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.
Photo 3 and video by Carol Neumann, Marina Tavares and Lukas Corazzini, support by CAIA, Visarte, AAAIA.
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…
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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).
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 &, Seyran Freitas, Morbo y Mambo, idos ö idos, Brandon LaBelle (listen), Guy Brett, Mariana Lanari and Luca Forcucci &, and Ricardo Garcia (listen).
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
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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!
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
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
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.
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
December 1, 2011 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on WITTLICH December 2011
“Schweine und Fische”
The artist Robert Dziendziol who lives in Ürzig asked us to play at the opening of his exhibition “Pigs and Fish” at the county council offices of Bernkastel-Wittlich. The town of Wittlich is famous for its annual Pig-burning Fair (that’s the direct translation of the name), and Robert partnered them with fish after reading the Richard Wilhelm interpretation of the I Ching which states that pigs and fish are the least intelligent of animals: and thus the most difficult to influence.
Here is Robert with one of his ceramic works: The Fifth Eye
The event was very well attended, especially by fellow villagers from Ürzig who turned out to support their local artists – and to finally find our what on earth it is we all get up to! Photo Theresia Wilhelms
The bizarre circumstance of playing a concert in a 1970s-style public building foyer. However, when buzzing with people the room warmed to us, and we to it. Who’d have thought that we would be so naturally embraced on our adopted home turf, which at times appears to be as anti-cosmopolitan as you can imagine?
And the greatest thing was… the chance to debut our new instrument ‘The Master’ built with the assistance of electronics whiz Georg Laska, in his Ürzig workshop
July 17, 2011 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on LONDON July 2011
As the final event of the exhibition Gone with the Wind curated by Ed Baxter for the gallery Raven Row, we were invited by Ed and Richard Thomas to produce a live radio piece. Titled “Can the principle of yeast be applied to a lot of other things?” (Fischli & Weiss), this was a sonic exploration of the process of vinification from a biodynamic wine estate at the Mosel in Germany. The event was broadcast in London on Resonance 104.4FM and in Lisbon on the Radio Zero festival frequency: Rádio Real, 88.4MHz
David Motion of The Winery presents the Mosel region and the wine of Rita and Rudolf Trossen. Knut introduces our piece, which combines radio feedback and circuit-bent sounds with a wine bubbling in its cellar cask – Pyramide Riesling Spätlese trocken 2009, the actual wine the audience now have in their hands. Also prominent are the melodious words of the vintner Rudolf Trossen and recordings from vineyards, including a crop-spraying helicopter. (Not necessarily to cruelly shatter any illusions about the rural way of life, more to complete the picture of what was happening in the build-up to the performance.) A surprising motif is supplied by the music played from a car with speakers mounted on the roof which announces: “Early tomorrow, helicopter spraying!”
Lovely for us to catch up with our ‘home crowd’ and rejoin the Resonance fold, however briefly. The station was broadcasting for the duration of the festival from a booth at the back of the room. A warm hug to Vera for serving the wine, now everybody seems to be aglow. (That’s one good way to keep an audience happy!)
The Walter Marchetti pianos in the exhibition were a delight, Max Eastley’s work was equally sublime, with tiny scratchy wires stuttering across pieces of paper and a beautiful sound installation on the roof of the gallery which was periodically played live on Resonance. It’s wind-motivated metal plates were quiet and active by turn, blending with the London cityscape on the edge of the (noticeably bird-less) financial district. In fact we had joyfully listened to the installation from Germany during the festival, without knowing that it was soon to be clanging on our roof-light all night long during our stay at the gallery. That’s what you call presence!
Thanks to Derek Washington who took all of the above photos
Finally a word about the Resonance competition for self-powered sound devices which we were asked to help judge. A room in the gallery was brimming with all manner of chattering, whizzing and bashing, however the winning piece had been removed due to a problem with flies. It was an old radio powered solely by fermenting fruit, which of course had decayed beyond the staff’s comfort zone over the course of the exhibition! Also high in our estimation was this Lego glockenspiel player. Not directly because of its looks or the type of sound it produced, but purely on merit of the ingenious system of varied length wheel-chains and sizes, which created perfect mechanical randomness
July 9, 2011 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on MUNICH July 2011
We travel to Munich to play at a special house concert in honour of our great protagonist Yvonne Schwemer-Scheddin. (She’s the kind of person who sprinkles a little cultural magic dust wherever she goes.)
