| S | |
| SATURDAY,
JACK SANI, NICOLA SCHOEN, CLAIRE SCHUMAN, JOAN SEIDEL, MIRIAM SHORT WORKS SIFUENTES, ROBERTO SILTANEN, JUHA SIREN, PEKKA and AGNIESZKA SKIBELL, HARRIS SLEIGHT OF MIND GROUP SMITH, LADONNA SMITH, MIYOSHI SNITOW, ALAN SONAMI, LAETITIA STEADMAN, NANCY STEPHANOVIC, IVANA STIFTER, CATHERINE STONE, SUSAN STOYKE, MARCIE SUBLETTE, NED SUGAR, MIKLOS SUNWAN, JIANG SWEARINGEN, DONALD |
|
| SATURDAY, JACK (alias Matt Fair) | |
| The
World Owes You A Living (1988)
A provocative collage made from hundreds of hours of recordings of day-time
radio programming. It addresses the effects of the computer revolution
and our increasingly high-tech environment on North American and international
world markets.
JACK SATURDAY (alias Matt Fair) (Victoria, British Columbia) is a painter, audio artist, writer, and composer. He decided years ago to make his life his art and he has followed the idea faithfully—without ever pursuing the sale of his work. top |
|
| SANI, NICOLA | |
| Water Memories (16:30) was inspired by Leonardo da Vinci's "Pensieri", a painting that expressed an idea of the rapport between the life of man and the passing of time, symbolized by the continuous flow of water. The acoustic material of this radiophonic composition consists of electronically altered water sounds, and other natural and electronic instrumental sounds that are reminiscent of the sound qualities of water and its particular timbre. A metaphorical story emerges. It is as if on its endless journey through history, the flowing water collected sounds - that were transformed into poetic vision by the composer - and can now be relived by his listeners. NICOLA SANI was born in Ferrara, Italy, in 1961. His compositions include instrumental and electronic works as well as operas and multimedia projects on which he has collaborated with many of today's leading directors and visual artists, such as Michelangelo Antonioni, Nam June Paik and Mario Sasso. From 1986-88, Sani organized the music section of the Electronic Arts Festival in Cameriono, Italy, and since 1993 he's directed the electronic arts program of the Roma Europa Festival in Rome. He presently hosts a series of classical music programs for RAJ Radio. |
|
| SCHOEN, CLAIRE | |
| See Snitow, Alan, "What's Left?" top | |
| SCHUMAN, JOAN | |
| Conversations
with Jane (1993)
Investigates the question: What can progressive feminists and lesbians
(the Janes) do to move from their current self-involved personal knowledge
and "emotional victim" awareness to political and collective struggle
to affect social change? Partially improvised conversations are layered
and linked by music, rhythmic use of ambiances, and the repetition of
catch words. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
JOAN SCHUMAN (Santa Cruz, CA) is a writer, activist, and feminist. Between 1985 and 1989 she wrote and produced public radio documentaries on lesbian, feminist, and multicultural issues for WXPN FM, Philadelphia, Pacifica Radio, and National Public Radio's Latin File and All Things Considered. Since 1988 she has worked as an educator, counselor, and advocate in the Battered Women's and Rape Crisis Movement. top |
|
| SEIDEL, MIRIAM | |
| Interference
(1992) With http://audiofiles.newamericanradio.org/visual artist John J. H. Phillips. A bizarre sci-fi
play that unfolds as one person's inner monologue and as a sound collage
that evolves into the equivalent of the text, entwining itself first
between sections, then between words until it finally becomes the words.
