| N | |
| NALEPPA, GOETZ NEGRON, FRANCES NEILL, BEN NEUMARK, NORIE NEWELL, ANDREW NIKOLAEV, DIMITRIY NISKER, WES ("SCOOP") NOTTAGE, LYNN |
|
| NALEPPA, GOETZ | |
| Ponte Del Molino (10:50) (1997), with Inge Faarborg, tells of the destruction of a bridge near Naleppa's house in Italy during a flood and its subsequent reconstruction. The work is also a reflection on bridges build between people and on their destruction. With brief texts in German, English and Danish, and with the sounds of the river Prino in Liguria, Italy. Preceded by a brief interview (in English) with Naleppa. GOETZ NALEPPA (Berlin, Germany) has been a freelance radio playwright and director as well as a staff editor at the radio drama department of DeutschlandRadio Berlin (formerly RIAS Berlin) for many years. INGE FAARBORG (Copenhagen, Denmark) is a staff editor at the radio drama department at Danish Radio. She is a member of the group overseeing the recently established radio art series at her station. |
|
| NEGRON, FRANCES | |
| Third
World U.S.A.: First Stop, Philadelphia
(1991) (13:00) A provocative radio-activity
that dramatizes the cultural politics involved in the process of "third-worlding"
(Koptiuch) that has overtaken America in the last two decades. Adopting
a travelogue structure, the producers examine the new interior frontiers
of Philadelphia's urban jungle. They encounter a new breed of yuppie missionaries,
capture the pungent sounds of rap and salsa, listen closely to the voices
of urban militia and merchants of the economic underground and learn about
the mortality rates among blacks and Hispanics. The divergent impulses
in this urban scenario supply a series of aural frames through which the
neo-territory of the "third world at home" bursts onto the airwaves. Commissioned
by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
FRANCES NEGRON is a Puerto Rican poet, film/video/maker and anthropologist, who has lived in Philadelphia for nine years. In 1989 she co-directed "Eso no me pasa a mi," a film about the socio-economics and cultural context of AIDS in the Puerto Rican community in Philadelphia. Among her other projects are a radio work on Latino Poetry in Philadelphia and two music videos on AIDS and domestic violence. KRISTIN KOPTIUCH is an anthropologist trained in a broad interdisciplinary range of cultural studies and social theory who attempts to practice anthropology more as performance art than as a social science. top |
|
| NEILL, BEN | |
|
See Wojnarowics, David, "ITSOFOMO -- In The Shadow of Forward Motion." top |
|
| NEUMARK, NORIE | |
| Into
the Interface (1994) An outstanding
audio art documentary about the way computers are re-shaping the face
of popular culture and altering the way we look and interact. The program
explores computer aesthetics and politics at a visceral and sensual level.
It questions the pleasures and compulsions that draw us into the interface.
"Interface suggests more than just the screen, the machine surface, on
which a new (and old) aesthetics is being imaged. It suggests the human/machine
relationship and interaction that is being shaped there— taking us
to other spaces, other realities, but also telling us and forming who
we are." (Neumark) Into The Interface is structured as an aural hypertext—crossing
the listener between a number of "sound stacks"— dressing room, morphland,
speedzone, surface and desire. Commissioned by The Listening Room, Australian
Broadcasting Corporation. [Listen] Jobs for the Girls, or What Do You See When You Look in the Mirror? (1991) A clear-eyed and humorous look at cosmetic surgery and how women from diverse backgrounds perceive themselves and see themselves perceived by (anglo) others in contemporary Australia, and how that differs from the way they are perceived in their own cultures. Hair growing in "unfortunate" places on the body is more acceptable in Lisbon and Madrid than in Sydney and Canberra. Black hair, not blond, is the beauty ideal in India. And cosmetic correction of large breasts does not automatically make a woman a sex symbol. So what's a girl to do? [Listen] Separation Anxiety: Not the Truth About Alchemy (1997) is an alchemical aural text, a journey through stages of transformation. Historically, alchemy was a way of knowing through a mind/body/and spirit that were not split. The alchemist was understood as a performer who performed his way of knowing in a theater of physiological, psychological, philosophical and spiritual dimensions. Separation is one of the stages or gates of alchemy. Anxiety, a moment when truths are no longer so comfortable or comforting... Separation anxiety is the a moment in which truth, regularity, and categories give way, allowing things to manifest themselves in their singularity. It is a moment more fruitful than chaos. A moment to be experienced. With participating artists and alchemists, Neumark creates this theater, opening the gate to a new way of knowing and doing. [Listen] Shock
(1996) "My interest in shock was first sparked when I suffered a
shock myself after a car accident. It had a profound effect which I found
