RadioActive – on Water is a six episode podcast series, exploring the interactions between transmission, sound, activism and water. Each episode is created by a different artist/group of artists who engage with water politics and the politics of listening through the medium of radio. This show contains 2 excerpts from each episode, selected by the series’ curators.
Creators: Blanc Sceol (Stephen Shiell and Hannah White), Lisa Blackmore and Leonel Vásquez, RE-PEAT collective, Margarida Mendes, Carlos Monleon and Nathaniel Mann, Meira Asher.
The episodes:
‘An Ear to River ~ counterflows’ by Blanc Sceol (Stephen Shiell & Hannah White) invites the audience to listen with the Channelsea river, a recovering waterway in East London and home to the city’s largest combined sewage outfall.
‘River song, singing rivers’ by Lisa Blackmore and Leonel Vásquez, navigates the Bogotá River in Colombia through a more-than-human song created in collaboration with the living forces that shape the watershed’s ecosystems.
‘Watered’ by RE-PEAT collective approaches water justice through imagining the perspective of water nself, by drawing stories and definitions of bodies of water, and n’s entanglement in relation with other bodies, bogs, bugs, sundew, moss and more.
‘Sonic Traces’ by Margarida Mendes, is a journey from the deep ocean to the Mississippi river, to expose how traces of pollution, sonic and chemical, travel through watery space impacting communities across ecosystems.
‘River Breathing’ by Carlos Monleon and Nathaniel Mann, examines the impact of irrigation systems on human and more-than-human communities through the Ebro river in Spain and its endangered clam population.
‘Liquidation’ by Meira Asher interrogates the politically engineered water crisis in the Occupied Palestinian Jordan Valley where Israel deliberately and strategically deprives Palestinian shepherd communities of access to water.
Curated by Meira Asher and Stephen Shiell
Production – Meira Asher, radioart106
Mastering – Daniel Meir
Web design – Laetitiia Boulud
Produced with the support of the Pais council for Culture and Art, Israel
Image by Pablo Sanz from a project along the Manzanares River in Madrid
Partners & broadcasts:
Resonance Extra – May 6 – 11, 12pm [gmt+1] https://extra.resonance.fm/
USMARADIO – May 13 – 18, 7pm [cet] https://usmaradio.org
KZradio – May 19 – 24, 12am [gmt+2] https://kzradio.net
Archipel Community Radio – May 26 – 31 – 3pm [cet] https://archipel.community/
Radio Tsonami – June 3 – 8, 3pm [gmt-4] https://radiotsonami.org/
diffusionfm – June 10 – 15, 9pm [aest] https://diffusionfm.wordpress.com/
Website: https://radioactiveonwater.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/radioactive.on.water
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/radioactive.on.water
Email: radioactiveonwater@gmail.com
Talk by feminist MK Aida Touma-Sliman about the context, background and aftermath of the October 7th Hamas massacre, and the Israeli war on Gaza. Recorded in Acre on 26.11.23.
Author: Meira Asher
Aida Touma-Sliman is a member of Knesset representing Hadash (Democratic Front for Peace and Equality). She was first elected in 2015 and served as the chair of the Knesset committee for the Status of women and gender equality.
MK Touma-Sliman is a member of the political bureau of the communist Party of Israel. Before being elected to the Knesset she was the editor of Al-Ittihad daily newspaper, affiliated with Hadash. She was the co-founder and general director of “Women Against Violence” – a Palestinian women’s organization that was responsible, among other things, to the creation of the first battered women’s shelters in the Palestinian community in Israel.
MK Touma-Sliman was the first woman to serve in the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel and is Co-founder of the IWC- International Women Commission for Just Palestinian-Israeli Peace. She is also secretary member of the World Peace Council,
MK Touma-Sliman has been one of the strongest voices representing the Palestinian community in Israel and a harsh opponent of the Israeli occupation. She has been an outspoken critical voice against the Israeli settlements and the violent attacks on Gaza. MK Touma-Sliman has also played a prominent role in the development of the feminist movement in the Palestinian community in Israel and is regarded as one of the leaders of the Israeli feminist movement as a whole.