The story traces one person's reaction to a mounting dislocation in
the structure of the physical world. "This fable embodies my own questions
about the overwhelmingness of our fractured culture." (Seidel) Commissioned
by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
MIRIAM SEIDEL (Philadelphia, PA) is a writer and artist. Her artworks include outdoor and indoor installations, several collaborative works including a performance/public ritual presented at Philadelphia's Painted Bride Art Center; and several dramatic works. Seidel's writing about art has appeared in The New Art Examiner, High Performance, Art in America, and other publications. top |
|
| SHORT WORKS | |
| Audio Art Ireland | |
| Audio Art Ireland (1997) presents three works from a country rarely associated with cutting edge sound art. They were commissioned for the art project "Random Access", a brain child of the Sculptor's Society of Ireland in 1992: GBH (8:00) by Fergus Kelly explores the interface between the body and technology in the context of industrial production. It looks at the idea of the vulnerability of the body, the body as something soft and penetrable in contrast with the hard-edged surfaces and effects of technology. Breaking Point (6:50) by Stephanie Condon Casey is a powerful audio sculpture made of voices, sounds and music. "I voice the measure of coercion in a word -Mother -against the experience of women who have children: Tracy, Marie, Frankie, Rosemary, Caroline and many more. I have distilled into minutes of sound: Years of endless exhaustion, unvalued work, suppressed and censored anger." (the artist) Kevlar Second Chant (11:00) by Tony Patrickson and Chris North may be called digitally processed sound-poetry. In the words of the artists it's simply: "When opening, the mouth defends the ears." NO BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION is available at this time. |
|
| DISCONTACT | |
| DISCONTACT (1997) is devoted to Canadian electro-acoustic music. Its offerings include: Woodstock to Detroit by Frank Koustrup (2:50). An excerpt from a time-lapped film depicting an automobile journey from Montreal to Samia. The sound sources are recordings of sheets of metal and the lead-out groove from a cardboard phonograph record; Spleen (2:20) by Robert Normandeau, "cinema for the ears", in which the sense of the sound, what it represents, is as important to the composition as the physical nature of the sound; Jolly (2: 15) by Bruno Degazio, a set of miniature dramas for electric violin and tape adapted from earlier song settings of poems by Edgar Allen Poe. NO BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION is available at this time. |
|
| #1 | |
| Radio Alarm
(1987) by Christine Baczewska: a "colloquial operetta" commissioned
by David Moss for the OpeRadio project in 1987. In the Dark (1990) (6:30) by Helen Thorington: audio images that evoke an unpeopled, cinematic geography. A landscape of loneliness and loss. In Malpais (1990) (5:30) and The Respirator (1990) (5:31) by Gregory Whitehead: "It's the Malpais we're talking about: hot sand, black rocks, and a whole lotta dead things." A dramatic geography. The Respirator: sensual and unusual audio inspired by the terminal Illness of the broadcast medium. "There is no sign of brain activity, but we are able to keep the patient breathing through the use of a respirator." |
|
| 1998 #1 | |
| Les frontieres (14:25) (1996/97) by Chantal Dumas is part 3 of her radio art trilogy "The Perfume of Women" commissioned by the German radio stations, SFB and DeutschlandRadio, Berlin. At a time when globalization takes hold of economics and communications, the geopolitical frontiers are shut tight. From the point of view of migrants, borders are not stopping and crossing points anymore, but fortresses. This piece offers migrant perspectives from four countries: Germany, Algeria, Switzerland, and Mexico. Balaton Highlands (12:00) by Miklos Sugar is composed into a series of pictures that capture the sounds and music of Lake Balaton in Hungary. "...the splashing of its waters, the surrounding noises, and particularly those of our garden - trains, bells, folk songs and a musician gipsy playing the harp." (the artist) CHANTAL DUMAS (Montreal, Canada) was born in 1959. After her musical studies, she