difficult to convey, as I had no visible wounds or gashes. Perhaps it
addled my brain, perhaps it resonated with earlier experiences of culture
shock, but in any event, the connection between these various articulations
of shock became electrically clear." (the artist). Shock maps the
aesthetics and kinaesthetics of the shock experience, historically, physically
and psychically, from modernism to post modernism, from the attack of
event to the decay of after-shock, from the metaphor into the corporeal
body. It explores the different meanings of shock through stories and
texts. [Listen]
|
|
| NEWELL, ANDREW | |
|
See Earwax Productions, "Metal." top |
|
| NIKOLAEV, DIMITRIY | |
| The
Tune (1993)
(11:00) A play without words. It unfolds through the noises of human activities,
sound effects and music, and portrays the rapidly growing hatred between
its two main characters. Originally friends, their stubborn insistence
on principles leads to violence and finally to a war that destroys many
others with them. "The work was produced during the October 1993 riots
in Moscow, and it was difficult sometimes to distinguish between the sounds
of war created on tape and the real sounds of tanks storming parliament
only 1,200 meters from our studio. However, I tried to treat the theme
with humor—the only thing that can help." Produced for Radio Ostankino/Radio
One Moscow. (D. Nikolaev)
The Word of the Prophet (1994) (15:00) In spite of its many languages, the World speaks only the "yes" language: Da, yes, oui, ja, si ... Yet the Prophet says: "Njet, no." People try to change him, but execute him. After his death, the world begins to speak the "no" language. And a new prophet appears... Produced for Radio Ostankino/Radio One Moscow. DIMITRIY NIKOLAEV (Moscow, Russia) was born in 1960. A student of the State Institute of Theater Art (Theater Academy), Moscow, he has directed eighteen plays for the stage, two for Russian television, and fifteen for radio. Since 1993, Nikolaev has been a producer for Radio Ostankino/Radio One Moscow, and a member of the international ARS ACUSTICA group. top |
|
| NISKER, WES ("SCOOP") | |
| A
Decade in Your Ear (Parts 1 & 2) (1976,
1979) This two-part documentary is not just another collage of the late
sixties and early seventies; it may well be the news-sound collage of
that turbulent time: one that speaks the ideas of justice, freedom, and
enlightenment with a passionate and authentic voice. Its music still carries
the sense of momentous cultural and political upheaval and its voices
still reverberate with amazing intensity and power. Originally produced
in 1976, and reworked three years later into "The Last News Show," these
documentaries have become a solid underground classic. Once considered
too controversial for the public airwaves, A Decade in Your Ear can now
be heard and appreciated as refreshing and exciting radio: collaging at
its very best—and the only news show you can dance to. [Listen
Part 1] [Listen
Part 2]
Hailed as the "Monty Python of Radio" by the San Francisco Bay Guardian, WES ("Scoop") NISKER (San Francisco, CA) is a twenty-seven year veteran of the broadcast media. It was in the late sixties as news director of rock station KSAN-FM, San Francisco, that he first established his reputation as one of the deans of "new journalism." Since that time he has produced documentaries for National Public Radio, worked as a morning talk show host for KPFA-FM in Berkeley, and as news director and special features producer at KFOG-FM. His honors include a 1976 Armstrong Award for excellence in FM programming, and the 1986 Bay Area Media Alliance Meritorious Achievement Award. top |
|
| NOTTAGE, LYNN | |
| Maria
Rodriguez and the Hari Krishnas (1994-95)
A tale of an Hispanic girl growing up in a closely knit brownstone community
in Brooklyn, New York, during the 1970s. The story tracks the humorous
observations of a member of that community watching this world in transition.
Love, politics, and Hari Krishna. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
[Listen]
LYNN NOTTAGE is a graduate of Brown University and the Yale School of Drama. Her most recent plays include Las Meninas (Mabou Mines "Suite" Workshop series) and Eulogy for a Missing Player (Talking Drum Action Theatre). A recent resident artist at Mabou Mines, Nottage is currently at work on Crumbs from the Table of Jou, developed in the summer of '94 at the Sundance Playwrights Laboratory. top |
|
| O | |
| OBRECHT,
BILL ODLAND, BRUCE ODRISCHINSKY, EVA OLIVER, AKILAH NAYO OLIVEROS, PAULINE OSTERTAG, BOB |
|
| OBRECHT, BILL | |
| Aerial
(1993) A work for string quartet, electronics, and radio transmitters
and receivers. The piece uses new advances in psycho acoustic processing
to achieve an extraordinarily large stereo field from regular stereo speakers.
Listeners will experience a 3-D effect with sound appearing to emanate
from an approximately 270 horizontal and 120 vertical field -- provided
they are receiving a strong stereo signal and are properly oriented in
relation to the speakers. Co-commissioned by Harvestworks, Inc. and NEW
AMERICAN RADIO.
