Revision as of 12:57, 5 July 2026

"Turquoise Hexagon Sun" was first publicly released as the second track on Hi Scores in 1996. It also appears as the seventh track on Music Has the Right to Children and the eighteenth on Boc Maxima. It is one of Boards of Canada's most well-known songs.

Comments

• [Evan Snyder] gave me this interesting link on the subject on lens flares. The number of blades making up the aperture of the lens influences the shape of the lens flare produced, so that a six-bladed aperture, for example, would produce a hexagonal sun flare effect. Evan suggests the possibility that the name was inspired by a documentary, or even one of Hexagon Sun's own films, with special meaning to BoC, featuring a prominent turquoise hexagonal sun flare. An intriguing possibility, and a very interesting link. (You can also find photos fitting this description at Warp Records - go to Artists, BoC, and look at the Gallery photos).
• Not specifically in relation to this track, but in a wider sense (Hexagon Sun, the kaleidoscopic images on Geogaddi, etc), here are comments from the NME Interview:

"What's the significance of hexagons to you?"
"Marcus: "The hexagon theme represents that whole idea of being able to see reality for what it is, the raw maths or patterns that make everything. We've always been interested in science and maths. Sometimes music or art or drugs can pull back the curtain for you and reveal the Wizard of Oz, so to speak, busy pushing the levers and pressing buttons. That's what maths is, the wizard. It sounds like nonsense but I'm sure a lot of people know what I'm talking about."

• Saturn. Saturday. Saturn-day. Sun. Some speculate that Saturn used to be our sun. Or that it’s some sort of supercomputer projecting our reality via its rings, maybe with the signal bounced off the moon? Saturn = Satan? There is a turquoise hexagon at one of the poles of Saturn. Maybe this is what they are referencing? https://www.businessinsider.com/saturn-hexagon-storm-images-2017-5

Samples / Lyrics

• Shares a drum sample almost completely with "Orange Hexagon Sun".
• Various bits of speech, repeated elsewhere in the track. It's hard to make out much, but here's [DC]'s guess at some of it:

"there's been a [release/leak]"? [female voice near start] - 0:36, 1:58
"Oh, ... I know" [Scottish girl] - 1:14, 2:35
"Just slightly" [different Scottish girl] - 4:29
"... just [come in at the] end, right?" [English man] - 4:19
"fan - tastic" [same man?] - at about 4:38.

• The girl speaking at about 1:22 and 2:44 sounds (to me) like the same one who speaks all the way through all 3 live recordings of BoC at ATP, Lighthouse, and Warp - which adds to suspicions that these are recordings of people talking at the the Hexagon Sun studio, as the title of the track would suggest.

Trivia

• The synth melody that appears at 3 min & 14 sec into this track is similar to the synth melody that appears at 2 min & 49 sec into the track "Sunshine Recorder" from Geogaddi.
• "Hexagon Sun" refers to the studio of Boards of Canada in East Scotland, but also to the collective of musicians and friends of Michael and Marcus.
• This song has been speculated to contain samples from inside the Hexagon Sun studios. These samples have also been said to match up to voices in the recordings of some live shows backing up the claim that they are from the inside.
• "Turquoise Hexagon Sun" might be a reference to the Hexagon Sun "collective" of musicians and artists who work at BoC's Hexagon Sun Studio in the east of Scotland.
• In 1998, Michael revealed that the melody in this track comes from a tape created several years prior. From Les Alchimistes:

...the melody of Turquoise Hexagon Sun, for example, comes from an old tape recording made several years ago.

Videos

See Also

• Music Has the Right to Children
• Boc Maxima
• Geogaddi
• "Orange Hexagon Sun"
• "Sunshine Recorder"
• The Secret Life of Boards of Canada
• Les Alchimistes

See Also

• "Orange Hexagon Sun"
• "Sunshine Recorder"
• Geogaddi
• Mike
• Marcus
• Hexagon Sun

External links

References