took part in the promotion of new music by organizing concerts and presenting shows as a freelance journalist for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and on community radios in Montreal. In 1993, she began her career as a radio artist, creating commissioned work for public radio in Germany and France that have been presented throughout Europe. Her most recent awards includes first prize in the 1997 HEAR festival sponsored by Hungarian Radio. MIKLOS SUGAR (Szekesfehervar, Hungary) was born in 1952 in Budapest, where he later studied composition at the Academy of Music. From 1988 to 1990, Sugar worked at Hungarian Radio. In 1991, he began playing with the National Philharmonic Society. Since 1987, he has been a professor at the Academy of Dramatic and Fine Arts in Budapest. |
|
| 1998, #2 | |
| Here Comes Everybody (2:15) by Gregory Whitehead and Dan Lander is a seductive(ly) ironic comment on radio and its gurus. Premiered live over a telephone line. Acte (5:27) by Ward Weis. A radio ad, "Always Coca-Cola", as stimulus for an improvisational sound art piece. War of Dreams (8:07) by Shelley Hirsch. Musical improvisations, story, and expressive, processed breathing are woven into a piece of kinetic theater. With a text based on Angela Carter's "Doctor Hoffmanns Infernal Machines of Desire." Epitaphe pour Iqbal Masih (10:21) by Erik Mikael Karlsson. In memory of the twelve-year old Pakistani boy who was sold at age four to a weaving mill where he was kept chained up for the best part of the next six years. When he was ten years old, Iqbal managed to flee. He then took part in the fight against child labor until he was shot two years later, in 1995, while out cycling with some friends in his home village. GREGORY WHITEHEAD (Nantucket, MA) and DAN LANDER (Montreal, Canada) are well known radio artists in their respective countries. Both have been frequent contributors to NEW AMERICAN RADIO. WARD WEIS (Antwerp, Belgium) is a well known sound artist whose work has been aired throughout Europe and abroad. He is the co-founder of the Planktone CD label. SHELLEY HIRSCH (New York City) is a composer/performer who has been exploring her extended vocal range for the over fifteen years. Her original radio plays, theatrical productions and filmscores have been performed on stages throughout the US and Europe, and in Australia. ERIK MIKAEL KARLSSON (Stockholm, Sweden) is one of Europe's most promising young composers of electroacoustic music. Born in 1967, he has created work for the Swedish Broadcasting Company; La Muse en Circuit in Paris, France; Elektronisches Studio at the Technical University in Berlin, Germany; and the Institute for Electroacoustic Music in Aarhus, Denmark, among others. |
|
| Vocalizations | |
| Vocalizations (1997) presents four impressive works by American woman composer/ performers: Erogenous (8:10) by American LaDonna Smith is an intensely sensual, cross-cultural improvisation with two Russian musicians. It presents the human voice as a vibrational force at once strange, familiar and ultimately transformative. Electric Lady (7:35) by Lynn Book. Performance art-storytelling from a decidedly female perspective that expands into soundscape and song forms. Goat Cheese (2:07) by Bonnie Barnett represents the artist's "foray into the duo format. .. " (Barnett). Playful and surprising. Yoga (6:35) by Christine Baczewska is a choral piece that features the artist and members of her yoga class. It uses stringing pearls as a metaphor for the breathing: Each breath is a pearl. Optimally, each is a fine round, even pearl, yet none can be discarded no matter how rough or uneven. Like life ... LADONNA SMITH (Birmingham, AL) has been on the international improvising music scene for over two decades, as well as an active performer and educator in Birmingham, Alabama. Through her work as a performer and co-editor of the improvisor, the international journal of free improvisation, she has been responsible for keeping improvised music alive in the southeastern United States. LYNN BOOK (New York, NY) is an interdisciplinary performance artist, vocalist and composer recently transplanted from Chicago to New York City. Her performance work has evolved over the past 15 years from a very physical and visually charged form to