SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 5 (final)

December 9, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 5 (final)

To start at the beginning of our Mobile Radio BSP documentation click here.

Following an invitation from Mobile Radio BSP programme maker Tiago de Mello we played our second concert in São Paulo, this time on the grounds of the Brazilian Museum of Sculpture, MuBE.

Tonic Train

Our last three weeks of programming flew by and many people grasped a final chance to get behind the microphone. Especially those who worked for the Bienal who embraced the possibility to drop by and make radio:
– educator Catharine Rodrigues and her homemade instruments (listen)
– educator Azeite and his band TESTMOLDE (listen)
– the Bienal communication team Felipe Taboada, Felipe Kaizer and Julia Frate
– the Bienal singers
Furthermore we had visits from:
– teachers and students from the Experimental Design class at the Arts University of Linz
– musician and lecturer Eduardo Nespoli
– our housemate the photographer André Cepeda who took to radio like a duck to water (listen)
– Brazilian free radio broadcasters from Radio Livre Capivara, Radio Muda, Radio Xiado and Radio Varzea
– Radio Cultura FM producer and our cultural city guide Julio de Paula, who offered us the gift of a parting-of-the-ways radio show











Our last guest for the radio residencies was Marold Langer-Philippsen from Germany. His interest in durational radio led to him perform an overnight broadcast from the Bienal pavilion under the watchful and quizzical eye of security, he carried out in total 33 hours (listen) of transmission during his week-long visit.
Together with Marold, Leandro Nerefuh and André Damião we joined the event Chain Reaction that was organized by Reni Hofmüller and Max Höfler for Radio Helsinki in Graz, Austria. Their stream which collected sounds from many other radio locations around the world became our source of inspiration for a collective improvisation which we streamed back to them.


Marold Langer-Philippsen




André Damião


Together with all the producers of regular shows we had to face the fact that the 14 weeks of making radio was coming to a close, therefore the last week was a long series of often emotional goodbyes. Without their dedication and input Mobile Radio BSP would not have been so full of life:
– Historias sonoras: one last story told by our volunteer-turned-friend Pedro Garbellini
– Supertônica – Risco no Disco: Julio de Paula plays Gilberto Gil and Schoenberg to contemporary Brazilian musicians (listen) during our regular collaboration with national broadcaster Radio Cultura
– A Hora do Educativo: looking forward to the end of the relentless stream of school classes, about a hundred groups every day who each needed an interactive tour from a dedicated and enthusiasctic guide around the giant exhibition
– TELA DE LETRAS: characters from the surrounding Ibirapuera park invited for interview by Rita Alves
– Oidaradio Sessions curated by Nick Graham-Smith: with Guilherme Granado (listen), The Eternals (listen) and One Man Bands
– Pipa Musical: XTO and Rogerio Krepski’s radio art mayhem celebrated with their final guests (listen)
– Paisagens & Poéticas: São Paulo field recordings mixed with poetry by Renata Roman (listen)


Pedro Garbellini

Julio de Paula


Guilherme Granado
The Eternals

Nick Graham-Smith


Renata Roman

Photos 6-8: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

The final job we wanted to do was to pass on our know-how about how to run a radio station, so we gave a workshop to some interested individuals. We also took a final photo of the posters and flyers we had collected over the course of the project from some of the 40+ radio stations we collaborated with, gave out the last postcards and stickers, and packed up our radiophonic musical boxes. Before checking the tuning of the radio outside our studio for the last time, we cast a final glance over the original project credits printed on the studio wall, to judge how we had measured up to our remit. It was satisfying to realise how far we had stretched ourselves, and that we had achieved more collaborations than expected.









On the last day of the exhibition we joined Alexandre Marino Fernandez, Bruno Hissatugu and Rafael De Marchi Gherini Molla from the Alreves music label for a live performance to celebrate the final hours of Mobile Radio BSP. Our curator Tobi Maier, radio partner Leandro Nerefuh and some of our new friends came along. Unfortunately the performance was cut short by a complete black out that was triggered by the official switch-on of the lights on the giant São Paulo christmas tree nearby. All visitors to the Bienal were evacuated from the building. We remained, to see if we could get back on air as the project still had a short while left to run.








