COLOGNE December 2007

December 15, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on COLOGNE December 2007

Sarah is invited to the radio studio of Köln Campus to offer her favourite 5 tracks of 2007


The host, Tinka Koch checks out Sarah’s scary choices from The Art of the Gremlin, a CD she curated for Leonardo Music Journal

MUNICH November 2007

November 24, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on MUNICH November 2007

We are invited to give a circuit-bending workshop as part of the festival A=V *AUDIBLEIMAGE=VISIBLESOUND* run by Natalia Borissova


We decide to focus entirely on radio hacking in the workshop – turning old radios into electronic instruments


A parallel workshop was run by Andrey Smirnov and Givan Bela (pictured standing) concentrating on many uses of theremin sensors in combination with self-programmed Max patches


The soldering table saw plenty of frantic action, as the participants made full use of the little time available to get their wonderful instruments performance-ready


When needs must – a bit of gaffer tape always works wonders


The variety of sounds produced by the different radios, and the unique approaches to instrument design made for a rich outcome


After two evenings of rehearsal, the Munich RadioHacking Orchestra was ready for its premier to an appreciative audience. Particularly impressive was the anonymous woman who chortled throughout the half-hour set. She grasped a truth – a lot of the sounds are hilarious

BERLIN November 2007

November 3, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BERLIN November 2007

There were several connected things to do in Berlin as part of the project Berlin Backyard Radio. We had a radio commission to produce, a concert to give and a Radia meeting to attend


Within the inspired atmosphere of “something going on” that bootlab offer in Berlin, the Radia (radio network) meeting produced the usual intense discussions


Tetsuo Kogawa offers an enthralling performance building small FM radio transmitters….


…. and engaging them in an intense dance. After his solo we play a trio with him, knitting circuit bending, feedback and radio into an indissoluble bond












As a group, Radia is invited to take part in a radio programme by the New York project Neurotransmitter who had a radio residency in Berlin. Because we are a group who are encouraging the subversion of the standard broadcast set-up, we gave them a bit of a rough ride in the beginning. However, it turned out that much fun was had by one and all


Our Berlin Backyard Radio / reboot.fm / bootlab hosts Pit Schultz and Diana McCarty

BRUSSELS October 2007

October 29, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BRUSSELS October 2007

We are asked to produce an epic live Radia event for the festival Radiophonic 2007. There were many other events taking place over the four days, a few of which are documented below


The setting of Les Brigittines was magnificent – the old and the new building are connected internally and bridged by a very old bell


Festival coordinator Irvic D’Olivier talks with Silvain Gire from ARTE Radio


The Bing Selfish Radio Show in full swing


‘La femme sans visage’ radio drama directed live by Clément Laloy


Phil Minton gave a magnificent solo performance


Our project was called Radioactive Radiophony, and it involved receiving live streams from Radia member stations around the world which we ‘contaminated’ in Brussels before sending the stream back to them for broadcast.
Here we see the Radia back-room crew, with Ricardo Reis playing Communication Chief


Our show lasted 4 hours. During this time each station would send us a 20 minute broadcast from their studio. Our team of contaminators was on hand to react to the incoming streams.
Above is Dinah Bird – our continuity storyteller, with Anna Friz and Jean-Philippe Renoult poised for real-time contamination


Our contamination toolkit, for guests to add some foley action to the proceedings


Contaminators Jacques Foschia and Ricardo Reis


We also had some live music as part of our radio event, here is the excellent La Brocante Sonore, who were partially contaminated by some sweet music from Marseilles. The combination of the two things in the church was awesome, giving a unique atmosphere


It seems it wasn’t enough to run the radio show – we also played as Tonic Train, contaminated by Roland Wouters of Martiens Go Home


One last thing to do before we leave Brussels. Jacques Foschia organized a concert for us, which turned into a collaboration with La Brocante Sonore. This is our score for the various combinations of musicians. Some joker added a section at the end – whatever happened to Harry and Jane?


La Brocante Sonore perform the middle fifteen. The member missing from the picture is active with amplified and acoustic shoeshine (see above photo for the shoeshine chair)

FRANKFURT AM MAIN September 2007

September 29, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on FRANKFURT AM MAIN September 2007

We were invited to take part in discussions entitled Dramaturgies of Listening / New Forms of Music Theatre at the conference European Dramaturgy in the 21st Century


The dining hall of Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität. After much debate, the building was reclaimed from its unsavory history


Our workshop group. Unfortunately the discussions didn’t really seem to take off over the three days


The performances and other events of the conference were interesting. At the closing session Julia Lee Barclay gives her impassioned vision

OBERHAUSEN September 2007

September 22, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on OBERHAUSEN September 2007

Back at the Gasometer for the second two concerts of the MONO series. It is sounding different today!


Sarah Washington feeding back


Knut Aufermann feeding forward


Frank Niehusmann, who did an excellent job of organization as well as impressing us with his moves

OBERHAUSEN September 2007

September 8, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on OBERHAUSEN September 2007

We give a series of four concerts which are performances of a work by Knut that was commissioned by Deutsche Gesellschaft für Elektroakustische Musik (DEGEM) for their MONO event.