include a broad repertoire of vocal activities ranging from textual play and Dada scores to more free-form musical and extended vocal territories. BONNIE BARNETT (Los Angeles, CA) teaches voice, tours with the Barnett Band and The Zone, and continues to produce such public events as her legendary "Tunnel Hum" . Barnett has toured Europe extensively playing at festivals in Germany, Holland and Switzerland. Her most recent works are duets with musicians Richard Wood and Nels Cline. CHRISTINE BACZEWSKA (New York, NY) is a composer and performer whose work has always made use of multitrack vocal harmonies, recorded in the studio or sequenced real time during performance. She is known for her "colloquial operettas" and has also created soundtracks for film. |
|
| SIFUENTES, ROBERTO | |
|
see Gomez-Pena, Guillermo, "Temples of Confessions." top |
|
| SILTANEN, JUHA | |
|
See Lindberg, Magnus, "Faust." top |
|
| SIREN, PEKKA and AGNIESZKA WALIGORSKA | |
| AKA
SAGA, PART 1: AKAKLAKLAK —Return From Death
(1990) A fascinating blend of the
mythological past and technological present: the story of the woman
Aka and her man Kala, both members of the fish clan, and their enemies,
the people of the reindeer clan. When Kala is killed by the reindeer
clan, Aka swears revenge and Kala's soul promises to return "gliding
as a bird, riding with the wind, carried by the night." A meticulously
researched radiophonic mythology, AKAKLAKLAK makes use of the human
voice and ancient musical instruments, such as amber rattlers, straw
brushes, and wooden pellet bells. It is presented in Finnish with introduction
in English. A commission of Yleisradio, Finland. [Listen] AKA SAGA, PART 2: ALAK (1990) The second part of the "Aka Saga" continues the story begun in AKAKLAKLAK. Following the fate of Kala's son, Alak, the work makes use of the human voice and ancient musical instruments and is produced in a high-tech style. Presented in Finnish with an English introduction. [Listen] AKA SAGA, PART 3: AKAMER (1990) In the third part of the "Aka Saga," Aka is the leader of her own clan and Alak a full-grown man. One day, Aka dreams of a dying walrus being washed ashore—a premonition that speaks of evil to come from underwater. In the rousing finale, she fights a battle with "the demon eye" for the power of knowledge. She wins, but exhausted by the effort, finds herself swimming towards darkness and a reunion with her beloved Kala. . . Presented in Finnish with an English introduction. [Listen] The Sixth Day (1994) (9:05) Addresses the question: "How did life begin?" Focusing on the sixth day as portrayed in the book of Genesis, this work is a radiophonic composition for tape, clarinet, didjeridu, bullroarer, and processed voice. Terra Incognito (1997) is a work composed of sound recordings made on the Faroe Islands in 1995. In the words of the artists, there are "500 different tunes of green to listen to and relax by -no explanations needed. PEKKA SIREN (Helsinki, Finland) is one of the founders of Yleisradio's Experimental Studio. A teacher of sound art at the Radio and TV Institute, the Theater Academy and the University of Art and Design in Helsinki, Siren also produces tape compositions for television, ballet and film. Together with Agnieszka Waligorska, he is a member of the sonic art group, ProTon. AGNIESZKA W. ALIGORSKA (Helsinki, Finland) is a native of Poland who has made Finland her home. After studies at the Sorbonne and research projects at institutes of art and science in Poland and the US, Waligorska co-founded the group, ProTon. A graphic designer, composer, photographer, vocalist and actress, she has participated in many sound art exhibitions in Finland, and several radio art festivals abroad. top |
|
| SKIBELL, HARRIS | |
| Around
(1993) An interior musical and verbal
monologue about psychic and physical wandering. Set in New York City,
it chronicles a character's attempt to escape into the drama and energy
of the city. As the piece progresses, the character's narrative begins
to be projected onto surrounding sounds, and a structure begins to emerge
from the act of wandering through the multiple ambiances of the city.
Sounds for Around were composed from a guitar feedback algorithm, from
the CB radios in New York City taxis, and from numerous city recordings.