Midnight Echoes: A Sonic Journey Through Overthinking
Midnight Echoes explores the theme of overthinking in silence, delving into the sounds that haunt restless nights. It combines samples, field recordings and experimental techniques on DJ decks. The piece consists of four parts, each representing different aspects of overthinking. The first section sets the foundation of the piece, representing the hypnagogic state as fragmented memories and snippets of conversations. The insomnia presents itself in the second section that delves into an inner monologue, where racing thoughts and self-doubt intertwine. The soundscapes transition between calm moments of introspection and frenetic bursts of chaotic energy, reflecting the ebb and flow of overthinking. Sonic elements overlap and collide and heighten the sense of restlessness until the final section introduces a shift towards tranquility. The journey transitions from dissonance to harmony and ends in acceptance and finding peace within the chaos of overthinking.
The overall aim is to offer a cathartic and introspective experience, inviting listeners to confront their own inner dialogues and find solace within the power of sound.
proxy_404 is a multifaceted artist hailing from Berlin, Germany, with a captivating blend of Ukrainian-Russian and Turkish heritage. As a psychotherapist, DJ, radio host, and community events organizer, they find inspiration in the intricate workings of the mind and the depths of human emotions.
proxy_404 fearlessly explores music, pushing boundaries and embracing experimentation. Their sonic landscapes resonate with raw emotion, thriving on the unexpected and the beauty of imperfections. As a DJ, their carefully curated sets transcend genres, captivating audiences with thought-provoking experiences. Their role as a radio host extends their reach, sharing diverse shows and fostering a supportive community. As a psychotherapist, proxy_404 navigates emotions, providing a safe space for exploration and healing. Their art and community work combine music, psychology, and human connection, continuously challenging conventional norms to inspire personal and collective growth.
Image by Till Rückwar
Floy Krouchi
Voices in my head
(in a no man’s land)
2022
(electronics, voices, transformed field recordings)
“A dry landscape of rocky mountains, transforming slowly into a pure white desert. No water,
No trees around, one floor’s beduins habitations, campement for the goats, under the strinking sun.
The road belong to the Power but the landscape belongs to the people, to the rocks, to the sand…
We have left the flags in No Man’s Land”
Floy Krouchi is a sound artist, composer and bass player from Paris, with mixed origins. She exclusively used her voice as the material for this piece, together with sounds recorded, generated and transformed in the so called “Holy Land” during various stays. The plurality of registers of the same voice, from melody to pure some objects or noises is used as a metaphor of the complexity of identity.
On 4 May 2022, the Israeli Supreme Court approved the forcible transfer of more than 2,200 Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta (South Hebron Hills) after the military declared their area of residence as “Firing Zone 918.” In handing down this judgment, the court permitted the state to commit a war crime.
This broadcast joins the emergency call to #SaveMasaferYatta. It is mainly compiled from local activists’ documentations of home demolitions, military assaults, Illegal Jewish settlers attacks, and new interviews.
“I am Wazha Ayub Abu Sabha, 60 years old. We have been living on this land since I was born, and I got married and had a baby, and I had grandchildren and brides in law, all this land. And my husband, rest his soul, got a cardiac arrest because he was here and did not agree to go home, then he got a cardiac arrest in the evening after he came home and we milked the goats, then he got a cardiac arrest and we called the car that came to pick us up, we returned home and he died. And we did not move from here. We built houses and wanted to rest and then they came and demolished our houses, 5 rooms, and a room on the second floor where my son wanted to entertain friends and another room that served as a warehouse, and a shed. On the first time they demolished everything. Then there were people who brought us houses and helped us, we rebuilt the houses. And we also set up a pigeon nest, a kitchen and other rooms. We were offered to move away from where we were the first time, that’s what we did but they demolished everything at once. They came the second time and destroyed everything at once the rooms and the kitchen and everything. On the third time [demolition], people helped us to set up tents. Two tents. Then suddenly in the middle of the day without any warning we saw tanks coming towards us. They moved the tents again and even the pipes – destroyed and removed from the place also a tree that was in the place. They uprooted it.
Then they destroyed everything. The legume warehouse, they took out the food for the sheep using a crane, and using a knife they opened all the food bags and covered them with earth. where shall we go? What shall we do? We sat here in the sun until they brought us the keys to the clinic where we are sitting now. The lambs and sheep were not saved either, they were also harassed. They took them out of their sheds, the lamb that gave birth, died in the morning, and our losses… we do not know how much …. And now we are in this heat, who can sit under this scorching sun?
