In Contact (1997), scientist Ellie Arroway goes through a wormhole. At a loss for words to describe the wonders that she sees, she utters the line “They should have sent a poet”. In Purusha, instead of sending a poet, the Earth sends 4 astronaut musicians to meet up with a strange source of musical sound. The journey will take 36 years in cryosleep. While they are asleep, they are to be tended to by the AI controlling the ship, called PAO. As an audio drama, Purusha has a compelling script. Each of the four characters is clearly distinguished: responsible leader Muller, perennial pessimist Colebrook, brusque rationalist Ambedkar, and at-odds-with-herself Ymir. They hypothesize and argue with each other, discussing the frequency they are approaching (could it be God?) and whether PAO has the capability for sentience or is just very good at copying others. They discuss decisions to chase a dream vs responsibilities to one’s family. They listen to the sounds of space together. When the twists and turns come, they got me multiple times. All I’ll say is that the script pulls off recontextualizing earlier information well, weaponizing audio drama's ability to incept worlds through your ears. It’s also very satisfying to realize that every surprise had been seeded early on, like watching a line of dominoes fall. Purusha is a soundtrack for grand ideas: the loneliness of isolation, the separation from loved ones, the creative synthesis from jamming together, the wonder and fear of finding the unknown. Where words are inadequate, music is there. It's a space opera in every sense of the words.