Created on the NEXT computer using CMIX, CSound, RT and other direct
digital synthesis software packages. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
Exchange (1989) A composition made up of the sounds of the New York Stock Exchange and the violin. For the artist the worlds seemed at the start almost antithetical: the violin a symbol of the world of European art music and the stock exchange, a powerful American symbol of the world whose business is business. But as Skibell uses the materials, distinctions blur and meanings get exchanged. Skibell used the Sun 3 based digital synthesis system at the Brooklyn College Center for Computer Music to analyze, process and organize the sounds of the exchange and the violin into a musical dialogues. Renowned violinist Rolf Schulte performed in this work. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Watunna (The Telling) (1990) With Susan Lepselter. A collaborative work that juxtaposes creation myths of the Makiritari culture in Venezuela—the oldest known creation myths in the Americas—with the musicalized sounds of New York City. Lepselter's narrative includes poetic adaptations of the original texts. The sounds of New York serve as the contemporary screen on which to view the text. And they illustrate the text in the same way that orchestral instruments illustrate the text of Peter and the Wolf. Reading by Lepselter. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] HARRIS SKIBELL (New York, NY) is a composer, sound designer, and multimedia designer. As a composer he has gravitated towards use of computers and direct digital synthesis and analysis to process and produce recorded sound. He has been composer-in-residence at the Columbia University Computer Music Studios, the Center for Computer Music at Brooklyn College, and at Studio PASS in New York City. His works have been performed or broadcast at Roulette, Columbia University, the Whitney Museum, New Music America, CBGB's Real Computer Music Series, Merce Cunningham Studios, Bowling Green New Music Festival, WNYC-TV, Danish National Radio, and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. He is currently working on sound design for a CD-ROM on the Beat poets for Voyager and an upcoming exhibit at the Whitney Museum (with the music production company Tomanandy), on the World Wide Web-based media removal machine, "Snuff," and on a Web-based serial which takes place on a subway car. top |
|
| SLEIGHT OF MIND GROUP | |
| The
Underseen World of Claude Jateau, Part 1: The River of Angels
(1989) Do you remember the long-running
Jacques Cousteau nature documentary series on television? In The River
of Angels you'll meet his radio cousin, Claude Jateau. With a delightful
French accent and a tireless thirst for scientific knowledge Jateau
and a group of scientists and friends, explore the freeways of Los Angeles
and examine the nomads who travel them with the same enthusiasm that
Cousteau brought to his explorations of the Amazon and the Nile. He
even goes in search of such endangered native wildlife as The Fading
Film Star, and manages to capture and tag one with a radio collar. Skillful
writing, acting, and a wonderful sense of humor combine in a guaranteed
half hour of pure fun. [Listen]
The Underseen World of Claude Jateau, Part 2: A Trick of Perspective (1989) (21:20) Jateau develops a shrinking gas, reduces himself and his team of experts to a height of 1.7 centimeters, and sets up an encampment in the shag rug in his living room. Another thoroughly amusing episode in the life of Claude Jateau. SLEIGHT OF MIND is a group composed of freelance producer Christopher Hastings, sound designer John Wilson, and computer system designer Ted Hlavac. Hastings has also acted on Broadway and in the TV soap As the World Turns. Wilson manages his own production company, Sound Choices, and works for a San Francisco audio visual firm. Hlavac is currently working in Oslo, Norway, as a systems designer for Bankeness Betalingsentral. top |
|
| SMITH, LADONNA | |
| Erogenous (8:10) is an intensely sensual, cross-cultural improvisation with two Russian musicians. It presents the human voice as a vibrational force at once strange, familiar and ultimately transformative. LADONNA SMITH (Birmingham, AL) has been on the international improvising music scene for over two decades, as well as an active performer and educator in Birmingham, Alabama. Through her work as a performer and co-editor of the improvisor, the international journal of free improvisation, she has been responsible for keeping improvised music alive in the southeastern United States. |
|
| SMITH, MIYOSHI | |
| I
Stopped but Never Gave Up (1990)
(5:00) A dramatic narrative about a girl who drops out of high school.
(#32,91 with Negron, Mason, and Oliver.)
MIYOSHI SMITH (Philadelphia, PA) is a media artist whose credits include two major radio series for national and international distribution: First and Last Words—a poetry series hosted by writer Sonia Sanchez, featuring Essex Hemphill, Larry Duckette and Linh Dinh; and Even the Sounds Are Blue—a musical series hosted by vocalist/composer Cassandra Wilson and featuring Michel Rosewoman, Craigh Harris and David Murray. top |
|
| SNITOW, ALAN | |
| What's
Left? (1992)
With Claire Schoen. What does it mean for the Left in the West now that
upheavals in the former Soviet Union have unraveled the Bolshevik Revolution?
Based on hundreds of hours of interviews with democratic activists in
what is now the Confederation of Independent States, What's Left? is
a docu-satire about the identity crisis facing progressives after the
collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War. It follows a North
American television reporter—once a radical activist—on his
travels through the Soviet Union as he tries to make sense of it all.
