PJ Harvey Releases "Voyager" While Working on New Album

Back in December, PJ Harvey said on social media that she’d been “writing songs for my next album and poems for my next book.” No official word yet on either of those, but she has shared a new single, “Voyager,” which a press release calls “a glimpse into her next artistic chapter.” It was recorded with a full orchestra, and its name comes from the twin probes launched by NASA in 1977, each containing one of Carl Sagan’s Voyager Golden Records . Watch the video below.

“I was excited for the challenge to compose a song in the ‘voice’ of Voyager 2,” Harvey says. “I have long been fascinated by the spacecraft and its journey, and asked myself what it might say to us if it could? This was an inspiring route to take to develop the song.”

She continues:

> The song had already started life as part of the ongoing work towards my new album, so when Professor Brian Cox invited me to write a piece for his new show, I sent him the voice memo of this song to see if it resonated. It immediately made him think of the Voyager craft and the sound of its signal being sent back to Earth. With these ideas as my starting point I let the song develop, and discussed an orchestral accompaniment with Dario Marianelli. I’m very happy with the end result, and it’s wonderful to hear the orchestral score bring such expansiveness to my music. I thoroughly enjoyed researching the history and journey of Voyager 1 & 2, and was glad to be able to quote the great Carl Sagan within the song, and his famous description of our fragile and beautiful ‘pale blue dot’.”

Hopefully we’ll hear more about Harvey’s anticipated new album soon; stay tuned.

_Originally reported by [Brooklyn Vegan](https://www.brooklynvegan.com/pj-harvey-shares-voyager-working-on-new-lp/)._