This project is an act of listening from a great height. It takes the slow, majestic transit of clouds over Costa Rica, captured by the GOES-16 satellite, and transforms it into generative musical architectures. It is not a literal translation, but a second conversation: where the wind that moves the clouds becomes the pulse that activates musical wind chimes, creating polyrhythms that reflect the density and geography of the cloud formations.

Originally presented at the Central American Space Congress 2024 (Guatemala City), this work sits at the intersection of scientific data sonification and algorithmic composition.

How it Works: A Sonic Observatory

def cloud_harmonic(*clouds):
	The algorithm divides each satellite image into a grid, like a celestial score.

	Each quadrant is assigned a simple rhythmic-melodic pattern (a repeated note, a minimal cell).

	If the cloud density in that quadrant exceeds a threshold, its corresponding "wind chime" is activated.

	The note's intensity fluctuates in a wave, swelling and fading like the very mass of a cloud.

	return polyrhythm_score
	

The simultaneous overlay of dozens of these activated pulses generates complex, emergent polyrhythms, impossible to compose traditionally.

The Engine Behind the Poetry (Optional Deep Dive)

The system is grounded in a flexible mathematical model. The entire musical score is treated as a matrix P P, generated by concatenating blocks derived from each satellite image: \(P = \bigsqcup_{p=1}^{H} t_p \cdot (M \odot S_p)\) Here, M M is a matrix of musical coefficients (defining notes, octaves, rhythms), and S p S p ​ is a binary activation matrix determined by the cloud cover in each image quadrant p p. The Hadamard product ( ⊙ ⊙) and the concatenation operator ( ⨆ ⨆) elegantly encapsulate the process of triggering and arranging sonic events based on visual data. This formulation makes the algorithm agnostic to musical system, allowing it to adapt to different tuning scales or traditions.

Sonic Result: The Sky in Ambient and Techno Keys

The main composition, “This silence Made me feel empty”, belongs to the ambient genre. A cello and a synthetic pad establish a melancholic, static harmonic bed, upon which the piano—guided by the algorithm—draws a chaotic, ephemeral, and ever-changing melody, just like the clouds that originated it. The piece exists to be part of the environment, to be heard peripherally, like gazing at the sky.

To demonstrate the system’s versatility as a compositional tool, a second piece was created: “I have Made it through this heavy storm”. Here, the same flow of cloud data transforms into electric arpeggios and acid synthesizers, becoming the rhythmic and melodic engine of a techno track. The data storm becomes a sonic storm.

Conceptual Core: Legacy and Listening

This project does not seek only to produce music, but to create a sonic legacy of invisible phenomena. It treats the clouds as co-authors, acknowledging their dynamic and chaotic beauty. It is a practice situated on the frontier where a precise mathematical model dissolves to give way to the emotion, ambiguity, and quiet intensity of a musical piece.

The ultimate goal is simple and profound: that by listening to the polyrhythmic harmony generated by a cloudy day over a mountain range, someone might feel curious to look up and wonder about the science and poetry hidden in the seemingly ordinary.

Listen to the result:

🎹 This silence Made me feel empty (Ambient): [https://borterionmusic.bandcamp.com/album/this-silence-made-me-feel-empty]

⚡ I have Made it through this heavy storm (Techno): [https://borterionmusic.bandcamp.com/album/i-have-made-it-through-this-heavy-storm]