[Listen]
ALAN SNITOW (San Francisco, CA) is an award-winning radio and television news and documentary producer. He has been news director at KPFA-FM in Berkeley (1987-present) and news producer at KTVU-TV in Oakland (1987-present). Snitau is also a consultant on live satellite productions and the board president of the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival. CLAIRE SCHOEN (Berkeley, CA) is a freelance radio reporter, and documentarian and founder of Fine Lines Productions in Berkeley. Her credits include Sanctuary Caravan, a documentary on the sanctuary movement's response to problems in Central America; and Hard Work: Job Training for Urban Youth. In film and video, Schoen has been involved in such diverse and well-known projects as Apocalypse Now, The Black Stallion, and The Mothers of the Plaza. top |
|
| SONAMI, LAETITIA | |
|
See Carnahan, Melody Sumner, "Manananggal" and "The Bench." top |
|
| STEADMAN, NANCY | |
| See Locktev, Julia, "Eating in Tongues." top | |
| STEPHANOVIC, IVANA | |
| Metropolis
of Silence—The Old Ras (1991-92)
A sound-music work of great serenity and beautiful images. Recorded
in the ruins of the ancient town of Ras (the first capital of Serbia),
it combines processed animal sounds, improvised music that ranges from
old folk songs to new music, and natural ambient sounds: a group of
horsemen passing by, the wind in the surrounding fir trees. Produced
at JRT, Radio Belgrade. Included with Metropolis of Silence are parts
of Stephanovic's speech to her colleagues in London asking them to think
of the Serbs and all Yugoslavian people faced with the hardships of
winter, and also producer Helen Thorington's comments and reading of
excerpts from a Stephanovic letter.
IVANA STEPHANOVIC is a Serbian composer and former director of JRT, Radio Belgrade's Radio Workshop (the experimental music and radio art department.) An outstanding critic of the war and the politics of her government, Stephanovic was dismissed from her job in 1992, shortly after the completion of Metropolis of Silence, and has since worked with other artists in Belgrade's underground. top |
|
| STIFTER, CATHERINE | |
| The
Geography of Friendship (1991)
(13:00) With Marcie Stoyke. A collage of authentic audio letters between
two long-time friends: Marcie, who lives on a farm in southern Minnesota;
and Catherine, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Each letter
makes some everyday event a moment in their friendship—time spent
together—feeding the farm animals, commuting to the city, looking
at the full moon. The Geography of Friendship is an unusual portrait
of an ordinary friendship. In the words of its producers it is also
"an invitation to remember why we women are friends." Commissioned by
NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
CATHERINE STIFTER (San Francisco, CA) grew up in rural Minnesota, moved to Los Angeles and now lives and works in San Francisco. Her career in radio spans fifteen years and reaches in many directions. She was production manager at KALW, San Francisco (l985-88) and served as associate director of training, operations, and development at Western Public Radio (1988-89). She has produced award-winning documentary work for National Public Radio's Horizons, numerous art features for Morning Edition and Performance Today, and experimental radio pieces for Artifacts at KPFA-FM Berkeley. Stifter is NPR's Training Specialist. MARCIE STOYKE (Mapleton, MN) is a videographer and manager of the Community Cable Access Channel in St. Peter, Minnesota. Her childhood dream came true when she moved from Minneapolis to the small rural community of Mapleton twelve years ago with her husband. They have learned to break horses, farm organically, butcher chickens, and live comfortably in an agricultural community. Stoyke writes and performs music. top |
|
| STONE, SUSAN | |
| Heat
(1989) (15:00) Audio portrait of
life in tropical latitudes. Testimonies about the impact of "the greenhouse
effect" on coastal city life are interwoven with the sounds of life
inside a seaside residential hotel. The consequences of the rising tides
and temperature take a toll on living within the rooms of a tinderbox,
"where people huddle like flotsam and live on the jetsam of discarded
odds . . . and ends." (from the work) Created for New Music America
'89, Miami.