Sarah Washington, Knut Aufermann, Tobi Maier, Leandro Nerefuh

When the lights eventually came back on we were the last people left in the building, but we could finish our 98 days of solid broadcasting with a planned live relay of our radio piece City Of Drizzle from Kunstradio on Austria’s state broadcaster Ö1. The piece was commissioned by ORF Kunstradio and produced by us during the 30th Bienal of São Paulo using recordings from Mobile Radio BSP mixed together with the incredible voice of Carolina Melo, assistant curator for education of the Bienal.

Our last few days in the country were spent on an island with empty lagoons, tropical fish and no cars. It was a much-welcomed reward for completeing Mobile Radio BSP.





CAMPINAS November 2012

November 29, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on CAMPINAS November 2012


Mobile Radio BSP contributor Tiago de Mello invited us to play a concert as part of the NMElindo concert series in Campinas, about an hour and a half north-west of São Paulo. We were last in the line-up and enjoyed the gusts of wind that were blowing through the outdoor amphitheater. It was a magical environment in which to play – in the open park of the university campus surrounded by a circle of mature trees. We also used the chance to visit one of our contributing radio partners Radio Muda on the campus, in their surprising studio housed in the bottom of a concrete tower.


Radio Muda


Photo 3 and video by Carol Neumann, Marina Tavares and Lukas Corazzini, support by CAIA, Visarte, AAAIA.

RIO DE JANEIRO November 2012

November 22, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on RIO DE JANEIRO November 2012

After 11 weeks of continuous broadcasting at the 30th Bienal de São Paulo we managed to sneak off to Rio de Janeiro for a couple of days. At the wonderful artist-run Capacete hotel we recorded an interview with Vivian Caccuri & Arto Lindsay to take back to the radio, as well as a toucan squawking outside our window. (Yes, a bleedin’ toucan!)





Sarah performs analogue photoshop during our sightseeing tour…

And we find the most amazing trees coming into bloom…








The cannonball tree!

SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 4

November 18, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 4

To start at the beginning of our Mobile Radio BSP documentation click here.

Radio artist Anna Friz took a trip from the US down south to spend a week in residency with us at the Mobile Radio BSP studio. She brought along her own brand of undercover exhibition assessment (listen) and time-keeping method (listen), and her show with Sarah provoked some actionist intervention.


Anna Friz





The Octopus Collective’s Glenn Boulter & John Hall from Barrow-in-Furness managed to bring their elaborate take on Cumbrian news aggregation to our radio (listen / listen). Everybody in the studio had to take part in reading the news, and children were forced to sing songs about horses. What the Barrowites took home was an addiction to Estadão pork sandwiches.


Octopus Collective

John Hall, Glenn Boulter











Photos 1, 4 & 15: Glenn Boulter

Our next residency guest had by far the longest journey – half way around the globe – to join us for a week: Haco from Japan. She used field recordings that she gathered around São Paulo to construct a song (listen) explaining her method of working live on air as the piece developed.
We also used the chance to perform a trio with her under the already existing moniker Mobile Radio Band.


Haco
Haco



Haco
Sarah Washington
Knut Aufermann

Photo 2: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

The string of daily visitors from near and far continued throughout the 14-week life span of Mobile Radio BSP. Pictured below are Theresia Louise & Carlos Ulmo, Akin Deckard (listen), OuUnPo (Claudia Squitieri, André Cepeda, Samon Takahashi) & Claudia Cardinale, Daniel Scandurra & Gregorio Gananian, Ciudad Abierta, Voodoohop, Marion Velasco, Lenora De Barros & Artur Lescher and Radia’s Ricardo Reis who was luckily in town on other business.


Theresia Louise, Carlos Ulmo
Akin Deckard
Claudia Squitieri, André Cepeda, Samon Takahashi


Daniel Scandurra
Ciudad Abierta
Voodoohop
Marion Velasco
Lenora De Barros, Artur Lescher

Ricardo Reis

Of course our regular shows continued as well, including:
– Massa Critica: academic discussions hosted by Leandro Nerefuh, here a. o. with Daniela Maura Ribeiro and with Samuel de Jesus, Joaci Pereira Furtado & Julio de Paula
– Bienal Life: works of other Bienal artists, here presented by our curator Tobi Maier
– Pipa Musical: XTO and Rogerio Krepski’s radio art mayhem this time with Laura Wrona (listen) and flooding the studio with black fortune cookie balloons (listen)
– CACOFONIA: with Bruno Mendonça
– TELA DE LETRAS: stories from in and around the surrounding Ibirapuera park presented by Rita Alves
– Oidaradio Sessions: with Koch/Rohrer/Gianfratti (listen), Auto (listen) and Coletivo Abaetetuba (listen)
– Supertônica – Risco no Disco: presenter Arrigo Barnabé in discussion with composer Denise Garcia (listen)
– A Hora da Espinha / A Hora do Educativo: school kids from around the state touch down at the radio