This is our land and this is our homeland. Where shall we go? We have no other place, can’t leave and don’t want to leave.”
Recorded by Basel Al-Adaraa, Nasser Nawajah, Meira Asher and more. Speakers: Eid Hathaleen, Wazha Ayub Abu-Sabha. Interpreter and field coordinator: Hamdan Mohamad Hurani. Translation: Samia Nasser. Thanks to Sulaeman Salem Al-Adaraa, Kefah Al-Adaraa and the activists at Masafer Yatta, South Hebron Hills. Produced by Meira Asher for radioart106
Additional information: B’TSELEM #SaveMasaferYatta
Since April 2020 I have been going through the archives, my back-up hard drives, and revisiting old projects. Since the world seemed to collectively hit pause, the pandemic provided an opportune moment to take stock of the past. Presented here are two early works, recorded while I was studying audio at college in Southern Ontario during 2001 and 2002. It was around this time that I had mostly thrown away my conventional methods of making music, the bulk of which up to that point was created on computers with module trackers and other shareware. I was a few years deep into both hardware synthesizers and field recording, and I was in search of new processes and techniques for working with sound without the rigidity of programming on a grid.
The programme for this half-hour broadcast consists of Winter [21m53s] and Volute [6m20s]. The first piece was recorded during a blizzard as I sat inside a warm recording studio in Stoney Creek. I watched the snow come down for hours through the big windows while I programmed the Nord Electro all day. The second piece is an electric meditation of resonating fields and buzzing wires that was recorded in my apartment at the Victory Building in Hamilton. It was among my first forays into recording static, magnetic noise, and other such sources as sound material. I hope that these pieces from 20 years ago provide a unique listening experience.
-CK, 21 December 2021
Constantine Katsiris has been a composer of experimental electronic music for nearly three decades. An avid phonographer, he has conducted field recording expeditions around the world from urban settings like Prague and Paris to more remote regions such as the Brazilian Amazon rainforest. His compositions have been broadcast to listeners around the world from Concertzender Nederland to MTV Brasil. Katsiris has brought his live performances, installations and fixed media works to many notable venues, such as La Société des Arts Technologiques [Montréal], Whitechapel Art Gallery [London], Brut Konzerthaus [Vienna], and SESI Art & Cultural Center [São Paulo]. He is also passionate about showcasing, broadcasting, and disseminating sound works as a curator of exhibitions and concerts for galleries and festivals, as a programmer on community radio, and as the director of the Panospria record label for sonic experimentation.
http://www.notype.com
Sonic lament in memory of the Palestinian children that were killed by the occupation forces in Gaza and the West Bank during May 2021.
The eighty two names and ages of the children were collected by the Palestine ministry of Health and activists in Gaza.
Narrated by poet Dareen Tatour
Introductory text based on “Israel chooses violence” by Haggai Matar for +972 magazine
Materialised by Meira Asher and Dareen Tatour at radioart106 for radia.fm
Image by Rana Bishara
sounds:
field recordings – people of Gaza
Heart, No Crossing, Neshimot – Meira Asher
Mba ferigneso Baras – Madagascar: Pays Bara
Dikoboda Sombe II – Aka Pygmies
Mix Me Tape #1: Trumpet Solo is a piece composed exclusively from previously published trumpet solos. The original material has been cut and rearranged to form a completely new piece of music.
The used trumpet solos appeared on the albums Brt Vrt Zrt Krt (Al Maslakh – 2005), No Cuts / No Overdubs / No Use of Electronics (Discrepant – 2019) and Cuts, Overdubs and Use of Electronics (Discrepant – 2019).
Mazen Kerbaj is a Lebanese comics author, visual artist, and musician born in Beirut in 1975.
He is widely considered as one of the initiators and key players of the Lebanese free improvisation and experimental music scene. He is co-founder of Irtijal, an annual experimental music festival held in Beirut since 2001 (www.irtijal.org), and of Al Maslakh, the first label for experimental music in the region operating since 2005 (www.almaslakh.org).
As a trumpet player, whether in solo performances or with long-lasting groups like “A” Trio, Kerbaj pushes the boundaries of the instrument and continues to develop a personal sound and an innovative language.
In 2015, Kerbaj was the recipient of a DAAD one-year artist in residency in Berlin. He lives and works in the German capital since.
