In the summer of 1972, parapsychologists Walter and Mary Jo Uphoff visited Paul Affolter, a Swiss man who had recorded music under some odd circumstances. Affloter was interested in psychics and the paranormal, and during a séance with a young medium, Thomas Edison’s spirit was reportedly channeled. In broken German, Edison had instructed Affolter to modify his TV set a certain way. Affolter found that these modifications would allow him to hear strange music for several minutes.
“If the music came at 8 o’clock one day, for instance, it would come at about 7:50 the next day, 7:40 the next day, and so on. We […] observed that the fidelity was best when the moon was full or nearing full moon, and that the reception was poor when the moon was in its low phase. There were times when he would get music as little as 12 minutes and as much as 26 minutes. But on the average, he figures he got the music about 18 minutes per day[…]”
Walter Uphoff, “Celestial Music,” 1981
On this cassette tape, Walter and Mary Jo Upoff present some excepts of the music Affolter recorded along with their own thoughts on the context surrounding the music. Walter Uphoff asserts at the beginning of cassette 2, “We are sure that it is different from any other music you are likely to have heard before.”
Click on the image of the cassettes for a closer look