Daniela Maura Ribeiro
Samuel de Jesus, Joaci Pereira Furtado, Julio de Paula, Leandro Nerefuh

Tobi Maier
Laura Wrona

XTO, Rogerio Krepski
Bruno Mendonça
Rita Alves
Koch/Rohrer/Gianfratti
Auto
Coletivo Abaetetuba
Denise Garcia,
Arrigo Barnabé

Photo 11: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

To go to the final part of our Mobile Radio BSP documentation click here.

SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 3

October 28, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 3

To start at the beginning of our Mobile Radio BSP documentation click here.

On the 2nd of October 2012 Mobile Radio BSP transmitted an all day broadcast called 24 horas 111 in commemoration of the Carandiru prison massacre that happened 20 years ago to the day. Proposed by Brazilian artist Nuno Ramos and coordinated by Ester Fér it consisted of a 24-hour recitation of the 111 names of the victims of the police shooting at Carandiru. 24 speakers read out the list of names for one hour each. The night hours were prerecorded, and during the daytime the reading was done live at the Mobile Radio BSP studio by a host of Brazilian luminaries.


24 horas 111







Nuno Ramos
Ester Fér, Nuno Ramos

The string of international guests who came to join us for a one-week mini residency continued with Børre Mølstad from Norway. He and his tuba were particularly interested in the architecture of the Bienal pavillion that was designed by Oscar Niemeyer (listen).


Børre Mølstad







We also used the chance to play a trio with him.



Børre Mølstad
Knut Aufermann
Sarah Washington

Photos: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

Further mini-residency guests were Mikkel Meyer from Denmark who brought with him a large archive of early digital Danish radio experiments and Billy Roisz and dieb13 from Austria who recorded both the acoustic and electromagnetic environment in São Paulo for their live radio performances (listen).
Some of the occasional visitors to our studio are pictured below: Lady Incentivo (listen), Leo &amp, Seyran Freitas, Morbo y Mambo, idos ö idos, Brandon LaBelle (listen), Guy Brett, Mariana Lanari and Luca Forcucci &amp, and Ricardo Garcia (listen).


Mikkel Meyer
Billy Roisz, dieb13
Lady Incentivo
Leo Freitas
Morbo y Mambo
idos ö idos
Brandon LaBelle
Guy Brett
Mariana Lanari
Luca Forcucci, Ricardo Garcia

New and established regular shows also brought a lot of life to our studio and its surrounds. The slide show below features:
– A Hora da Espinha / A Hora do Educativo: kids and educators give their views of the exhibition and the world
– Oidaradio Sessions: with Vermes do Limbo (listen), Mauricio Takara (listen), Cão (listen) and O.F.A.C. (listen)
– Historias sonoras: storytelling by Pedro Garbellini (listen)
– Massa Critica: academic discussions hosted by Leandro Nerefuh
– NMElindo: new electroacoustic music from São Paulo presented by Tiago de Mello
– Radio Radio: Henrique Iwao with guests Marcelo Muniz (listen) and Matheus Leston (listen)
– Da Vitrola da Vovó: live music and field recordings by Bienal educator and radio professional Uirá Vital
– Pipa Musical: XTO and Rogerio Krepski’s radio art mayhem celebrated with a new guest each week (listen / listen)
– CACOFONIA: Bruno Mendonça on the musical experiments of artists who crossover into the art world
– Lapse Radio: electronic soundscapes and youtube voices mixed by Natalia Coutinho
– Alreves: Experimental electronic music from a rotating pool of members of the Alreves label (listen / listen)
– Sonoro Postal: archival gems from Centro Cultural São Paulo presented by Biancamaria Binazzi
– Sarau Chama Sarau: the voice of the favelas through discussion and music (followed by mass open mic sessions on the Bienal terrace)
– Supertônica – Risco no Disco: a collaboration with the state radio channel Radio Cultura, presented by Arrigo Barnabé and produced by Julio de Paula





Vermes do Limbo
Mauricio Takara
Cão
Cão
Cão
O.F.A.C.
Pedro Garbellini
Leandro Nerefuh
Tiago de Mello
 Henrique Iwao, Marcelo Muniz



Lika Marques


Bruno Mendonca
Bruno Mendonca
Menagerie
Alexandre Marino Fernandez


Supertônica

Photos 4-8: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

We used our chance to be active outside the Bienal and played a concert in one of São Paulo’s coolest venues Trackers, only 5 minutes walk away from our home at the Residência Artística FAAP.


