Aurora Awakens

A marvelous and engaging Aurora, shimmering into view, by Jessica Meir, Exp 75 Commander. Bach Choral music by Solomon's Knot.

It opens in sleep. City lights scattered in the upper corner, the planet almost black, and over that darkness the title states its intention plainly: wecke uns auf — awaken us. Music by Johann Christoph Bach.

Solomon's Knot, award-winning choral group, gives a thrilling performance, emotionally guiding us through the aurora experience.

As we emerge in orbit, the horizon holds barely a hint of green, a rumor. Then a single thin arc has drawn itself along the limb — one quiet voice entering, exactly how the motet begins. Through the second and third minutes the arc doubles, brightens, throws vertical rays; green light starts spilling onto the cloud deck itself, as the Earth reflects the aurora.

At the peak, the curtain becomes a river crossing the whole frame, red fringe burning beneath it, streamers climbing toward the camera. There's a grand pause in the music — a few seconds of near-silence like a held breath — as the imagery gathers itself between eruptions.

And then the ending. The music's largest sustained swell is the final amen — the soaring, fullest passage of the entire piece, and Earth answers it with sunrise. The aurora dissolves into veils, and the limb ignites white-blue as dawn breaks over the clouds.

The prayer asks to be wakened; the film ends with the waking itself. Night, one voice of light, a chorus of light, then day. Exegesis. A 340-year-old text got its illustration from a camera in a Cupola window, and the structure holds at every scale, from image to theology.

Jessica Meir's discerning eye makes it possible — the timing perfect across 22 min of source — the sunrise allowed to be the only crescendo the picture needs.

Aurora Awakens.