Performing Knut’s feedback piece ‘Resonanz117,5fm’ at the Gasometer. It’s great to be playing there again, especially with this piece which is designed exclusively for the building. Photo by Sven Borzug


Photo by Jan Jacob Hofmann


We also take part in a piece by Jobina Tinnemans which features four table tennis players and three miked up hedge trimmers. Photo by Jan Jacob Hofmann

ZURICH August 2007

August 29, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on ZURICH August 2007

We are invited to perform at an event called Radioexperimente at the wonderful Kunstraum Walcheturm as part of the excellent festival: From Analog to Digital organized by Simon Grab.

We play at midnight, many people who would normally cycle have had to leave to catch trams in the pouring rain. However a decent group of people who came to especially to see us stick it out. It turns out to be a very special concert with a great atmosphere. Thanks to all our Zurich friends

ZURICH July 2007

July 28, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on ZURICH July 2007

Radio LoRa invited us to take part in their Electromagnetic Summer programme. For four weeks, while the staff take a well-deserved break, they give the station over to artists to perform durational works for radio. We teamed up with another invited artist, Marold Langer-Philippsen, to host a two-week live edition of Clingradio (a multifarious show we previously produced for six hours weekly during the first year of Resonance 104.4fm in London). Clingradio Zürich consisted of three strands: Radioerevan Yurt – an evolving story of the escapades of Marold, Langer and Philippsen involving a trip to Mongolia and plenty of local Zurich colour, The Johnny Head-in-Air show – a dense radio art soundscape punctuated by live happenings from Zurich musicians produced by Sarah Washington, and the Feedback Siesta – a continuous evolving feedback installation by Knut Aufermann which broadcast at lunchtimes and through the nights for a total of 130 hours. All this happened outdoors in a large yard, the Kunsthof – the Yurt was built during the show, the feedback installation and main desk were housed under a tin roof. We were not expecting the mixture of heat-wave and thunderstorms that were to come


Mirjam and Jörg are on hand to help construct the setting for the project


Building the Yurt. This version was not altogether waterproof, so when we heard via the radio that Marold was getting wet, we fixed it around him during his show. There’s not much you can’t do with a bit of gaffer tape


Broadcasting outdoors for two weeks brought plenty of charms, and plenty of heavy rain. The mics captured this beautifully along with the trams, helicopters and dogs in the area


Knut gives explanations of his installation on air, and to passers-by….


and when he’s done with the Feedback Siesta, it’s time for one of his own


Mischa, Sebastian and others rushed to our rescue as the first Yurt blew over. Yurt two was a more stable home for radioerevan, although it needed regular maintenance during heavy downpours


The evenings had a special ambience, Marold would continue to talk on into the small hours and host guests that were drawn to the Yurt


Sarah’s instruments add to the radio mix in the Johnny Head-in-Air show


Johnny Head-in-Air’s guests: (from top left clockwise) Mülli, Jesus, Tomas&Thomas, Urban with dreadlocks, Der Laborant, Urban losing dreadlocks, DJs Mischa, Jeremy and Max, The Radio Stars. Centre: Simon Grab’s electronic box of tricks


Tomas Korber and Thomas Peter played a set that seemed to guide the rainfall back and forth from soft to strong. When I opened the mic at the end of their set the rain was so loud I couldn’t hear myself speak. It was a remarkable atmosphere


Simon Grab performed one set on contact-miked hair clippers, as he needed a haircut. Later, Urban decided – after much lip-chewing – to use the momentum and surrender his 10-year-old dreadlocks to the (h)airwaves. Simon played a second set on his home-made electronics, inspired by a workshop with Nic Collins


This set from Jörg Köppl, Philipp Schaufelberger (who usually plays guitar), and Mirjam Bürgin was the one that reminded us the most of the old Clingradio days. Jörg was playing voice-activated guitar, Philipp utilized our fire bucket as a kick-drum, and Mirjam used all manner of things to sonify her sewing machine, including bouncing plastic eggs, twigs, coins and polystyrene


This picture was taken by Evi during our last show – which we all did together. Marold was in the Yurt behind the wall


Goodbye Clingradio! Hope we have a chance to resurrect you again sometime. (What is Sarah doing with that big knife? And just where is Johnny Head-in-Air?)


Marold packing down. We had never seen anyone bring so much equipment to a radio project. A jam-packed carload to replace piece by piece…


Winding down at the end of two weeks of Clingradio. A fond recollection of a warm night at one of our meals with guests.

Many thanks are due to all who got involved and gave their support, especially Mischa who watched over us and the equipment (and listened to most of the broadcast!), Adriane from Radio LoRa who organized the project, and our curator Jörg Köppl.

HAGEN/TOKYO May 2007

May 14, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on HAGEN/TOKYO May 2007

We were invited by Tetsuo Kogawa to do another concert live over the internet to his students in Tokyo. Luckily we were in Hagen with a stable internet connection, so were happy to oblige.