Yvonne introduces the line-up of artists for the evening. We play a trio with Gunter Pretzel on viola. Afterward the event Yvonne reports:
“Despite thunder, rain curtains etc. it was just lovely. One person was afraid of getting another Hörsturz (acute hearing loss), some found it gewöhnungsbedürftig (needed getting used to), but mostly they considered it as very interesting and were glad to have been exposed to new music. So together we did our small job to shake people out of complacency…..”
Knut and Yvonne’s daughter Jeannine helping fix up the bronze drumhead of Limpe Fuchs for a performance with Ulrike Stoltz in Yvonne’s resonant stairwell. The construction looks fairly precarious, but you have every confidence in Limpe as she charges ahead, and creates amazing instruments as a result
Limpe performs on her ‘row of stones’ with Ulrike reading from her own texts. At the end of the evening Sarah joined the duo with a little electronic device and together we performed a dynamic and surprising impromptu improvisation. It seemed to wrap the party up somehow in an unusual atmosphere, the audience were delightfully mellow as the evening closed
May 27, 2011 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on COPENHAGEN May 2011
The Kunst & Æter festival hosted by LYDWERK and SNYK brought together some interesting people, mostly fellow radio conspirators from the past years, for a series of performances, talks, presentations and workshops on the topic of radio art. We performed a Tonic Train concert and gave a presentation of Mobile Radio and other temporary transmission projects.
Setting the scene the radio art panel – Richard Thomas, Anne Hilde Neset and Pit Schultz. Who gets the award for best hand gesture? (They all did brilliantly!) Richard excelled at his talk on the following day by removing himself from the room to ‘have a word with the builders’ who were making a racket outside
Tonic Train performance. Little to see except two people sitting at a table: does the intense concentration show? Our Danish friend in the audience was amazed by the perceived development of ‘musicality’ in our work! (That’s a first. Playing live for 28 seconds on the pop music channel last time we were here must have rubbed off on us…)
Happily, Marold Langer-Philippsen introduced a visual element with his radio and video transmission performance
Marold also gave a miraculous workshop in which he managed to get all participants to make short radio features in a very limited amount of time. We were engaged as interviewees – coincidentally both Knut and I were placed in bicycles, well it is Copenhagen isn’t it? Being ridden around in a box by Inuk and Karl was pretty hairy (quite appropriate given the large fluffy on the mic!)
March 18, 2011 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on TALLINN March 2011
Radiaator international radio art festival
Conceived and curated by Raul Keller and Katrin Essenson, who founded the radio art station and radio exploration performance group LokaalRaadio in 2006, the 2-day Radiaator was the first radiophonic art festival in Estonia. It was made possible with the support of European Capital of Culture Tallinn 2011. A transmitter broadcasting to the area around the venue attracted chance listeners who dropped by to see for themselves what was going on. This wasn’t the only demonstration of interest: we found ourselves in the somewhat sticky position of trying to explain what radio art is on a national TV channel.
Our arrival by ship from Helsinki was spectacular as the Baltic sea was still frozen all the way across. The Contemporary Art Museum of Estonia venue was equally striking, with its defunct chimney stack. We are here to talk about Mobile Radio and perform a live radio show for the festival audience
Chaos from Felix Kubin, assited by Raul and one of the festival assistant ‘angels’, called Angel! Katrin and Raul performing as LokaalRaadio, with Hello Upan on violin (she is pictured below). Full list of participants
Knut’s radio feedback during our live radio show to Resonance. Felix’s lecture-performance of Paralektronoia. Felix later DJs Demos and Dandies, a creative symbiosis of demos from the audience and his archive. DJ_Aussteuerungskontrolle intervenes periodically to perform with Felix as The White Bears, a live DJ/Ninja circuit bending mashup
Our show was called Ruckus Radio, here being helped to breeze along by Felix. Backstage the streaming portal watched over by Raul. Hello Upan on violin for Lokaalraadio
Heralding spring, Estonian style! That means whatever time of day or night spring is deemed to begin, the horns will sound in a city park, the police band will play, Tallinn’s mayor will make a wobbly speech and some wonderful singers will deliver perfect, complex and fascinating harmonies. The audience is bestowed with balloons, flags, drinks and snacks, and we sway blissfully around the freezing night.
