PJ Harvey returns with "Voyager", her first new music in three years

"Voyager" is part of the ongoing work towards Harvey's yet-to-be-announced upcoming album, and her first release since 2023's I Inside the Old Year Dying. Named after the NASA probes launched in 1977, which contain Carl Sagan's Voyager Gold Record, the song was recorded with a full orchestra at Miraval Studios in Provence, adding an expansive sound to Harvey's contemplation on the fragility of existing within a vast universe.

“I was excited for the challenge to compose a song in the ‘voice' of Voyager 2," Harvey explains. "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."

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," she continues. "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’.”