Professor Brian Cox has collaborated with PJ Harvey on a new composition for Emergence, the celebrated physicist and stargazer’s anticipated new live show. The new music from Cox and the twice Mercury Prize-winning artist was recorded at Damien Quintard’s esteemed Miraval Studios in Provence, with a full orchestra, earlier in 2026.
They collaborated on ‘Voyager’, which takes its name from the NASA probes launched in 1977. The probe contained the Voyager Golden Record, which is still playing in space, and Harvey’s work consequently contemplates our own small and increasingly fragile place in the universe.
“I was excited for the challenge to compose a song in the ‘voice’ of Voyager 2. I have long been fascinated by the spacecraft and its journey, and asked myself what it might say to us if it could? This was an inspiring route to take to develop the song,” Harvey told Rolling Stone UK.
“The song had already started life as part of the ongoing work towards my new album, so when Professor Brian Cox invited me to write a piece for his new show, I sent him the voice memo of this song to see if it resonated. It immediately made him think of the Voyager craft and the sound of its signal being sent back to Earth. With these ideas as my starting point I let the song develop, and discussed an orchestral accompaniment with Dario Marianelli.”
She added: “I’m very happy with the end result, and it’s wonderful to hear the orchestral score bring such expansiveness to my music. I thoroughly enjoyed researching the history and journey of Voyager 1 & 2, and was glad to be able to quote the great Carl Sagan within the song, and his famous description of our fragile and beautiful ‘pale blue dot’.”
A behind-the-scenes video also sees Brian and Academy Award-winning composer Dario Marianelli discussing the making of other music in the show, including the piece ‘Kepler’s Snowflake’. That composition was inspired by the German polymath who famously noticed a snowflake land on his arm in the winter of 1610, using it to contemplate the complex design of the universe.
“I’ve loved creating Emergence – it’s the most ambitious live show I’ve ever written,” Cox noted. “I’ve been very lucky to collaborate with a wonderful group of scientists, musicians, filmmakers and graphic artists to bring cosmology, biology, philosophy and history to the largest and most advanced LED screens available.”
When asked about the role of music in his scientific exploration, Cox explained: “Music is one of the ways we’ve developed to explore the emotional landscape of reality rather than the physical landscape. It is complementary to the science, providing a different and necessary perspective on our place in the Universe.”
Reflecting on the future, Cox remains optimistic. “As I say in the show, modern science is really only four centuries old. The challenge we face as scientists is to explain to people just how fortunate we are to be here, how rare and precious we may be, and what a wonderful future we have if we embrace the values of the enlightenment.”
Professor Brian Cox’s Emergence Tour kicks off in Edinburgh next month.