We bid our farewells with a Mosel wine. Thank you Raul and Katrin, we will miss you as soon as we board the ferry! They later join the Radia family by producing a show for us: “The audible after-effects of drinking ether”
February 2, 2011 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BERLIN February 2011
Radio Magic panel transmediale
A slightly strange transmediale for us this year – instead of producing a live radio project for the duration of the festival, we were invited by the curatorial team from Sourcefabric to come and talk about radio. We would usually rather be creating than discussing, but nevertheless we were happy to be in attendance and take in some of the festival events.
There were two panels. Firstly: Radio Tactics with Douglas Arellanes, Diana McCarty, Jonathan Marks and Geraldine de Bastion, moderated by Eric Kluitenberg
Secondly: Radio Magic with Alejo Duque, Sarah Washington, Heidi Grundmann and Alejandra Perez Nuñez, moderated by Knut Aufermann
Up close and in action Diana McCarty and Berlin, as colourful as ever. Also in the reboot studio with Marold Langer-Philippsen at the House of World Cultures
Of course we did participate in a little radio broadcasting for reboot whilst in the building. Knut and Marold doing what comes naturally
Other events at the parallel CTM festival were oriented towards a celebration of analogue electronics, which pleased us no end: Morton Subotnik in concert impressively reworking Silver Apples of the Moon (with Lillevan & SooJin Anjou) and giving a wonderful talk. Then Regenwald 2011, a version of David Tudor’s ‘Rainforest’ coordinated by Derek Holzer and Mads Bech Paluszewski
October 27, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BARROW October 2010
Radio workshop for Octopus
We were invited back to Barrow to give an overview of working with radio for the sound art collective Octopus in their house in Barrow Park. The Octopus Collective run the wonderful festival Full of Noises
Our stay was kindly hosted by Lanternhouse in Ulverston, a town distinctive for its unique inland lighthouse – shown here with its outstanding views of Morecambe Bay and the lakeland fells
Luckily, there was plenty of time to check out what members of Octopus get up to in Piel View House. Here is John Hall in his vinyl experimentation room, with adapted turntables and glue records which play backwards from the inside outwards, watched over by Kurt Schwitters. Andrew Deakin can be seen recording tiny snippets of sound for the Radia show: In an Octopus’s Den. Outside the park provides distracting simple pleasures
October 26, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on CONISTON October 2010
Wine tasting for Grizedale Arts, Octopus and Coniston residents
We paid another visit to Adam Sutherland at Lawson Park to arrange the last details of a wine tasting that Grizdale Arts hosted for us at the John Ruskin Institute, otherwise known as Coniston Library
We wanted to see if we could impart more than one flavour of the Mosel valley to the people of the Lakes. We showed pictures and told stories from our wine village Ürzig whilst introducing a sample range of the complex Riesling grape, transporting a little of the atmosphere of the wine mountains and river to the fells and lakes. We also introduced the audience to the concept of combining abstract music and wine by showing an excerpt of our Vinosonic concert at the Mosel. The Grizedale team provided excellent stew and dumplings which were the perfect damp autumn accompaniment. Comparing the two contrasting locations of rural German wine country and the Lake District we unearthed parallels that bond the regions, such as the slate rock which heavily influences both architecture and agriculture. The force of water in varying manifestations has an inordinate effect on both communities, but when it is transmuted into fine wine for us to share we all have a great time!