BILL OBRECHT (New York, NY) is a musician and composer. As a saxophonist/flutist he has worked with a number of New York's New Music luminaries, including Laurie Anderson, Peter Gordon, and Elliot Sharp. Obrecht has composed for concert, theater, film, and dance. He has pieces in the repertoires of the Joffrey Ballet, the Toronto Ballet and the Berkshire Ballet, among others. Obrecht's music has been presented in a wide variety of venues, from "Saturday Night Live" to Alice Tully Hall to the halls of Hartford, Connecticut's Amtrak station. He recently collaborated with performance artist/ choreographer John Kelly on a piece for the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Next Wave Festival. top |
|
| ODLAND, BRUCE | |
| Cloud Chamber (1977) is an artistic exploration of the question: Can a city be heard as a harmonic symphony? It presents recordings from their sound installation series in which cities were made to resonate, and includes excerpts from their latest collaboration presented at New York City's performance space. The Kitchen, in March, 1997. For the "Cloud Chamber" event, the two sonic alchemists installed a laboratory for transforming the New York City landscape into real-time ambient music. The installation functioned as an instrument, an "industrial digeridu" that was played by the city's roar. Random city sounds caused an overtone series to resonate sympathetically. The chaos of cars, planes, people, motors, and construction was reduced to the order of the Pythagorean harmonic series. Hidden melodies and harmonics were revealed. [Listen] A multi-faceted on-going event, Cloud Chamber can also be accessed via a special website. Terra Infirma (1990) (3:20) A "statistical symphony" that illustrates in sound just how fast the environment is really deteriorating. BRUCE ODLAND (Croton-on-Hudson, NY) is a composer, performer, and audio artist whose major sonic installation works have earned him an international reputation. His credits in this country include work for Laurie Anderson, Peter Sellars, JoAnn Akalaitis and his own Bruce Odland Big Band. See also Auinger, Sam, "King of Time" and "Resonance." top |
|
| ODRISCHINSKY, EVA | |
| The Voice
is the Muscle of the Soul (1989)
The Roy Hart Theatre in France is known for its voice research and its
unique methods of teaching singing. Producer Eva Odrischinsky attended
workshops there for ten years and worked closely with its best singing
teachers. Taking a cheap little tape recorder along to remind herself
of what went on and how it sounded, she accumulated a large sound diary.
This work is an unusual document showing how exciting it can be to experiment
with the human voice. The Voice is the Muscle of the Soul won the 1989
Ake Blomstroem Award (Swedish Radio) for the best European-style feature
by a new and promising producer. An English version remixed especially
for the sreies, presented by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen]
EVA ODRISCHINSKY, a 1983 graduate of the Finnish Theatre Academy, began her career as a director of classics, musicals, children's plays, and experimental works. Her strong interest in the human voice as a means of dramatic expression gradually moved her artistic focus from the theater to sound and radio where she directed adaptations of such contemporary French writers as Marguerite Duras and Nathalie Sarraute. In 1988 she started doing freelance work for the features department, Yleisradio. The Voice is the Muscle of the Soul was produced for Yleisradio (the Finnish Broadcasting Company). top |
|
| OLIVER, AKILAH NAYO | |
|
See Apple, Jacki, "Redefining Democracy in America: Parts 1, 2, & 3: Episodes in Black and White." top |
|
| OLIVEROS, PAULINE | |
| Poem
of Change(1993)
(10:30) A sound-music play that consists of several elements: repeated
sentences such as "Change many things," "Change more things"; a series
of questions such as "Are children loved?"; "Can we give up wars?"; a
compilation of war sounds and a meditative vocal and instrumental composition
by Oliveros. Produced for West German Radio Cologne.
Time Piece (1993) A work that combines three closely intertwined narrative elements related to the subject of time: (1) a time-poem by Oliveros made up of words related to time; (2) time-stories told by Fanni Green about her personal relationship to time; and (3) time-illusions evoked in the sound design and music by Oliveros, the feeling of time stretched and suspended, of time beyond. Co-commissioned by Harvestworks, Inc. and NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] Wind Horse (1990) exists in two forms: as a musical work and as a radiophonic composition. The music was premiered by the Ana Crucis Women's Choir (the oldest feminist choir in the country) at their fifteenth anniversary concert in July 1990. In the radio work, the stories told by the choir members about their experiences with the wind, and the creative process of learning the musical work are woven into a sound environment that evokes the wind. As with most of Oliveros's recent work, Wind Horse is an invitation to "deep listening," a challenge to open our senses to the sounds around us and to listen to one another. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. PAULINE OLIVEROS (Kingston, NY) Pauline Oliveros, composer, performer and humanitarian is an important pioneer in American Music. Acclaimed internationally, Oliveros has explored sound for four decades, forging new ground for herself and others. Through improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation she has created a body of work that displays an incredible breadth of vision. She has been honored with awards, grants and concerts internationally. Whether performing at the John F. Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., in an underground cavern, or in the studios of West German Radio, Oliveros' commitment to interaction with the moment is unchanged. Through Deep Listening Pieces and earlier Sonic Meditations Oliveros introduced the concept of incorporating all environmental sounds into musical performance. To make a pleasurable experience of this requires focused concentration, skilled musicianship and strong improvisational skills, which are the hallmarks of Oliveros' form. In performance Oliveros uses an accordion which has been re-tuned in two different systems of her just intonation, in addition to electronics, to alter the sound of the accordion and explore the individual characteristics of each room. top |
|
| OSTERTAG, BOB | |
| Sooner
or Later (1991)
A musical work that grew out of the composers ten year stay in El Salvador.
"There is a boy and his father is dead. And no angels sang and no one
was better because of it and all that is left is this kid and the shovel
digging the grave and a fly buzzing in the air. If there is beauty, we
must find it in what is really there: the boy, the shovel, the fly. If
we look closely, despite the unbearable sadness, we will discover it."
