PJ Harvey returns with ‘Voyager’, with a new project in the works

‘Voyager’ is the new single from PJ Harvey, and its birth is a fascinating one. PJ Harvey was working on her new album when Professor Brian Cox invited her to write a piece for his new show. PJ sent him a snippet of what would become ‘Voyager’, and it made him think of the Voyager craft and the sound of its signal being sent back to Earth. Inspired by that, Harvey wondered what would the spacecraft say back to us if it had the chance?

The track itself is a haunting one. It starts as a floating synth pulse from her Prophet-5and Polly’s disembodied vocals gently calling to us. It’s pensive, searching, and almost yearning to make sense of the great cosmos around us. There are moments of tape warp and sound damage as the lyrics struggle to make it home. The lyrics, sung from Voyager’s perspective, quote Carl Sagan, who called us a “pale-blue dot”. I can see that being a potential title for the forthcoming album, to be honest! We are small, but we should choose light and love to survive, is the overarching message. The synths are joined by Cox himself on a Juno synth bass, and also the Miraval Orchestra. PJ Harvey has not recorded with a full orchestra before, and rarely with strings, so it’s cinematic, foreboding outro is a treat to let ripple out across the speakers. Despite its cinematic closing swell, the track is still restrained, as if even the most important messages echo in a void across the galaxy.

Whilst this single has been used for Professor Brian Cox’s ‘Emergence’ world tour, Harvey has made it clear this is part of a forthcoming album. Ever shapeshifting, this album appears to be embracing space, synths, and strings, and marks an entirely new sound and hopefully era for the singer-songwriter. She’s not touched synths or orchestras yet, so they feel like the two big areas a rock star could cover without complete reinvention. This sound is gorgeous, and has a bite that was absent in the beautifully ethereal folk-sodden album, ‘I Inside The Old Year Dying’.

The music video is a collection of archival images and video from NASA, JPL-Caltech, RetroHD, and the National Space Centre. It’s a wonderful watch. Considering this has been released in a record-breaking heatwave in Europe, our pale-blue dot needs the love of humanity, too.

For more information about what’s coming next, visit PJ Harvey’s website.

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