I said. He said. It was said. It was written. They wrote it. She thought it. I say, listen to CKUT as we dabble in that wild and wonderful thing we call language (the English language).
by ckut / Adelaid / Dominique Ferraton / Andrea-Jane Cornell / Alphie Primeau / Erin Weisgerber / Chris Hand
Monthly Archives: June 2010
Show 273: history exhaustion by Francis Hunger
three friends search for an ominous radio station that transmits number sequences with mysterious messages. told is the expedition’s story through an area bearing names
such as ‘path of the invisible hand’, ‘stalin highlands’ or ‘post-modernist cave labyrinth’.
the characters – student, entrepreneur, skilled worker – lose their life or at least get lost under unpleasant circumstances…
history exhaustion is the audio transformation of an installation francis hunger created in 2009,
focussing on the subject of ‘verausgabung’ (exhaustion).
with the voice of richard cotter.
francis hunger is an artist, writer and curator. he lives in leipzig, germany.
find out more about francis hunger and his work at
http://www.irmielin.org
further information on the installation work ‘history exhaustion’ can be found at
http://www.irmielin.org/works/history_exhaustion/index.htm
and at
http://www.metro-berlin.net/index.php/francis-hunger-history-exhaustion-press-release
Show 272: Improvisationen by VuNhatTan
VuNhatTan is a Vietnamese composer of experimental orchestral/chamber/piano and electro/computer & multimedia works that have been performed in Asia, Europe, United States and elsewhere. Tan studied piano at Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi, where he earned a certificate in 1987 and degrees in secondary education in composition and musicology in 1991. He then studied composition and musicology there from 1991-95 and graduated with his BMus. He later studied computer music and new music at the Staatliche Hochschule für Musik in Cologne in 2000-01, on a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. His honors include Third Prize in the composition for traditional instruments competition of the Vietnam Composers Association in Hanoi (1992, for Chamber Piece for Traditional Vietnamese Instruments and First Prize in the Saint-German-en-Laye competition (1995, for Ky Uc – Memory).
He has performed on numerous occasions as a pianist and sáo tre (bamboo flute)-player in contemporary and improvisational music in Australia, China and Vietnam. He has lectured on composition and musicology at Vietnam National Academy of Music in Hanoi since 1995. He has also guest-lectured on Vietnamese music in Australia and Vietnam.
His work for radia is composed by soundscaping Hanoi and becomes a part of the ping-pong-collaboration between Corax musicians and vietnamese artists from Hanoi.
Show 271: Endangered Radio Band by Mobile Radio
replacement programme by Mobile Radio
An intrinsic feature of radio broadcast is on the verge of extinction: interference. Artists have always loved interference. Early memories convey intoxicated sweeps of an old valve radio dial, simultaneous capture of two shortwave stations, the swashing sounds of the in-between as a prerequisite for sleep. The new interference is reduced to metallic distress at the breaking point of digital transmission; the new silence of buffering and disconnect presents a wholly characterless absence. What happens now? Will people forget what a rotary dial is? Will the radio band become an endangered species?
Whilst digital audio technology tries to emulate the analogue sound wave as closely as possible, digital transmission renders the radio spectrum inaccessible. The bits in-between are reallocated or discarded. The noise that changes when you touch the aerial is out of reach. Maybe the caller on the Harmon E. Phraisyar show Album One is correct when she says: “You and your stupid radio programmes, I’m fed up. Tell me this you stupid radio worms: radio interference, often it is that I am getting the interference. Why is it that the interference is always more interesting than the programme itself?” Endangered Radio Band is a performance by Mobile Radio, voyaging the vocal and electromagnetic spectra in search of an answer to this question.
Recorded in Napoli in December 2009 by Etienne Noiseau.
Here is a list of sound sources that were used for the performance (in no particular order) which was distributed on the PA system, and via FM transmitter to portable radios in the room.
– VLF natural radio from Todmorden (UK, 8-8:30pm local time)
http://67.207.143.181:80/vlf1 (live stream)
– electromagnetic sounds from Sony Minidisc recorder MZ30 via telephone coil of a modified analog hearing aid (live)
– broken AM radio (live)
– malfunctioning toy radio purchased in Napoli (live)
– home-made ultrasonic detector (live)
– home-made electronic instrument “Feedbug” via internal fm transmitter (live)
– air traffic radio band receiver (live)
– electromagnetic recording of the journey leaving Zurich for Milano in an Italian Pendolino train on 16/12/2009
– Morse code version of Kurt Schwitters’ “Ursonate”, recorded in Barrow on 22/10/2009
http://fullofnoises.blogspot.com/2009/10/coding-ursonate.html
– Original version of “Ersatzrauschen”, sounds of a defunct Bell&Howard digital 8-track data recorder, recorded in Prague in 2006
http://www.finetuned.org/index.php?aid=49
– excerpt from the Harmon E. Phraisyar show “Album One: Unthinkable” produced in 2004 for Kunstradio
http://www.kunstradio.at/2004A/02_05_04.html
– cut-up recordings of the 15th and final World Chess Championship Game between Gary Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik on 2/12/2000 (French and English commentary, as well as Kasparov in the press conference)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_World_Chess_Championship_2000