August 29, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on ÜRZIG/LEIPZIG August 2010
Radio Party with Tetsuo Kogawa for the festival Funk Now hosted by Radio Blau
Tetsuo has been hosting radio parties for a number of years. His use of ever-changing media technologies enable him to connect with collaborators around the globe. We contribute from our base in Ürzig via Skype
Naturally we baked something for the party, this time a blueberry cornbread. We always seem to want to eat or drink something for Tetsuo when we have our online gatherings, trying to shoehorn a sensual experience into the virtual world
We chat to Tetsuo and his Radio Blau hosts about goodness knows what
July 13, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on OBERHAUSEN July 2010
Radia Art Camp
Knut was asked by Kunstradio in Austria to co-ordinate the production of a series of radio works on behalf of the radio art network Radia. He wanted to work collectively with a group of artists, and Sarah came up with the idea to set up a radio camp at one of our favourite places, the Gasometer in Oberhausen. The idea was to spend a few days there while the exhibition space is closed to the public, to make recordings and try out ideas in the amazing acoustic of a giant gas tower. We could not anticipate quite what an adventure this visit would turn out be…
First the setting. Regular readers will have seen this before, but you can never get enough of the Gasometer Oberhausen. Inside you see some of our clan – Felix Kubin recording, and Dinah Bird with Knut preparing to record a performance for Sarah’s piece 100 Words per Metre. Dinah was securely kitted out as she had to dangle a microphone some 90m above us while so that two voices could shout at one another across the vast darkness. We also had a mic recording half way up the building, to capture the effect of our words mingling in the gloom. Notice the amount of stairs on the outside of the building? For Barbara Kaiser’s work und ein und aus some of us volunteered to walk the whole way up wrapped in a mask with attached mic to record the increasing rate of our breathing. Surprisingly, it only took about 10 minutes to scale the 117 metre structure
Here are the happy campers at work and play. Verena Kuni who provided voice for Knut, Elisabeth Zimmermann, Barbara Kaiser (thanks to them for supplying some of the photos here), Felix Kubin, Sarah cavorting on the Gasometer roof, Jean-Philippe Renoult setting up for his piece Out of Breath and Knut preparing for Radio art is what I think it is (the performance of which inspired and amazed everyone as he made the gasometer sing with serene feedback), Paulo Raposo acclimatising for an exploration of Gasosonics for his work Don’t measure me, Dinah Bird catching the elevated breeze
And here is our camp, until a tornado blew it away… Yes, a tornado. We received a warning that extreme weather was on the way, but before we could finish up our picnic breakfast the force suddenly hit us. Two tents were uprooted and were caught and dragged inside the Gasometer, a risky operation as it took 3 people to hold the door open. There was no time to go back for valuable items in the other tents. The rain poured down the inside wall of the building, although we were safe and dry in the giant steel drum. What concerned us most as we were fleeing were the screams of teenagers in peril on the aerial assault course in the trees beside our campsite. We didn’t hear of any casualties afterwards, which was a relief as it had been far too dangerous for us to go and help. We spent the second night inside the Gasometer, wondering if we were the only ones ever to have slept a whole night in the building. It is a fairly hostile environment for sleep, but we will be eternally grateful for its solid protection that night
Here’s an overview of the Gasometer’s surreal setting in the heart of the post-industrial Ruhrgebiet. An inspiring place to work and visit. We came away with plenty of material from which 5 of us made works based on our collaborations and experiments for Kunstradio. Our adventures were in part sponsored by WDR3 in Germany, who aired Sarah’s piece and commissioned a collage of all the works which was crafted for them by Knut
And here’s the spectacular inside which at that time had a huge inflatable moon as the main exhibit. In the first photo you are looking down upon it. The Gasometer is situated next to CentrO, Europe’s largest shopping complex which attracts more than 20 million visitors a year… What interested us most was the Sealife Centre, then home to the since sadly deceased Paul the Octopus, who was at the height of his fame and having to endure us and thousands of children pressed up against the glass. Poor thing! Luckily for him we were all evacuated due to a fire scare… perhaps he pressed the panic button
July 2, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on ÜRZIG/LISBON July 2010
RadiaLx: Pancake Live Transmission
Every two years Rádio Zero in Lisbon hold the radio art festival RadiaLx. Knut loves to make pancakes, so along with Ricardo Reis we decided to cook them simultaneously in Lisbon and Ürzig for a live festival ‘duocast’. For this stereo broadcast, one location could be heard on the left channel and the other on the right
Pancake Live Transmission set-up in Ürzig
Pancake Live Transmission set-up in Lisbon, using binaural headphone microphones