Trackers, Tonic Train


Lokaalraadio from Estonia (Katrin Essenson, Hello Upan and Raul Keller) occupied the last mini-residency in October with stories about their Baltic homeland (listen) and a live performance (listen).


Lokaalraadio
Katrin Essenson, Hello Upan

Raul Keller


The last Sunday of October was a quiet day. There was time for Knut to set up undetected for an impromptu solo performance, just for the radio listeners.

SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 2

September 30, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 2

To start at the beginning of our Mobile Radio BSP documentation click here.

The rest of September continued with many varied guests visiting the radio studio. akcg (Anna Kindgren and Carina Gunnars) from Sweden were in town on a different mission and we joined up with them to read the first chapter of their book agorafobi/agorafobia/agoraphobia in Swedish, English and Brazilian Portuguese. An overlayed mix of the three languages made it onto our archive afterwards.


akcg
akcg

As the rest of the Bienal artists were destined to leave São Paulo after setting up their works we took our chances to invite them to our studio along with an ever-increasing number of local artists, musicians, curators and Bienal visitors. Pictured below are John and Nina Zurie, Leandro Tartaglia, Movimento Sincopado (listen), José Roberto Leonel Barreto (listen), Ana Gonçalves Magalhães, Oval/Markus Popp (listen / listen), Guto Carvalho (listen), Bienal book launch, Simon Foxall, Afro Hooligans (listen) and a visiting photgraphy class.


John Zurie
Leandro Tartaglia
Movimento Sincopado
José Roberto Leonel Barreto
Ana Gonçalves Magalhães
Markus Popp
Guto Carvalho

Simon Foxall
Afro Hooligans

Into the second week of broadcasting regular shows were taking hold in our schedule. Around these shows we allowed for maximum flexibility in terms of programming – if somebody interesting showed up, we could often go straight to air with them. Every weekday the excellent Bienal education team visited the radio either with one of the 150 daily school classes that were visiting the exhibition, or to present their own show. So much excitement on air!


Uirá Vital, Stela Barbieri







Pablo Tallavera

A selection of other regular live shows:
– Oidaradio Sessions: with Nick Graham-Smith who organized 13 weekly experimental music performances. In this section Kevin Drumm (listen), Objeto Amarelo (listen) and Shackle (listen)
– Paisagens & Poéticas: São Paulo field recordings mixed with poetry by Renata Roman (listen)
– Alreves: Experimental electronic music from a rotating pool of members of the Alreves label (listen / listen)
– Os ritmos brasileiros: Live jazz based on Brazilian rhythms by Diego Sales (harmonica), Caio Chiarini (guitar) and guests (listen)
– Escuta do Corpo Sonoro: Vocal therapy with Mirian Steinberg (listen)
– Radio Radio: Henrique Iwao and guests conducted hour-long audio experiments (listen)
– Pipa Musical: XTO and Rogerio Krepski’s radio art mayhem celebrated with a new guest each week (listen)


Kevin Drumm
Objeto Amarelo
Nick Graham-Smith
Shackle
Shackle
Renata Roman
Alreves
Bruno Hiss
Diego Sales, Caio Chiarini
Mirian Steinberg

Henrique Iwao
Pipa Musical

Photos 3-5: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

Thanks to our Bienal producer Joaquim Millan (below, white t-shirt & walkie-talkie) we eventually got an updated FM transmitter that could cover the square kilometer broadcast range we had been allocated, and a decent radio receiver at the benches outside of our studio which became a listening post and resting point for visitors. If they wanted to continue listening they could also pick up a portable radio at reception to carry through the exhibition.



