“I don’t mean to deny a feeling of solitude. It is there, reinforced by the fact that radio contact with the earth abruptly cuts off at the instant I disappear behind the moon. I am alone now, truly alone, and absolutely isolated from any known life. I am it […] I feel this powerfully - not as fear or loneliness - but as awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation. I like the feeling.”
- Michael Collins in Carrying the Fire - an astronaut’s journey (1974)

The piece explores the experience of astronaut Michael Collins, the “forgotten” third man of the Apollo 11 mission. He spend almost 24 hours alone in orbit around the moon while Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin completed the historic moon landing.
All audio in the tape part is from the original recordings from the apollo 11 mission and edited by the composer.

Premiered by AKSE (Eivind Holmboe Leifsen and Maren Sofie Nyland Johansen) in 2022.

Instrumentation: a.sax, acc & 3-channel tape

Duration: 10’