Pancake chat with our guest in Ürzig, Susanne Schug. In both locations we were blessed with an array of home-made preserves
June 8, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on ROTTERDAM June 2010
We were invited to the electronic music studio at WORM to prepare material for a radio play to be broadcast on the Dutch national radio channel VPRO
The magnificent ARP
Our piece entitled ‘duration unknown’ was made for the show Cafe Sonore. The finished work involves direct intervention from the radio broadcaster who is required to announce during playback that due to time pressure they must skip through a long ‘boring’ section in the middle. The presenter must then hit the fast forward button on the CD player, until they reach the correct amount of time remaining for their radio show
All the electronics were recorded on the array of analogue synths at WORM, interconnected to some of our instruments and radio or open mic feedback set-ups. We recorded the voiceover in Ürzig. The piece, concerning the uncertainties of modern day car use, unfolds rather more as an unfinished philosophical journey than a physical one. It was conceived as a response to the Kraftwerk song ‘Autobahn’ in relationship to the building of an out-of-time and -place motorway bridge over the Mosel valley near Ürzig in Germany
May 29, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on COLOGNE May 2010
Vinosonic 2
The Academy of Media Arts and Academy of Music festival Ohrenschmaus was hosted in some unusual venues. We offered to perform a Vinosonic event with biodynamic vintner Rudolf Trossen for the students, to run alongside their explorations of sound and nature in a wild garden in Cologne. Shelter was provided for concerts under the barn roof
Preparing to play alongside the vegetable plot. The atmosphere was informal and conducive to sonic experimentation
Tonic Train set-up in the barn
Rudolf Trossen seducing the students with his magical tales of wine and mythology. In contrast to our last Vinosonic event where we introduced wine lovers to experimental music, here we introduced exquisite wine to sonic explorers. They were bowled over, and many took wine home for their parents and friends to try
May 23, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on LIESER May 2010
Vinosonic
Seeing as we live in the outstanding Riesling-producing region of the world we thought it was about time to create a live event combining wine and abstract music. We invited our regular collaborator Gunter Pretzel from the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra to join us for a wine tasting in which we played a short piece for each of the selected first-class wines. The extraordinary surroundings were provided by the painter and glass artist Mana Binz. The event was part of the Mosel WeinKulturZeit festival
The music… a trio without a name. ‘Goldwingert’ was suggested by the audience (the name of a 0.3 hectare top quality vineyard in our home village of Ürzig). Before each short improvisation, we sampled a wine. At the risk of the music becoming kitsch we did not try to translate the wines into sound, but simply to offer our impressions of them
The wine… helped along by the sparkling expressions of Rudolf Trossen, who told a story about each wine after the audience had savoured it during the music. The listeners were extremely knowledgeable, (as you would imagine for a crowd made up partly of vintners), and one person could not only name each vineyard and vintage tasted, but each individual wine estate. Impressive
April 25, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on COLOGNE April 2010
Art Special: Klingelpütz Parkuhr
Based in and around the Hansa Gymnasium, Art Special is an event held every few years in cooperation with Art Cologne. In 2010 the project was designed to establish new connections between the schools and colleges surrounding the small urban Klingelpütz park near the centre of Cologne. A group of 20 artists were commissioned by directors Uta M. Reindl and Georg Dietzler to work on individual projects within one of the schools. We choose to work with a group of 14 to 16 year old pupils at the Gymnasium on a radio installation for Klingelpütz park which we called Klingelpütz Parkuhr
We were assigned the student mentors Marieke Schneider, Samira Schäfer and Hannah Stelberg at the UNESCO-supported Hansa Gymnasium. Their job was to help us realise the project by managing our student group and offering technical assistance. Spanning several sessions we worked over a few months with the group to produce tiny soundscapes to play as a 72 hour sound installation in Klingelpütz park. The idea was that every hour on the hour the Klingelpütz park clock would strike all over the park – from multiple sound sources hidden in trees and bushes. Each and every hour would offer a new audio surprise to whoever or whatever happened to be passing
We wanted shower radios to diffuse the installation and ensure it remained weatherproof, so along with the students we selected some nice frogs for the job. Once we had tested the transmission set-up, we set off to the park to find suitable locations and test out some camouflage. It was noticeable to us how far removed today’s teenagers already are from the concept and awareness of radio. Yes, if you send a signal, any radio can pick it up!