Joaquim Millan




The new transmitter also allowed for Knut’s live radio installation Dune o’Din to function properly as part of our nighttime broadcast series Better Silence. We wanted live broadcasts 24 hours a day, so we used various live streams to cover the periods when the exhibition was closed. As well as Dune o’Din you could tune in at night to hours of beautiful pops and clicks of sun spots and lightening strikes from a natural radio signal broadcast from Todmorden in the UK (as opposed to our own ‘unnatural radio’!), a marine microphone in Ireland listening for whale calls, online field recording streams (Brazilian birds provided by Rádio Paisagem and global soundscapes from radio aporee) or else algorithmic compositions (the 1000 year chiming Longplayer by Jem Finer and Zellen/Silben by Jörg Köppl which generated fake Portuguese phrases). We did some out of hours broadcasts ourselves, but it became increasingly difficult to remain in the building due to (mainly farcical) security issues.

One of the great advantages of being part of the Bienal was gaining the opportunity to invite fellow artists from around the world to join us for a week at a time, with a high chance that their respective national funding agencies would support them. Together we managed to secure an impressive roster that covered nearly every week of broadcasting. The first visitor was Jörg Köppl from Switzerland. His contribution was a daily on-air workshop called The Listening Choir (listen) that culminated in active listening sessions for the participants in and around the Bienal pavillion. One late night session ended with some confused bombeiros escorting us out of the building after encountering a group of people sitting on chairs with their eyes closed, ignoring the expected closing routine of the exhibition. Jörg also left us a specially adapted version of his algorithmic composition Zellen/Silben noted above.


Jörg Köppl






Photos 1,3,4: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 1

September 9, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on SÃO PAULO August – December 2012 part 1

Mobile Radio BSP was the name we chose for our experimental radio station for the 30th São Paulo Bienal in Brazil. 14 weeks of solid broadcasting from the 3rd September – 9th December was the challenge we had set ourselves. With as much live content as possible and no repeats. We were hoping that a metropolis like São Paulo would provide ample talent to fill the airwaves.

Thanks to our curator Tobi Maier we were able to present our project at the Goethe-Institut São Paulo together with our local colaborator Leandro Nerefuh two weeks before we went on air. More than 100 guests attended, listened and laughed at our ideas and offered their own during the following discussion and reception. Many of them became regular programme makers for Mobile Radio BSP. We were quite overwhelmed by the level of interest.


Sarah Washington
Sarah Washington, Leandro Nerefuh
Sarah Washington, Knut Aufermann
Tobi Maier, Leandro Nerefuh

XTO

Julio de Paula, Arrigo Barnabé

Goethe-Institut São Paulo

Photos 1-10: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

Meanwhile our studio in the Bienal pavillion took shape to our specifications, with two large glass sides which could be fully opened, and a double bed to grab a nap or rest during the long working hours. The furniture had to be aquired surreptitiously from elsewhere in the building. A stopgap low power FM transmitter (while we waitied for the proper one to be built) and antenna arrived just in time, but the broadcast licence was still missing. The lateness of these crucial project elements and the missing finishing touches to enable us to provide for the comfort of Bienal visitors caused unnecessary friction.












To celebrate the arrival of our FM licence on day two of the exhibition we hooked up with fellow Bienal artist and noise musician Marco Fusinato, and as we also needed to let off some steam we tested the protection circuits of our studio speakers.



Marco Fusinato


Photos 1-2: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

In the first week of the exhibition we invited many of the artists that were milling around into our studio for interviews, chats or shows that people wanted to make. Some of them were exhibiting in the Bienal, some worked there, others were in town for the opening or other events and a few dedicated souls had travelled from other cities or countries in South America especially to make radio for us. The images below show a selection of them:
f. marquespenteado, Helen Mirra & Ernst Karel, Merzedes Sturm-Lie, Tehching Hsieh (listen), Justin Luke, David Medalla (listen), Pedro Garbellini da Silva, Kiki Mazzucchelli, Angela López Ruiz & Juliana Rosales, André Damião (listen), Juan A. Gaitán, Adriano Vilela (listen), a big supporter of the project


f. marquespenteado
Helen Mirra, Ernst Karel
Merzedes Sturm-Lie
Tehching Hsieh
Justin Luke
David Medalla
Pedro Garbellini da Silva
Kiki Mazzucchelli
Angela López Ruiz, Juliana Rosales
André Damião
Juan A. Gaitán
Adriano Vilela

The highlight of the first week happened on the public opening day, September 7th 2012. We wanted to mark the 90th anniversary of the first radio broadcast in Brazil. Happily, Brazilian national radio producer Julio de Paula wrote a radio drama based on the story of Edgard Roquette Pinto, the scientist and educator behind this first transmission. Edgard’s granddaughter was in attendence to witness the spectacle that featured an opera singer and an actor, live amateur radio signals, sound effects, plunderphonic DJs, live sound processing and a script by Julio (listen). Unbeknown to us until it was all over, during the piece we were handed responsibility for the future of radio in Brazil. It was very humbling.