(Ostertag) The music is made by breaking the original recording into very
small events, and stringing these events into musical structures, creating
shapes radically different from the original. An unusual and haunting
composition. [Listen]
BOB OSTERTAG's (San Francisco, CA) is a composer, performer, instrument builder, journalist, activist, historian, and kayak instructor. His work cannot easily be summarized or pigeon-holed. As a composer, he has released 21 CDs of music, and appeared at music, film, and multi-media festivals around the globe. As a journalist, his writings on contemporary politics have been published in many languages. Electronic instruments of his own design are at the cutting edge of both music and video performance technology. Born in Albuquerque in 1957, he dropped out of the Oberlin Conservatory after two years, and has eschewed working within the confines of academic music ever since. He settled in New York City in 1978 and immersed himself in the “downtown” music scene of the period. He left music in 1980/81 to work in Central America, and became an expert on the region, with writings published in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Europe, and the US. In 1988 he moved to San Francisco and resumed his musical activity. His radically diverse collaborators have included the Kronos Quartet, avant garders John Zorn and Fred Frith, heavy metal star Mike Patton, jazz great Anthony Braxton, dyke punk rocker Lynn Breedlove, drag diva Justin Bond, film maker Pierre Hébert, and others. top |
|
| P | |
| PAAKUNAINEN,
SEPPO PALACIOS, FERNANDO PARKS, SUZAN-LORI PEARCE, ION PETERS, CATHY PHILLIPS, JOHN J. H PURA FE |
|
| PAAKUNAINEN, SEPPO | |
| See Huhtamaki, Harri, "Calewalayana." top | |
| PALACIOS, FERNANDO | |
| Cantaleta
en virutillas (1992) (5:00) A simple,
beautiful composition for whistling, in which the whistle acts like a
stiletto cutting into songs deeply engraved in the sonic memory of the
Spanish people. Commissioned by the Ars Sonora series at Spanish National
Radio (RNE).
FERNANDO PALACIOS (Lisbon, Spain) Biography unavailable. top |
|
| PARKS, SUZAN-LORI | |
| Loco-Motive (1991) A monologue set to a haunting, cinematic sound score by Helen Thorington
in which a woman reflects on the truth of evolution. With typical Parks
word play and humor, the work is surreal, sad, and sometimes even silly.
"All girls grow up and grow tails. All girls grow up and grotesque." Commissioned
by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen]
Pickling (1990) With sound design by Helen Thorington. A story about Miss Miss who has preserved all her loved objects in jars. Bits of mother, tokens of a lover, all are preserved by pickling. Along with parts of an old refrigerator and other things, also kept in jars, they shape the content of Miss Miss's monologue, and her memory. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] SUZAN-LORI PARKS emerged as one of the most promising young playwrights in experimental theater in 1988 with Imperceptible Mutabilities in the Third Kingdom—a work about "African American history in the shadow of the photographic image" (Parks) for which she received an Obie Award. Parks has gone on to produce numerous theatrical works and is one of the most popular and prolific contemporary Afro American playwrights. Pickling was her first work for radio. top |
|
| PEARCE, ION | |
| The
Strange Machine (1991)
Since 1989, Ion Pearce has designed and built musical instruments/machines
from materials found at demolition sites old factories and warehouses
in the inner city areas of Sydney. These strange and monumental musical
machines were created in direct response to the chaos and cacophonies
of the urban environment and the cycle of building/construction/ demolition.
The Strange Machine has been specially adapted for radio from Ion Pearce's
solo performance with these instruments at the SoundCulture '91 festival
in Sydney. A short feature by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's
Robyn Ravlich tells about the artist and his instruments.
ION PEARCE (Sydney, Australia) Biography unavailable. top |
|
| PETERS, CATHY | |
| Clearing
the Square (1996) is a documentary in memory of the victims of the
repression of the democracy movement in Tienanmen Square. An estimated two
and a half thousand unarmed civilians were killed there is June 1989; others
died later or are still in Chinese prisons because of the belief they could
effect democratic political change of a kind occurring elsewhere. Central
to the creation of this work is a clandestine tape recording of testimony
by student leader Chi Ling. The production uses a rich variety of audio
and written documentary materials, including accounts by Amnesty International,
original testimony by a Chinese student in the square who is now living
in Australia and by Christine Liao, an Australian who was in Beijing at
the time. Clearing the Square is an edited version of the original 42:00
work produced by the ABC, Australia's "The Listening Room." [Listen] CATHY PETERS (Sydney, Australia) has worked in audio and sound production for some twenty years, primarily as a music producer for ABC Radio and as a freelance composer. She has produced numerous radiophonic works, documentaries features and recordings of contemporary musics for broadcast and CD. Her radiophonic work has been presented in many international forums. In 1989 her "collaboration" won the Prix Italia, Music. She is currently focusing on multimedia sound production and design. top |
|
| PHILLIPS, JOHN J. H. | |
| The
Things One Has to Listen to . . . (1990)
(10:00) In his novel, The Unnamable, Samuel Beckett's characters hear
many intriguing sounds in the bleak landscape: "the sound of pierced air,"
and "a little cry like a wounded wistiti," to name just two. Occasionally
he even describes the placement of sounds in space. Composed of acoustic
and synthesized sounds etched into a background ambiance, The things one
has to listen to . . . is a tribute to Beckett's vision in a world too
busy to listen. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
Altitudes (1990) (10:00) is a very quiet slow fade from "mountain canyon sound" (13,000 feet) to a "driveway at midnight sound" (9,000 feet) to "field sounds" (500 feet) to sea level with "river waterfront sounds" (0 feet). Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. JOHN J. H. PHILLIPS (Philadelphia, PA) is a painter of twenty years. His perception of sound has been formed by his visual sense of experience. Spacious and quiet, his audio work has been exhibited and performed in Amsterdam, London, New York, and Philadelphia. One of his more recent projects is a collaborative sound-performance on electro-magnetic radiation with a dancer/ choreographer, a sculptor, and a nuclear physicist. See also Seidel, Miriam, "Interference." top |
|
| POWELL, ALAN | |
|
See Coleman, Connie, "Borderland" and "Ground Wars, Parts 1 & 2." top |
|
| PURA FE | |
| Cement
in My Way (1993)
With singer/composer Soni Moreno-Primeau. A musical portrait of two composer/performers
whose native heritage is the inspiration for their work. Soni Moreno-Primeau
(Aztec/Mayan) and Pura Fe (Tuscarora) grew up in two very different environments:
Pura Fe in New York City and Soni as a migrant worker in northern California.