The installation required a transmission site to host our radio transmitter and antenna. The perfect spot was a medieval tower, part of the former city wall. Now housing a youth club, it was possible to have easy access to the building. Unfortunately the pigeons had not all moved out of the roof space. [Photo of our equipment set-up by Alexander Basile]
We found some more willing volunteers who helped fix some radios in out-of-reach places. Others were simply well concealed by foliage, which, despite having drawn up a decent plan, made it somewhat tricky to perform ongoing daily checks to ensure that all were still broadcasting true to frequency and had not wandered off to a nearby station. The installation was designed to be perfectly quiet in between the short hourly soundscapes, therefore it required a fair bit of maintenance. Our helpers were a godsend
During the planning phase, we had been warned about attempting to work with equipment in the park because it was supposedly home to rival gangs, who would not tolerate an invasion of their territory by artists. After working there intensively over a week, we observed very little to cause concern. On the final day, some local boys discovered the radios and set about removing them from the trees. Watching them playing the dials, it confirmed our perception of a generation removed from the experience of receiving radio signals. Of course they were not happy when they saw me [Sarah] photographing them, and tried to intimidate me a little. I explained that I was documenting the radios as part of our project. It turned out that they knew about Art Special, so when they started up the next tree I asked them to leave the rest in place until the end. They gave up and ran off half exhilarated by their ‘crime’, and half curious about our extraordinary encounter, which had seen them get accidentally involved in an art project
Other public reactions were of equal puzzlement. A sound appeared, and then it was gone. What was it? How? Why? A soundscape suddenly alerted their ears, and just as suddenly all returned to normal. Until an hour later.
One radio hanging high above a corner of the park apparently frequented by junkies was destroyed. Someone had thrown rocks at it, perhaps spooked in the middle of the night by strange noises…
And who can blame them?
Visitors to Art Special heard about the installation in the park and went along to experience it. They did not know however where the radios were placed. This was deliberate, we explained to the parents of our group who were exasperated at not hearing their offspring’s work:
…the installation was designed to take the public by surprise, not to function as an exhibition space. It was fascinating as these visitors then described all the sounds they had actually heard when not sure what to listen out for. So for them the installation had been activated in a different way – by ‘standing in a park listening’
We had to dismantle the installation during the day while the park was still inhabited, but our apprehension soon turned to pleasure when people started asking us if we were the ones responsible for the noises. The old ladies assured us it would take more than a few peculiar sounds to disturb them, others told of how they had been convinced their friends were playing tricks on them for a few days until one of their party had managed to track down one of the radios. The mood was genial, people we met in the park were quizzical about the project, and some liked it so much they wished it would remain permanently active. We left feeling extremely satisfied and realised that we had become sentimentally attached to the special atmosphere defined by the boundaries of Klingelpütz Park. Today it is a fitting living memorial: until 1968 it was not a park, but the largest prison in Cologne. Between 1933 and 1945 more than 1000 opponents of the Nazi regime were executed here
February 7, 2010 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BERLIN February 2010
StationMelt at transmediale 10
StationMelt was a temporary radio project designed to blend Resonance 104.4fm in London with herbstradio in Berlin during the transmediale festival. We worked with Diana McCarty and Pit Schultz to create a synthesis of two radio stations.