Photos 3-7: Leo Eloy/Fundação Bienal de São Paulo © Fundação Bienal de São Paulo

BARROW June 2012

June 30, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BARROW June 2012

Octopus Collective live broadcast to Lisbon from Peel View House in Barrow Park

The Octopus Collective is a Sound Arts and Music organisation based in Barrow, Cumbria in the UK, with its HQ in the former park keepers house in Barrow public park. Since 2009 we have delivered the FON Festival of music and sound arts, and a programme of commissions and education projects, working with artists from the USA, Europe and Japan including Mobile Radio, Faust, Richard Youngs, John Wall, AGF, Hildur Gudnadottir and others. Our interest in broadcast arts has led to collaborations with Tetsuo Kogawa, Haco, and an ongoing project with Mobile Radio who performed at our first festival in 2009.

For this commission we carried out a radio hacking workshop with the Octopus Collective Hacking Group, followed by a collective radio performance streamed live to the radio art festival RadiaLx 2012 in Lisbon, and finally a drone-based concert for assorted players around the building.













The hacking workshop needed to be short and sweet, as we only had half a day to get each person equipped with an interesting-sounding instrument to perform upon for the radio broadcast in the afternoon. Luckily, everyone was able to bring along an old or cheap radio (or two) which they didn’t mind dismantling. After a bit of trial and error short-circuiting the electronic components, each radio was able to make a range of tones, squealing, hissing or crackling sounds. Knut then conducted the group in a simple improvisation involving tuning the radios in and out of a home transmission frequency which broadcast radio feedback, and this was interspersed with solo spots on the newly discovered circuit-bent sounds








The radio show became an audio tour of Peel View House, led by Andrew Deakin. Each room was visited in turn to experience whatever brand of sonic exploration lay therein. When the hacking workshop room was reached, the group performed their mighty improvisation, before the roving microphone moved on to explore the basement where a percussion duo was taking place. Andrew narrated the tour of the work going on all over the house, including a touching account of his own audio obsessions during an examination of the noise-making objects crammed up to the rafters in his workroom. Throughout the hour-long show, pauses were made to play extracts from a few previous Octopus commissions by various visiting artists, and live backgrounds were supplied by tugging on a string at the radio desk which was attached to a guitar-string contact mic contraption hanging out of the window, made by Glenn Boulter – thanks also to Glenn for some of the photos on this page






The improvised drone concert featured action in all the various rooms and the performers were invited to move around the house to find other people to play with. The ancient harmonium in the music room provided a ready-made drone machine, and the most notable sonic landscape was supplied by John Hall’s set-up where he performed on violin, bastardised turntables, self-made records and assorted objects

KINHEIM-KINDEL June 2012

June 7, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on KINHEIM-KINDEL June 2012

We staged Vinosonic 3 at the Weingartenfest of Rita and Rudolf Trossen. The flyer stated: “…für jeden Wein eine eigene Klangwelt…” (for each wine its own soundworld)








We borrowed the title (with permission) from the 2009 Chicago event Vinosonic, where wines were matched with acousmatic pieces. Knut sent over a piece to be played there as it neatly coincided with our own plans to pair wine with sound.
In our events we play short improvised pieces for specific Mosel wines. We taste with the audience and that sets the mood for a short tribute to each wine. Then the winemaker Rudolf Trossen entertains the audience with tales about life, the universe and the wines. This time the audience complained that the music was too short…
Above photos by Yvonne Schwemer-Scheddin





The Mosel with its vineyards and a splendid table to play on by Aaron Scheuer, whose workshop can be seen directly across the river in Kinheim






In the wine hall there was an exhibition of paintings and objects from Eike Gall and various pieces of furniture made from wine barrels by Aaron of Ragit

As this event was at the winery, we played only Trossen wines. These were:
2007 VON DER LAY Riesling Spätlese trocken
2011 TROSSEN ROT ZERO unfiltered and without sulphur
2004 PYRAMIDE Riesling Spätlese feinherb
2008 VON DER LAY Riesling Spätlese fruchtig
2006 VON DER LAY Riesling Spätlese fruchtig

COLOGNE May 2012

May 29, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on COLOGNE May 2012

The Academy of Media Arts in Cologne – KHM – invited us to present a seminar on Mobile Radio and international radio art.
Their lecture programme is varied and very interesting, as they manage to attract pioneers of early electronic and experimental music. Historically Cologne has played a hugely important role in the development of these fields.


