This was really fun! I enjoyed the various rabbit holes of “what even is music or noise?” and the considerations for the truly alien perspective. It’s so fun to try and break down our base human assumptions for what alien life could be. I know it’s not really academic but some of this reminded me of Project Hail Mary (but I won’t go into why for spoiler reasons).
Here is my instrument, I hope to never hear it played lol
Zyrulavo
Listening to the slightly loud, bassy, very abrasive but airy texture often makes the listener feel quite homesick for a time.
To many humans it resembles a porcelain digeridoo and it sounds like a beaver being infected by a vampiric squid.
Fun fact: The Qylo-ians play this instrument to help with thermoregulation (specifically keeping warm during the planet’s century-long “deep eclipses”. There was a period of time when all performances of this instrument were heavily censored and while we thankfully don’t live in those difficult times anymore, many still perform the Zyrulavo in a much mellower fashion nowadays.