I’m sitting on a white wooden pew inside the handsome, buttercup-yellow Oulu Cathedral, listening to a series of gentle whooshing noises echoing around its domed interior which have come, somewhat improbably, from space. They form an immersive sound installation called The Logos, by British-German artist and producer Andrew Melchior, who was inspired by the cathedral’s acoustics after attending a service here.
Melchior has, effectively, harnessed what scientists term Fast Radio Bursts: brief flashes of radio waves which have travelled through the universe for millions of years before reaching earth. To my untutored ear they sound adorably like the Clangers, the pink space mice from 1970s children’s television, who communicated in similar whistling tones. And on a quiet weekday in March, it’s lovely to just let it all flow meditatively over me; a suitable introduction to a wonderful city, currently enjoying a moment in the spotlight as a European Capital of Culture.