When their paths accidentally crossed in the early 1980s in New York City,
they developed a personal friendship that lead to the formation of the
performance group Pura Fe (Pure Faith). Soni and Pura Fe tell their stories
in conversation and in music. Cement in My Way is a collaboration between
the two performers and producers Helen Thorington and Regine Beyer. Commissioned
by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen]
PURA FE (Philadelphia, PA) is a singer, composer, and dancer. She studied with Martha Graham, danced with the American Ballet Theatre, and sang with the Duke Ellington Orchestra. Her Broadway performances include The Me Nobody Knows, Ari, and Via Galactia. Pura Fe has also done studio work with numerous jazz bands and for many TV commercials. She is a founding member and namesake of the traditional/ contemporary Native American musical group Pura Fe. The group has produced three collections of songs and a music video, Follow Your Heart's Desire, and performed extensively throughout the United States and Canada. SONI MORENO-PRIMEAU (Staten Island, NY) is an actress, singer, and songwriter who studied at the American Conservatory Theatre in California, and played Chrissie in the original San Francisco and the 1975 New York productions of the musical Hair. She has performed at LaMama ETC in New York City and toured Europe with their production of Aladdin's Lamp, as well as appeared in the Broadway production of The Leaf People by Tom O'Horgan. She is a founding member of the musical group Pura Fe and a member of the board of directors at the American Indian Community House in New York City. top |
|
| Q | |
| QUINN, JOHN | |
|
See Hodian, John, "Artaud Ascending." top |
|
| R | |
| RAVLICH,
ROBIN RIEGER, JOHN RIGNEY, SEAN RILEY, TERRY ROBINSON, JONATHAN ROSE, JON ROSENSTEIN, BRAD ROSENTHAL, RACHEL RUBIN, ANNA RUE, RIK RUSSELL, LAWRENCE RYDBERG, BO RUOHORANTA, PEKKA RUX, CARL HANCOCK |
|
| RAVLICH, ROBIN | |
| The
Life of Art—The Art of Life (1993)
A personal memoir about the famous mining town of Broken Hill in Australia's
Outback that is also a thriving art community. Ravlich grew up in Broken
Hill. In 1991 she returned to explore the impact of art on life. Underground,
in the enormous cavernous labyrinth of the mine, she talks to George Gottoes
about his dramatic paintings of Broken Hill miners and the masculine ethos
of the community. Above ground, she talks with Aboriginal artist Edith
Kennedy, feminist painter Kate Lohse, and others. A lively portrait of
people who live on the Australian "frontier." Commissioned by the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation.
ROBIN RAVLICH (Sydney, Australia) is a poet and radio producer. She graduated from Sydney University and subsequently published her first book of poetry. Since 1980 she has been producing documentaries for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, including a series on multiculturalism and ethnic conflict in the United States and Europe, and her more recent Carnivale at the Club about the Yugoslav community in Broken Hill. Ravlich is a co-founding producer of the innovative ABC radio art series Surface Tension, and a producer for its successor, The Listening Room. top |
|
| RIEGER, JOHN | |
| Alcatraz
(1989) (10:50) This work sits on the
boundary between drama and the real world. It contains no actors. The
close, urgent voice that guides you through the notorious penitentiary
is the voice of a former inmate. The guard is a former Alcatraz Prison
guard. And the stories they tell are true stories that draw the listener
in and make him a part of the dramatic tableau. Originally commissioned
by San Francisco's Antenna Theater.