Snapshot by Echo Ho

NANTES May 2012

May 3, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on NANTES May 2012

We were invited by Jet FM to the SONOR festival, co-organised with Histoires d’Ondes. The opening was topped by an on-air discussion about radiophonic creation held at the University of Nantes, in which we spoke about the Radia network and radio art in the UK









The next evening we presented an overview of the work of Radia by introducing one minute radio clips from each of the 22 stations in the current production cycle. The way Radia functions is by inviting member stations to offer specially made radio art pieces in turn which are broadcast in the same week by each station around the world. There was much interest from the Jet FM team, who are committed to “La création radiophonique”
The venue for our presentation was POL’n which has a special atmosphere – it is a former theatrical costumier’s workshop








We took the opportunity to drop by at the Jet FM studio, where we joined in another discussion. It is the most tranquil radio station we have ever visited!






Anne-Laure Lejosne took care of technical matters, Loïc Chusseau kept a steady hand on the rudder and the discussions were moderated by Pascal Massiot












We were interested in the protests against the new airport in Nantes. Some protesters had been on hunger strike for 23 days when we attended the demonstration. Sometimes 400 tractors turn out for regular disruptions of the city centre alongside cows and sheep… There are expected to be escalating clashes with the extremely scary looking robo-police who are menacingly posted throughout the quiet streets

LONDON May 2012

May 1, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on LONDON May 2012

Imagine a radio station

We were delighted to be invited to play at the 10th birthday party of Resonance 104.4FM and to celebrate with many of our old pals from the station. The event was held at Corsica Studios and as you’d expect, the rest of the bill featured an unclassifiable line-up:
BOB DRAKE & KAVUS TORABI
THE HAUNTOLOGICAL ORCHESTRA (feat. Johny Brown, Kay Grant, Art Terry)
KINNIE THE EXPLORER
CAROLE FINER & TOM PALEY
CHIPS FOR THE POOR
FRANK KEY vs LEPKE B (See above, in rehearsal)
BERMUDA TRIANGLE TEST ENGINEERS
We skanked to the close in the warm embrace of the 50/50 SOUND SYSTEM.
Thanks to all for a wonderful London party, the creative spirit was palpable

MUNICH February 2012

February 8, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on MUNICH February 2012



The team at Lothringer13 invited us for a concert at their gallery as part of their Noisy13 series. On this visit, due to problems with residential neighbours, the audience was gathered together and escorted to a different space – a somewhat uninviting room in the basement of a huge art space behind the shopfront gallery. It was a small concrete box with the classic rock band rehearsal room fragrance. In the end, it turned out very well and we put the budget PA system through its paces. We positioned the audience all around us and a few of them were close friends, which produced an intimate atmosphere. Our most loyal supporter was there, and our sounds triggered a reverie in which she travelled off somewhere interesting in her mind. We were happy that we were able to open up such a space for her. Munich is always a special place for our music…

The after show discussions are intense

The recording you can hear above is a mix of our own mixer output recording and a binaural room recording by Michael Kurz.

MUNICH January 2012

January 27, 2012 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on MUNICH January 2012

The Munich improvisers ensemble ICI invited us as guests to take part in their week-long festival: ICI Konzepte & Improvisationen at the venue Schwere Reiter (Heavy Riders).







We visited on the Thursday evening to watch the fun – GEWÜRFELTE STÜCKE (dice-throw pieces). The evening was split into two groups of musicians; each member played within a set of 6 rules in a series of pieces with varied instructions. The audience were invited to either throw the dice randomly or select specific numbers: to dictate which rule each musician should play, and for how long







We joined in on the Friday evening – FREUNDLICHE ÜBERNAHME (friendly takeover). The first half was based around a composed new music piece performed by the ‘piano possibile’ ensemble. It was played five times over with pauses in between, accompanied by free improvisation from the rest of us. The second half was a group improvisation along with the Portuguese singer Mafalda de Lemos. Photos by Christian Schallert