Tetsuo Kogawa and students of TKU in Japan listening to our live concert from Hagen at ten in the morning our time. Images from video link

COPENHAGEN May 2007

May 5, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on COPENHAGEN May 2007

After a long time planning by Mikkel Myer, our hosts Aux and Lab managed to secure a circuit bending workshop. The participants were extremely keen, the organization was superb, a workshop to end all workshops!


Bending toys and video mixer (don’t try the mixer at home, before some proper research on the net…)


A few of the extra components so lovingly provided


Bend on the radio take one. Everyone was interviewed by a journalist from the cultural channel of Danish state radio


Bend on the radio take two. Accompanied by our advocates from the workshop, Sarah and Knut are invited to play as Tonic Train live on the Saturday morning show of the most popular channel in Copenhagen. Squashed between Tina Turner and Earth Wind and Fire we manage 28 seconds of improvised bleeping noise to one million people, before the DJ intervenes….


The joy of so many toys


Equipment organizer and one of the resident experts Michael, hard at work on one of his many instruments


Mikkel’s drum baby


The second rehearsal of the Copenhagen Electronic Orchestra. Our workshop was designed to lead up to a performance on the last evening, with each person playing an instrument they built during the previous few days. Knut instructed the group in improvisation and conduction techniques. They have already been offered a second gig at a festival in Sweden in September 2007, giving them a nice incentive to keep rehearsing and building instruments

BRUSSELS April 2007

April 7, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BRUSSELS April 2007

We were invited to oknopublic 03 to present our Mobile Radio project, to play a concert and to take part in a workshop. Participants were drawn from various types of networking projects across Europe.


The roof of okno with view of the Atomium was the site of a presentation about the local open wireless network


Sarah’s instruments for our streamed Tonic Train performance


While in Brussels we caught up with Maarten and his new project called Rotor in their self-built office half way up a spare wall… Sarah worked with Maarten a few years ago at the Jonctions/Verbindingen 8 festival when he had an amazing scrap-for-art recycling project called Bricolage Sans Frontier. Success had meant that storage became a major issue so he has begun a different enterprise where he acts as a go-between for big business with useful waste (such as car parts) and small producers who can transform the unwanted material. The office windows are made from sticky tape…


Festival coordinator Annemie and archivist/webstreamer Arjen at the end of oknopublic03


We manage to catch a performance of Brocante Sonore before we leave, complete with shoe-shine

MUNICH March 2007

March 11, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on MUNICH March 2007

We were asked to perform in Munich at an event in the darkly historical building of the Haus der Kunst. We took the opportunity to stay longer and catch up with our good friends in the area, from our homely base in Planegg.


For the Grosse Kunstausstellung end-of-show celebration in the Haus der Kunst we choose to perform as a trio with the other performer Gunter Pretzel, a viola player from the Munich Philharmonic. We have previously played together in other combinations in the studio and as contrasting elements in an ambitious conceptual piece, but this was the first time we dircetly combined our improvised sounds in a live setting. It was enjoyable and and worked very well, delighting some of the unsuspecting audience and horrifying others. Photo by Christian Schallert

PRAGUE February 2007

February 20, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on PRAGUE February 2007

We were invited to Prague to perform a concert and take part in a discussion at Radio Lemurie’s Radio Tombola, and to do a sound installation for the hear2hear exhibition curated by Pavel Sterec of radio transmitter art


Knut’s installation caused problems for everyone else – for technical reasons the feedback bled into all the other installations. It could only be activated at your peril!


There was an evening of live broadcast by Lemurie, beginning with a discussion on the state of Czech radio today


We finally met our biggest fan. Photo by Echo Ho


Echo and Hannes perform as earweego


At the end of the concert we played in an ad hoc quartet with Echo and Hannes. It turned out to be the best part of the concert. Photo by John Grzinich


The fantastic prizes in the radio tombola, compete with a whole host of ancient electronic parts donated by Stanley ‘The Robot Man’

VIENNA January 2007

January 17, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on VIENNA January 2007

On return to Vienna we prepared for Kunstradio’s Art’s Birthday Party










Tonic Train performed on four micro fm transmitters and a group of friends performed the sound using small portable radios. Many thanks to Billy, Dieter, Eva, Barbara, Ernst, Sylvia, Tim and Angelica

LINZ January 2007

January 13, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on LINZ January 2007

The klingt.org crew moved to Linz a couple of days later, where another fine concert night was held


Noid on stage with the group Grosze Koalition


Silly on air at Radio FRO, just before the concert started


Billy Roisz and host Dieb13 during the setup

VIENNA January 2007

January 11, 2007 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on VIENNA January 2007

We travelled to Vienna to support our favourite music portal and server host: klingt.org and dieb13


The stage of the Vienna klingt.org party had to be laid out in depth to accomodate all 14 acts


First band on was the excellent laptop duo Silly


Silly screen shot from Sylvia’s laptop