City in a Bottle (1985) A radiophonic work that takes its title from the story of Kandor, a city of Superman's home planet, Krypton, which was subjected to a shrinking beam and held captive in a large glass bottle. According to the story, Superman rescued the city and removed it, still in its bottle, to the Fortress of Solitude for safekeeping. Both story and title provide key's to Rieger's use of more or less mundane sound images taken from his daily life in the Bay Area. He has rescued them from contexts in which they no longer excite interest or attention, and removed them to a compositional context where they can be heard afresh and the questions raised: What is this? Who am I in relation to it? City in a Bottle is an exploration of ways of talking with sound free of the constraints of journalism, drama, and music. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] Drunken Jungle (1989) A drama that is not a drama. Its text, written by San Francisco poet and performance artist Scott McLeod, follows the lives of three characters approaching death in a plague-infested village in an unnamed jungle. But the dramatic frame is repeatedly suspended by the language, a recurring vocabulary of words and images that call attention to the text. The production reproduces the structure in sound. Sound effects that play a traditional role at the beginning of the work become, through repetition, independent sound images. And, like the repeated imagery of the text, they take on a psychological rather than a literary significance. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Windows (1989) (15:30) On one level this is a work about the pure joy of opening windows and listening to what's out there. On another level, it investigates the question: What is the content of a sound recording? and finds that there is much more objective information in it than is usually thought. JOHN H. RIEGER (San Francisco, CA) has produced documentaries, features, and modules for national, state, and local radio audiences. He has also produced sound tracks for experimental films and site- specific installations. Still remembered for his bi-weekly, late-night radio program Artifacts on KPFA, Berkeley (1985-87), Rieger's more recent productions include work for the Bay Area Telecommunications Project (Bari Scott, Director) and an upcoming one-hour special commissioned by CalArts. top |
|
| RIGNEY, SEAN | |
| Topology
of a Phantom City: A Symphony of Samples (1995)
(19:26) Composed entirely of sounds recorded in the urban environment
of Melbourne, Australia. Topology is a musical response to a painting
by Rene Magritte, L'assassin menace. "In this picture, two bowler-hatted
assassins wait menacingly behind the walls of a room which contains two
figures, whilst three other figures observe the room from a window at
the rear. One of the figures in the room is naked and apparently dead,
the other is the menaced assassin of the title, staring into the trumpet
of a gramophone. By sheer coincidence, perhaps the same sort that allows
the note of a truck horn to be in the same key as the sound of an electric
fan and the ad-music on television, my piece seems to have emanated from
Magritte's gramophone." (Rigney) Produced for The Listening Room, Australian
Broadcasting Corporation, Sydney.
SEAN RIGNEY Biography unavailable. top |
|
| RILEY, TERRY | |
| Autodreamographical
Tales (1996) is a brand new and excitingly
different work from "the father of minimalism." It's an electro-acoustic
radio opera based on a series of short stories from Riley's 1995 Dream Journal.
All the music was inspire by and composed specifically and interactively
with these tales. Also emerging and submerging from the text is a dream-like
anthem, "The Circle of Wolves." Its text reveals the perceived
apprehensions of artists, gays, immigrants and people of color who live
in a sometimes hostile and button-downed society. [Listen]
TERRY RILEY (Camptonville, CA) launched what is now known as the Minimalist Movement with his revolutionary classic INC in 1964. His music influenced such diverse musicians as Phillip Glass and the rock groups, The Who and Tangerine Dream. In the 1960s and '70s, Riley turned his attention to solo works for electronic keyboards and soprano saxophone and pioneered the use of various types of tape delay in live performance. His numerous musical activities since then include a series of study trips to India; commissions for the Salzburg Festival and Carnegie Hall; scores for such new music ensembles as The Rova Saxophone Quartet. Zeitgeist and The California Ear Unit; and performances for his own ensemble, Khayal, and The Travelling Avantt-Gaard. He was listed in the London Sunday Times as one of the 1,000 makers of the 20th Century. top |
|
| ROBINSON, JONATHAN | |
| Sight
Unseen: A Travelogue (1991)
A personal documentary essay that makes use of the nineteenth-century
travelogue form, but that is less about "exotic" India than the tourists'
perceptions and his abilities to perceive. It traces the displacement
of an American tourists' sense of belonging, referring ironically to the
ambiguous persistence of the colonial imagination when touring the "exotic."
The point of view shifts between three main voices. The words are taken
from diverse sources, such as, Paul Bowles, Walter Benjamin, and the author,
and are woven into an evocative maze of sounds and musics that include
soundtracks from Indian movies, performances by Ravi Shankar and Wayne
Horvitz, and the sounds of streets and villages in India, Nepal, and Tibet.
[Listen]
JONATHAN ROBINSON (San Francisco, CA) was born and raised in New York City. He studied modern history as an undergraduate at the University of California and then received a Master of Fine Arts from the California Art Institute, Los Angeles. When not traveling, Robinson has worked as a chef, a documentary film editor, and a prisoner's advocate. He recently produced the film Looking for Order, an historical documentary about deviancy, crime, and social control in the Western world. top |
|
| ROGERS, ALVA | |
| See Jones, Lisa, "Aunt Aida's Hand and Stained." top | |
| ROSE, JON | |
| Bagni
di Dolabella (1994)
A tourist's guide to the treatments and political intrigues of an Ancient
Roman Bath. . .the Bath of Dolabella. Owned by a run-of-the-mill corrupt
politician called Navarone, the bath is a state-of the-art health paradise
for the average under-worked, over-stressed city bureaucrat. The tour
guide Donabella dutifully recites her sales pitch. And since election
day is near, she mentions the name of her bos— frequently. Her talk
is punctuated with quick "Vote Navarone" chants by an on-tap chorus. But
in the end, the rather ugly truth about Navarone is revealed . . . Bagni
di Dolabella combines a quirky sense of humor, beautifully recorded sound
and original music by the artist. Produced for RAI, Italy.
