Ozma Records: Voyager Golden Record Vinyl 3LP Boxset Ozma Records

This is Planet Earth. When NASA launched the Voyager 1 and 2 space probes in 1977, they attached a beautiful golden phonograph record to each spacecraft. This wasn’t just any regular record, this was the Voyager Golden Record – an one-of-a-kind artifact that tells the story of planet Earth to any extraterrestrial beings who may encounter it. This beautiful disc not only contains a comprehensive collection of sounds from our planet (from nature, to spoken greetings in hundreds of languages, and some of the greatest music from all eras), but also images, and science. It was the brainchild of brilliant science educator/astronomer Carl Sagan, along with astronomer Frank Drake – father of the scientific Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), creative director Ann Druyan, science journalist/author and record producer Timothy Ferris, space artist/designer Jon Lomberg, and artist Linda Salzman Sagan. This is the first time the golden record has been widely available on vinyl. From Ozma: “As we embarked on our own Kickstarter project to make the golden record available on vinyl for the first time, in celebration of Voyager’s 40th anniversary, we realized that we saw the original artifact through three different lenses. As an exquisitely curated music compilation, the Voyager record is an inviting port of entry to unfamiliar yet entrancing sounds from other cultures and other times. As an objet d’art and design, it represents deep insights about communication, context, and the power of media. In the realm of science, it raises fundamental questions about who we are and our place in the universe. At the intersection of those three perspectives, the Voyager record is a testament to the potential of science and art to ignite humanity’s sense of curiosity and wonder.” This 2018 boxset includes all the Voyager Golden Record audio content remastered from the original analog tapes and spread across three gold colored LP’s, each with their own pic sleeves. Also included is a 96 page book featuring all encoded images scanned from the master slides, a new essay from producer Timothy Ferris, a gold 12″x12″ print, slipmat, and high quality digital download. Recommended.

• triple 140 gram pressing on gold colored vinyl
• contains all Voyager Golden Record audio content remastered from the original analog tapes
• 3x heavyweight jackets w/ gold ink on black print
• 96-page softcover book featuring all images encoded on the Golden Record, scanned from the master slides
• essay by Timothy Ferris, producer of the original golden record
• gold foil print on 12″ x 12″ archival paper
• Voyager trajectories felt slipmat
• deluxe record box w/ pull ribbon
• digital download card included
• music label: Ozma Records 2018

reviewed by Major Tom 05/2018