Seti is an ambient electronic band, which is a collaboration of

Savvas Ysatis Savvas Ysatis (born July 1, 1968) is a Greek electronic musician. Early life Ysatis was born in Athens, Greece, and developed an interest in the synthesizer through exposure to electronic music by artists such as Kraftwerk and Jean Michel Jarre ...

and

Taylor Deupree Taylor Deupree (born April 30, 1971), is an American electronic musician, photographer, graphic designer and mastering engineer. He is most known for the founding of the 12k, 12k record label, along with his work as a member of Prototype 909, and ...

(also credited as Taylor808). The duo formed in 1993 in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. The term S.E.T.I. stands for the

Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of interstellar communication, transmissions fro ...

. This topic is the inspiration for and the central theme of the band's music. Seti's music is

ambient Ambient or Ambiance or Ambience may refer to: Music and sound * Ambience (sound recording), also known as atmospheres or backgrounds * Ambient music, a genre of music that puts an emphasis on tone and atmosphere * ''Ambient'' (album), by Moby * ...

, with few songs containing readily apparent rhythms (those with rhythm tend toward the

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

–ambient- IDM genres). The mood of the music is pervasively mysterious, grandiose and occasionally spooky; the sounds used are expansive, even alien in nature. Some songs could be considered

noise music Noise music is a genre of music that is characterised by the expressive use of noise within a musical context. This type of music tends to challenge the distinction that is made in conventional musical practices between musical and non-musical ...

, as they include white noise and samples from

radio telescopes A radio telescope is a specialized antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the radio frequency po ...

scanning deep space (such as

pulsar A pulsar (from ''pulsating radio source'') is a highly magnetized rotating neutron star that emits beams of electromagnetic radiation out of its magnetic poles. This radiation can be observed only when a beam of emission is pointing toward Ea ...

radiation In physics, radiation is the emission or transmission of energy in the form of waves or particles through space or through a material medium. This includes: * ''electromagnetic radiation'', such as radio waves, microwaves, infrared, visi ...

supernovae A supernova is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. It has the plural form supernovae or supernovas, and is abbreviated SN or SNe. This transient astronomical event occurs during the last evolutionary stages of a massive star or when a ...

, and other astronomical phenomena). Many other sounds give the impressions of quiet computers, signals travelling immense distances, garbled radio transmissions, and electrical energies. The net effect of the music is that the listener feels transported to the deep recesses of space, or feels s/he is listening to sounds, transmissions, or events in deep space. Also heard on the album ''Pharos'' is a speech given by

Frank Drake Frank Donald Drake (May 28, 1930 – September 2, 2022) was an American astrophysicist and astrobiologist. He began his career as a radio astronomer, studying the planets of the Solar System and later pulsars. Drake expanded his interests t ...

, one-time president of the

SETI Institute The SETI Institute is a not-for-profit research organization incorporated in 1984 whose mission is to explore, understand, and explain the origin and nature of life in the universe, and to use this knowledge to inspire and guide present and futu ...

and creator of the

Drake Equation The Drake equation is a probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy. The equation was formulated in 1961 by Frank Drake, not for purposes of quantifying t ...

, who describes the S.E.T.I. project. The

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

of the SETI's albums often feature reprints of material from the various

SETI The search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) is a collective term for scientific searches for intelligent extraterrestrial life, for example, monitoring electromagnetic radiation for signs of transmissions from civilizations on other p ...

projects around the world or short essays by prominent SETI personnel.

Discography

* ''S.E.T.I'' (1994, Instinct) * ''

Pharos The Lighthouse of Alexandria, sometimes called the Pharos of Alexandria (; Ancient Greek: ὁ Φάρος τῆς Ἀλεξανδρείας, contemporary Koine ), was a lighthouse built by the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, during the re ...

'' (1995, Instinct) * ''Song of the Beacon'' (1995, Instinct) * ''

Ciphers In cryptography, a cipher (or cypher) is an algorithm for performing encryption or decryption—a series of well-defined steps that can be followed as a procedure. An alternative, less common term is ''encipherment''. To encipher or encode i ...

'' (1996, Instinct)

References

American ambient music groups Musical groups established in 1993 Musical groups disestablished in 1996 Instinct Records artists {{US-electronic-band-stub