Paganini's Last Testament (1989) An outrageous musical play for radio constructed from a series of imaginary documents about the legendary composer and violinist, Paganini. "I've taken what may or may not be true and definitely put it in an area of my own choosing. I've turned him into a religious guru, with people attending his concerts to be cured of diseases and find enlightenment. I edited it together with a lot of Southern Baptist radio material like faith healing. So that the program became not about Paganini, but about people believing in what they want to believe." (the artist). In Rose's work the violin plays a speaking part. Violin, ten string double violin, baby megaphone violin, nineteen string cello and amplified bow are all played by Rose. Produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. [Listen] The Long Sufferings of Anna Magdalena Bach (1998) is a set of variations on a recently discovered theme by Johann Sebastian Bach's second wife: mother of 13 children, hard-working housewife and composer. Colorful, intense and irreverent, this work presents Anna Magdalena in her own voice, commenting on her husband, their life together and on her times. It is an abridged version of a 45 minute commission of the ABC Australia's Listening Room series, 1996. [Listen] The Virtual Violin (1991) An impish music-science-fiction that presents the latest in interactive software for violinists: two new and groundbreaking instruments: the "History Sampler" and the "Virtual Violin." The following is a quote from the Veta Music Systems' catalogue: "Veta has acquired the rights to historic recordings by famous violinists of the past. Simply press the PLAY button and you will sound exactly like an authentic Heifitz or Menuhin. . .The 'Virtual Violin' allows the modern violinist access to cyberspace. With authentic period sound, he or she may wander through simulated three-dimensional space and participate in seemingly real performances by Bach, the emperor Nero, Henry the Eighth, the young Mozart, or sit with the orchestra at a legendary Beatles or Michael Jackson recording session." (from the work) All violins played by Rose. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Violin Music for Supermarkets (1994) Consists of thirty-two mini pieces, some in the form of soap operas. This is an abbreviated version of the work, which was produced for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. JON ROSE (Amsterdam, Holland) Jon Rose was born in Great Britain in 1951, has Australian citizenship, and now lives and works in Amsterdam and Berlin. After studies in music, graphic design, and jazz, Rose began his now fourteen year-long exploration of The Relative Violin—a Total Art Form based around the one musical instrument. This exploration is given expression in a variety of performance areas, such as violin performances of up to 12 hours in duration, large-scale on-site installations, multimedia performances and radiophonic works. Rose has toured the United States, Europe, Australia, and China. top |
|
| ROSENSTEIN, BRAD | |
| A
Personal Appearance by the Virgin Mary and Other Urgent Messages
(1991) (18:00) A man returns home to
rid himself of earlier belongings: a watch, a comb, photographs, a block
of wood, a cigarette, a diary. As his monologue unfolds, it reveals a
religious fanatic trying to erase all sense of a wordly past—developing
a private cosmology and striving toward a mystical marriage. The beautifully
majestic, polyphonic sacred music of the sixteenth-century composer Lassus
serves as counterpoint to the motet of voices that develop in the man's
mind and begin to subvert his assurance. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN
RADIO.
Cayo Hueso—Island of Bones (1992) A creative documentary about Key West, Florida. In collaged interviews, ambient sounds and music, it captures some of the distinct character of the island, whose special perch on the tip of the United States lends an air of go-to-hell independence coupled with an easy "mañana" life style. The cast of characters ranges from writers and politicians to gay activists and boat captains. They chart Key West's evolution from pirate haven to naval base to tourist mecca. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Born and raised in Miami, Florida, playwright BRAD ROSENSTEIN (San Francisco, CA) earned his degree in English and theater arts at the University of Philadelphia. He developed new plays in staged readings and workshops at the Play Works Company, co-founded the InterAct Theater Company and directed plays by Sam Shephard, Joseph Chaikin, Ntozake Shange and Edward Albee. Rosenstein has also worked as a freelance journalist and a dance critic. top |
|
| ROSENTHAL, RACHEL | |
| File
Name: FUTUREFAX (1990)
The sounds of a fax machine going through a time warp... a fax arriving
from the future . . . a female voice reading the message from the survivors
of a catastrophic ecological clash, who now (i.e., in the future) live
in an environment that shelters them from outside perils . . . In File
Name: FUTURFAX, Rosenthal's expressive voice performance is coupled with
sound by Don Preston (formerly with Frank Zappa). Commissioned by NEW
AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] Mouth Music (excerpt) (1990) Playfull vocalizations, with performances on straw, and a glass of water with straw. [Listen] SEARCH FOR THE NEW WORLD Pataphysical ORDER—A Meditation in Time of War (1991) What has happened to us? After the promise of 1990, we find ourselves catapulted back to the time when brute force solved all problems. 1991 is an historic blight. Rosenthal goes on a tour of her own mind in an attempt to discover the seeds of universal folly. The "New World Order" promises to fall in step with Pere Ubu, wading and waddling in his Pataphysics philosophy, shouting "merde!" at the scud fragments raining on the sands of Eden, as Mere Ubu knits little sweaters for crude coated cormorants. All voices and sounds by Rachel Rosenthal with sound design by Dain Olsen. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] RACHEL ROSENTHAL (Los Angeles, CA) is one of the foremost interdisciplinary artists in the United States. Since 1975, she has focused exclusively on performance and has created and presented more than two dozen full-length solo and group pieces for museums, theaters, and alternative spaces all over North America and Europe. A self-described deep ecologist, an ecofeminist, an animal rights activist and Gaia lover, Rosenthal's recent projects include Amazonia, a collaboration on the Rain Forests with a group of musicians; the California E-A-R Unit, presented at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Pangaean Dreams, a solo piece with music and video co-sponsored by the Los Angeles Festival 1990 and the Santa Monica Museum of Art, that toured Europe and the United States. Rosenthal is also a much sought-after lecturer and workshop leader. top |
|
| RUBIN, ANNA | |
| World
Turning Over (1990) A music-drama
depicting the world some forty generations after an unnamed disaster.
