box, things move around in the performance. We walk about space, asteroids, satellites, things flying around, so there is this movement that is inherent in the sound that I’m trying to create with the guitar that is supportive of the visuals. And then you have this other aspect of these humans piloting the ship with me.”
Under Thomas’ direction, the performance features a standout ensemble of Valley musicians including Chris Cheek on alto saxophone, Claire Arenius on drums and percussion, Josh Metz on acoustic bass, and multi-instrumentalist Carl Clements on bansuri flute and soprano saxophone. Together, they seamlessly interweave live performance with awe-inspiring astronaut imagery to create the immersive experience that celebrates the beauty, fragility, and interconnectedness of our shared home planet Earth.
Thomas explained like scoring a movie, there are different points throughout the hour-long performance that are consistent through all shows, but with EMTL, the performance leaves many windows to experiment and improvise as audiences take in the stunning visuals.
“Whenever you’re in front of 400 people or 50 people, depending on the day and how caffeinated you are, you might count things off a little quicker, so that means relevant to the video, it’s landing differently. It’s a different interaction,” Thomas said. “People will come up after and say ‘oh that was amazing, the sax player doing that riff right when that satellite came across,’ and I’m like yeah, that’s the first time for me too.”
Leading up to the evening show will be free family activities inside Bombyx from 3-5:30 p.m. that include activities such as space arts and crafts, a raffle from A2Z Science and Learning Toy Store, and more. A scratch-built scale model of the International Space Station will also be on display, giving audiences an up-close look at the iconic orbiting laboratory from which the stunning images featured in the performance were captured.
A special introduction to the EMTL performance at 7 p.m. will come from astrophysicist Dr. Salman Hameed, host of the weekly Mr. Universe science segment on NEPM’s The Fabulous 413. Hameed’s remarks will provide an engaging scientific perspective that complements EMTL’s artistic exploration of Earth from space. Part of the multimedia epic also includes poetry from Space Poet, Afro futurist, Astronaut and geoscientist Dr. Sian Proctor, adding to the breadth of the EMTL experience.
This work has evolved over time to what has been performed by EMTL seven times now over the last year and a half. 18 years ago, as part of Thomas’ commission composing and producing the Windows on Earth soundtrack, he created the sound design for the Windows on Earth Museum exhibit that was installed in a few places, including the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, Boston Museum of Science, and the St. Louis Science Center.
Then in 2023, Dan Barstow, project director on the original project with Thomas, approached Thomas about pairing the original Windows on Earth soundtrack with the incredible Astronaut photography in the creation of Earth Movies, a project he was developing for Earth Music Theater. This was the start of many collaborations moving forward using the astronaut captured visuals tied in with Thomas’ music.
The two were reconnected as Barstow had been breaking new ground with creative exploration of visually compelling views of Earth from space. His work transforms breathtaking astronaut photography captured aboard the ISS and digitally animates the photos into cinematic journeys across the planet’s deserts, oceans, forests and atmospheric wonders.
In now propelling EMTL forward, Thomas is hoping to bring something positive to the world.
“The factors in the calculus of propelling Earth Music Theater “Live” forward It was right around the [2024] election, and I was thinking what can I do? As an individual, as an artist, as a creative person,” Thomas explained. “There is no time like the present to affect the future.”
That inspirational line of thinking stems from Thomas’ prior work with legendary primatologist and anthropologist Jane Goodall. Through a longstanding creative partnership with New York Times Critics’ Pick composer and producer Ruth Mendelson, who worked with Goodall for many years, Thomas mixed Mendelson’s music on a number of projects such as the National Geographic documentary, The Hope, and Goodall’s “Hopecast.”
In 2016, Thomas had the privilege to record Goodall reading her iconic book, “My Life With the Chimpanzees,” as well as do audio editing, restoration and mix of the immersive unabridged audiobook published by Hatchett in the UK. Thomas said being able to meet someone who strived for a better world made a lasting impact on him, partly explaining this new endeavor with EMTL.
“Dr. Jane traversed the globe on a mission to sow seeds of hope and spur us into action for our planet’s future. In my own way I’m carrying that work forward,” Thomas said. “We end every EMTL show with my favorite Jane Goodall quote: ‘You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
The sentiment runs through what EMTL aspires to be, as Thomas added the goal of the group and this project is to reach people and provoke thinking and understanding around planetary stewardship, and to present performances at minimal or no cost to the audience, ensuring that children, families and individuals can participate without barriers. Astronomy Day at Bombyx and the EMTL performance will be free to children and a sliding scale for adults.
Thomas said he hopes audiences come out, soak it all in and can be reminded by the outstanding beauty of our world.
“Every child should be exposed to the awe and the best thing that we can do in communicating that forward is having them be inspired to do something,” Thomas said. “That’s really cool for me to pull this together and share it with other people and hopefully move them to do some good.”
To learn more about Thomas’ work through EMTL visit stevethomasguitar.com/emtl.