The transmediale 10 opening ceremony featuring Yvette Mattern’s impressive 3 kilometre-long laser rainbow projection, ‘From One To Many’
We invited programme makers over from London, and took live broadcasts from each city to play simultaneously on both stations. Here, The Wire magazine rock the house
We also made our usual transmediale radio round-ups to cover the comings and goings of the festival, which were hosted daily by Diana McCarty, Pit Schultz, Knut and Richard Thomas from Resonance. Round table discussions with various artists, philosophers, radio friends and festival organisers intermingled with favourite broadcasters such as Marold Langer-Philippsen who topped off each day with his magical extra-long night stories
One of our London favourites came to stir up the Berlin airwaves with a German film music special. Jonny Trunk also thrilled his regular global audience by answering the phone himself for his regular telephone competition
December 18, 2009 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on NAPLES December 2009
PAN Palazzo delle Arti Napoli invited us to an international forum on the relations between media, critical thinking and contemporary art. One day was dedicated to explore radio as a creative medium and its relations with contemporary art. The session was designed to function like a day of radio programming in a physical space, the stage speakers alternating with sound performances and “hearing sessions”. We choose to do a performance based on various forms of interference, including electromagnetic sounds from the trains we used on our eventful journey to Italy
Our performance set-up was designed to capture all sorts of unwanted signals from the radio spectrum, including intrusions from the air traffic band. Not much to show on stage, most of the action happened on various radios around the room
Whilst from a performance perspective the sounds appeared to be a bit difficult to do anything interesting with, we managed to set them dancing in the room. The audience told us of trails moving across the floor and then suddenly changing direction. It seemed to create an intense dislocated listening experience
Some of our good radio friends were also invited, so we enjoyed the trip immensely. Particularly enjoyable was Richard Thomas playing with his talk by entering the translators booth at the back of the room to give an energetic delivery directly with his translator Gabrielle. What was supposed to be a simultaneous affair was turned into a two-handed secret performance. It took the audience a while to figure out where Richard was speaking from, as the stage remained empty
Etienne Noiseau from Silence Radio in conversation with our host curator Stefano Perna
December 8, 2009 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on ÜRZIG/TOKYO December 2009
Seminar at Kenzai University
We joined up again with Tetsuo Kogawa over the internet to give a radio circuit-bending seminar for his students. We wanted to make a closer connection with them by sharing some wine from the vineyard behind our house, but it could not be easily sourced in Tokyo. Instead we shared mandarin oranges, and introduced the Japanese to the concept of advent calendars – to much interest as ours had marzipan chocolate inside it. Where did it come from, who put it in the calendar? Tetsuo wanted to know
November 3, 2009 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on KINHEIM-KINDEL November 2009
Edible Landscapes
Knut offered to record 2 hours of wine fermentation in the cellars of biodynamic winemaker Rudolf Trossen in Kindel for broadcast on the Resonance 104.4 FM show Edible Landscapes produced by Richard Thomas. You can hear an extract of the wonderful bubbling here
Recording and listening for the best blubs with Rudolf Trossen. Photograph of Sarah and Knut by Oliver Brenneisen
October 28, 2009 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on LONDON October 2009
A concert at the current home of all things experimental, Cafe Oto at Dalston Junction. Kicked off by a Tonic Train duo performance, then a solo from Haco ending in a trio by MRB. It was a treat to play on our long-lost ‘home turf’, and to such a welcoming audience. It’s a great venue
Haco’s solo performance
The first performance of the newly formed Mobile Radio Band – L-R Sarah Washington, Knut Aufermann & Haco
October 27, 2009 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on ULVERSTON October 2009
Our stay in the Lake District was extended by a residency with Haco at Lanternhouse
The residency involved research and rehearsal for an upcoming concert in London. We also did a Show and Tell session for the public. The rehearsals were such a fluid follow-on from our radio work at F.O.N. we decided the three of us would play together under the name Mobile Radio Band
Sorry to leave Glenn Boulter and Andrew Deakin at Ulverston station. A huge thanks to them and fellow Octopodes: John Hall, Fern Oxley and Alex Oxley. We’ll be back