Living underground, the inhabitants have suffered multiple deformities,
and their names starkly and immediately identify these infirmities: One-Eye,
Wing, Only Moans . . . A mythology relating to pre-disaster religious
teachings binds the community together: fragments of songs, stories, unexplained
values . . . The dramatic crisis facing this community is the sudden inexplicable
drive of the figure called "Only Waits" to emerge into the Upper Air,
the abandoned wasteland that is the world above ground. Commissioned by
NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
ANNA RUBIN (Brooklyn, NY) is a classically trained composer/performer with a strong interest in electronic music. She received her M.F.Aa in composition from the California Institute and continued her education at the Institute of Sonology, Utrecht, and the Sweelinck Conservatory, Amsterdam, Holland. Rubin's credits include performances throughout the United States and in Europe. World Turning Over is her first work for the broadcast medium, and her first drama. top |
|
| RUE, RIK | |
| The
World Behind You (1992-94) With
Shane Fahey. A series of sound compositions that use decoyed and doctored
sounds from many regional and global sources, including urban and environmental
sounds, found sound, tapes of instrumental material and text bartered
from musicians and vocalists. Two sections from the series are presented
in this program: (1) Modern Sleep
(5:45), a dream-like electro-acoustic work to relax into and to relax
with [Listen];
and (2) Intrusions
(due to the inclement weather) (8:10), an expressive blend of rolling
thunder, the voices of birds and cicadas, electronic manipulations, and
industrial music [Listen].
RIK RUE and SHANE FAHEY are composers and sound engineers based in Pyrmont and Sydney, Australia. top |
|
| RUSSELL, LAWRENCE | |
| Ride
On (1989)
"I am a professional man," the protagonist of this work says. "Maybe I
was a hippie once, but I'm a professional now . . . I make ends meet .
. . All I want is a bit of privacy, a chance to relax. That's why we live
here on the inlet. . . ." But that's not what happens when late one night
his teenage son comes home drunk, and eager to show his goon friends the
pot plants his father and mother are nurturing upstairs. . . . Ride On
captures in amusingly realistic language the anxiety and frustration of
a father whose anti-authoritarian position turns against him.
Born in Northern Ireland, LAWRENCE RUSSELL has been living in Canada since 1958. His theater plays have been staged throughout Canada, including performances at Stratford (Ontario), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and the Factory Theatre Lab (Toronto). He has produced numerous audio tapes for university and listener-subscription FM stations throughout North America, and has written radio dramas for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, winning the CBC Literary Prize twice. Russell is currently a professor of creative writing at the University of Victoria, British Columbia. top |
|
| RYDBERG, BO | |
| Krets
A work about the illusory freedom
of man—in this place, in our time. While there is a kind of story,
the work is best experienced as a sound-music composition that may lead
listeners to differing emotional and psychological interpretations. With
brief excerpts from Bertrand Russell's introduction to Wittgenstein's
Tractatu in Swedish and English. Produced fby the Earplay group of the
music department at the Swedish Radio Company. Bo Rydberg Biography unavailable. top |
|
| RUOHORANTA, PEKKA | |
|
See Huhtamaki, Harri, "Calewalayana." top |
|
| RUX, CARL HANCOCK | |
| Pork Dream
in the American House of Image (1994-95)
With original music by Bill Toles. The story in this play is written as
a libretto. Enveloping new wave music, post-ante-bellum rhythms, blues,
gospel, show tunes, and pan-African percussions, Pork Dream is a postmodern
musical fantasia about an eternally young boy, "Pork," who was born and
raised in a movie house at the beginning of the twentieth century. His
family are the characters he has come to love, hate, and imitate, in Westerns,
post-war detective flicks, turn-of-the-century race films, musicals, and
Home Boy Hood Independents. As he enters the twenty-first century, Pork
finds himself bored and all too familiar with the images he has lived
with for a hundred years. So he decides to give up his eternal role as
a film voyeur and become a filmmaker, facing his own creativity for the
first time. But filmmakers seem to come and go—only the images and
the audience live forever. . . Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen]
CARL HANCOCK RUX is a playwright whose works include Geneva Cottrell Waiting for the Dog to Die, which has been performed at such New York venues as Actor's Playhouse, Mabou Mines, Aaron Davis Hall, as well as at the Woodstock Jazz Festival, the American Church of Paris (France), The University of Ghana (West Africa) and the National Institute for the Arts in Abidjan (Ivory Coast, West Africa). A recipient of the 1994/95 Fresh Poet's Award, Rux is also published in several periodicals, journals, and the new anthology Aloud: Voices from the Nuyorican Poet's Cafe. (1994 American Book Award). top |
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