When the Voyager 1 spacecraft launched 40 years ago to gather information about the solar system, it was an innovation unlike any other seen at the time. The spacecraft was filled with music and images meant to inform potential extraterrestrial life about life on Earth were placed on golden records. Local band Blato Zlato is seeking to pay tribute to the historic event with a multimedia performance at New Orleans’ Airlift Music Box Village and will need your help to do it.
The Balkan band recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to help raise the funds necessary to pull off “The Discovery of Voyager” event. With a goal of $6,000, the band plans on using the donations to help cover the costs of the multitude of performers, who include cellist/vocalist Helen Gillet and violinist Rebecca Crenshaw, in addition to the costumes, lighting, and equipment rentals that will be utilized in the multimedia, multidisciplinary event. In exchange for their contributions, some gifts that will be available for donors include posters from the show, limited-edition vinyl copies of Blato Zlato’s albums Voyage, their Swamp Gold CD, VIP tickets to “The Discovery of Voyager,” and a personal in-home performance by the band.
The show will imagine the alien life form that potentially discovered the items aboard the Voyager 1. Lou Carrig, the band’s accordionist and vocalist, said that Music Box Village provides the perfect venue to carry out such an ambitious, out-of-this-word show. “New Orleans Airlift’s Music Box Village is the perfect venue for us, alongside an array of world musicians, to experiment with sound and create new music together in an environment that’s unique and otherworldly,” she said in a statement. “We are so excited to work with New Orleans airlift this fall to create a show where the audience will experience what it might be like to discover the sounds of another planet on a Golden Record.”
The Village, which opened in 2016, features various musical houses that double as both art and playable instruments. “The Discovery of Voyager” December 1 and 2 at New Orleans’ Airlift Music Box (4557 North Rampart Street). As of press time, the show’s Kickstarter campaign is already more than halfway to its target goal.
