Beyond the Horizon

On January 19, 2006, NASA launched a scientific instrument named New Horizons on a ten-year journey to study Pluto and the Kuiper Belt—an inconceivably large cloud of proto-planets, asteroids, and comets surrounding the sun at distances of billions of miles.

Staring into the sky is a deep philosophical and spiritual exercise. The universe is curious in that it is full of existential possibilities, yet it seems to be governed by quantifiable natural laws.

When I was six, I lived in Florida. Every school child and teacher had been following the progress of Christa McAuliffe, the first school teacher to become a member of a space shuttle crew. I dreamed of riding in the Challenger Orbiter with her and the astronauts hundreds of miles above the Earth. When the launch happened, my class stood outside to watch. Though I lived in Clearwater, on the other side of the state, we could see the exhaust trail easily in the clear blue sky. At one point the rocket exhaust split into a blossom-like plume. I remember it being quite beautiful. My teacher quickly took us all inside. A short time later, President Reagan let us know that the shuttle exploded, and the crew was lost.

Any venture carries risk. We live for adventure. Yet with our tools, and with our art, we can extend our senses and our imaginations into the unknown without losing those we love. Using live music, dance, and actual images of space collected by NASA and the European Space Agency, Beyond the Horizon is a 50-minute multimedia concert that imagines what it would be like to travel with the New Horizons spacecraft three billion miles to Pluto.

“The Rich Color Variations of Pluto” – NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI (image cropped)

Artist Information

• Label: Strange Woman Records
• Genre: Modern Jazz – Chamber Music
• Location: Washington, DC
• Influences: ECM Records, Pat Metheny, Jim Hall, Beethoven, Indian Classical Music
• Sounds Like: Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, John McLaughlin

Hi-Res Images

For Booking Consideration

Press and Booking Contact: Matt Dievendorf | matt@mattdievendorf.com | 202-904-5733

“Charon in Enhanced Color” –
NASA/JHUAPL/SwRI (image cropped)

Production Credits

All music written by Matthew Dievendorf © 2017, except

“Stairway to the Stars” written by Malneck & Signorelli – lyrics by Parish (Included in live performance and full-length movie adaptations).

Film produced and directed by Matthew Dievendorf. All NASA/JHU-APL/JPL and ESA/ESO image credits are embedded at the end of the film. PLEASE NOTE: Images are used according to guidelines established by NASA and ESA. Matthew Dievendorf makes no claim of copyright whatsoever over NASA/ESA materials used in the film.

Performers:
Matthew Dievendorf — guitars, effects, composition
Amy K Bormet — vocals and piano
Jacob Dormuth — bass
Ana Barreiro — drums
Jessica Hemingway — dance

Soundtrack Engineered by Stephan Wunderlich, Kevin Jarvis (Sonic Boom Room) and Bora Karaca (The Laboratory). Mixed and mastered by Stephan Wunderlich.

Movie trailer produced by Chelsea Wunderlich.