October 25, 2009 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BARROW October 2009
We were delighted to accept an offer by Octopus to work as artists in residence on the F.O.N. festival, together with Haco and Susan Matthews. Mobile Radio proposed to develop content for a live radio broadcast to be performed for an audience at the festival. In the preceeding week we worked closely with the other artists, who also joined us for the performance of our piece MORSONATA. The idea of the work was to convert the sound poem Ursonate by exiled German artist Kurt Schwitters into morse code (he spent his last years living and working on his final Merzbau in the region), and weave this into an intimate portrait of Barrow-in-Furness. We used recent recordings made around the town by other artists, combined with our reflection of a historical moment which joins Barrow past to Barrow present
The shed, the museum, the letter, recording by Haco with Fern Oxley. The interesting thing about Barrow is its primary occupation – building nuclear-powered submarines in the enormous shed. Almost everyone in the town inevitably has some relationship to the town’s military industry. You are not allowed to photograph the shed, or indeed capture anything with electronic devices on Barrow Island where it is situated. Octopus held their festival in its shadow, and invited sound artists to work for a week in the area. Haco, who lives in the pioneering nuclear-free port of Kobe, nearly got arrested on her first recording outing, spotted within seconds by security guards with eyeballs fixed on their monitors. We were safer in the Dock Museum, which gave up its secrets willingly. Here Sarah found the letter that was to become the defining text of MORSONATA, sent by POW James M. Freel Leading Seaman Temporary D/JX.149484, to inform his mother that he was alive after evading certain death on his scheduled submarine (having been transferred at the last minute to another one). He was a Charioteer – human torpedo – charged with riding a missile launched from a sub, then detaching the warhead to plant as a mine on the underside of a ship before riding the chariot away again. His letter is hauntingly humble and prosaic, and was brought to life for us by local actor Damo. The mood was set by an opening and closing song, which could only be Shipbuilding by Elvis Costello. We made our own crude Robert Wyatt-style version for voice and harmonium in the ladies toilets (see pics below)
Keying the Ursonate by Kurt Schwitters. It was utterly delightful to be get the chance to work with ex-Navy and Merchant Navy hands Mike Cumming and Bill Jenkins who approached this unusual and challenging task undaunted. They enjoyed listening to morse code again, in fact it sounded like music to Bill’s ears. When it was his turn to listen, Mike was able to follow the nonsensical rhythmic ‘story’ of the Ursonate, and he could relate the exploits of some of the strange ‘characters’. The work is made up entirely of repetitive patterns of speech sounds, which we used as a rhythm track for our submariner-inspired impression of Barrow
Secomark Hand Operated Syren Type 447, which we were able to test and record on a behind the scenes tour of the museum
The set-up for our radio show, which went out live on Resonance 104.4FM in London, and the recording sites we used around the Canteen building. MORSONATA was made up of layers of morse code which floated in and out, plus field recordings, piano and organ treatments made by Susan Matthews, Clutter and Haco. On top of that were intertwined live performances by Susan on harmonium, Haco on egg slicer, electronics, cymbal and voice, and Tonic Train with our usual electronic instrumentorium of circuit bending and radio feedback. You can view a couple of excerpts in this video (it’s a slow-burner), and read a little more on the F.O.N. blog
It’s not possible to do the marvelous F.O.N. Festival justice on this site and recount the performances, instead here are a few samples of John Wall’s extreme waveforms as a teasing taste of how it sounded. Full 2009 line-up list and futher info, and latest F.O.N. activities
October 16, 2009 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on BERLIN October 2009
Knut@Herbstradio
Knut travelled to Berlin to take part in Herbstradio’s retrospective of life before and after the fall of the Berlin wall, marking the 20th anniversary of German reunification. He interviewed music journalist Helen Thein about growing up in the GDR town of Potsdam with a life-long apsiration to become a radio DJ. She provided the soundtrack of her teenage years to accompany the story. [Wot, no picture?]
October 16, 2009 by Mobile Radio | Comments Off on ÜRZIG October 2009
radiofutura
We did a wine tasting simultaneously in Germany, France. From Ürzig we tasted and chatted about wine and cheese with Dinah Bird and Jean-Phillipe Renoult in Paris, while we waited for the Lisbon crew who couldn’t reach the festival in time. The recording was broadcast at the Future Places Festival in Porto