Omphalos (1990) Her fear, his fantasy, his incisions, and her insanity collect and collide in the corners of a room in which both operate. This audio journey into a woman's heart of darkness takes place in a hospital operating room; there cardiac surgery charts the way through the surgeon's probing of her valley walls, intervening divides, and summits. The soundscape provides aural entry into his reconstruction of her heart, while he deconstructs her humanity. Illusion, delusion, and "instrumental" foreplay are derived from an interweaving of a male and female voice, medical actuality, and the manipulated musical phrasings of Hilding Rosenberg. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] Ruby's Story (1986) (3:00) With writer Melody Sumner Carnahan. Inner monologues of a deaf-mute woman struggling to reconcile herself to a loveless marriage. The speech rhythms and phrasings of her silent world, which has been shattered by betrayal, ultimately takes the form of a letter written secretively to a friend. [Listen] SOCO-GAP: Snake-Charming in America (1994) A docu-drama based on the life of a young snake handler at a roadside attraction in the South. Caught up in the religious zeal of her serpent worship, and an innate skill of reptile wrestling, the heroine, Chance, reveals the nether world of the freak show. There, slithering sleights of hand expose a magical sideshow life. "In small pockets of the Southern United States, oddity, aberration, and delusion captivate the curious. There, the willing suspension of disbelief fosters the on-going popularity of freak shows. Similarly, daring acts of faith in snake-handling fuel a belief in life in the Hereafter." (Stone) Viscera (1989) (22:00) Audio portrait of passion, constructed as a radio play between two lovers who share very close quarters. Drawing on the consequences of intimacy and appetite, their pillow talk reveals deep sensations of longing, possession, and primitive need. They are linked by emotions that pull them together, while driving them apart. In the confinement of a studio apartment, an unexpected gesture of love proves fatal. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] Producer, writer SUSAN
STONE (San Francisco, CA) is director of Pacifica Radio/KPFA-FM's
drama and literature department (Berkeley), where she is also executive
producer of the weekday documentary series, Audio Evidence, and weeknight
sound arts series, The Eleventh Hour, featuring experimental spoken
arts and performance readings of world literature and drama. Stone also
teaches audio-taping techniques in the California public school system.
Her independent productions of original mixed media texts and sound
design for theater, film and television have received numerous awards.
Her writings and recordings have been featured in multimedia installations
and productions of international radio theater through Westdeutscher
Rundfunk (Cologne, Germany), the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,
the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Sydney, Australia) and National
Public Radio.
|
|
| STOYKE, MARCIE | |
|
See Stifter, Catherine, "Geography of Friendship." top |
|
| SUBLETTE, NED | |
| The
Auctioneer (1989)
A lively composition of voices that will introduce you to the skills
and insights of master auctioneers, and to the aspirations and experiences
of their students at the Missouri Auction School in Kansas City. While
presenting a delightful array of counting practices, bid-chants, and
anecdotes, The Auctioneer also reflects the economic realities of rural
America, where the number of little towns are dwindling and you hate
to go in there and sell out the backbone of the whole community: the
general store. . . Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen]
Perhaps best known as a country music singer, NED SUBLETTE (New York, NY) has also worked extensively in radio. He was four times a composer in-residence at KUNM-FM, Albuquerque. There he developed such projects as the first ever complete performance of John Cage's Empty Words. In 1982 he was a composer-in-residence at VPRO, Holland. Sublette also produced a series of commissioned work by new music composers for The Kitchen (New York City). Sublette is originally from Lubbock, Texas. top |
|
| SUGAR, MIKLOS | |
| Balaton Highlands (12:00) by Miklos Sugar is composed into a series of pictures that capture the sounds and music of Lake Balaton in Hungary. "...the splashing of its waters, the surrounding noises, and particularly those of our garden - trains, bells, folk songs and a musician gipsy playing the harp." (the artist) MIKLOS SUGAR (Szekesfehervar, Hungary) was born in 1952 in Budapest, where he later studied composition at the Academy of Music. From 1988 to 1990, Sugar worked at Hungarian Radio. In 1991, he began playing with the National Philharmonic Society. Since 1987, he has been a professor at the Academy of Dramatic and Fine Arts in Budapest. |
|
| SUNWAN, JIANG | |
| The
Unforgettable Songs (1987)
With Xie Wenxiu and others. The first Chinese radio broadcast ever to
be adapted for American audiences. As delicate as a Chinese ink-drawing,
the work is about folk songs and folk singers in the Province of Shanxi.
Lui Jucang, for instance, who sings a song in memory of his deceased
wife—"Little Oil Lamp"—the very song she sang for him at their
wedding four decades earlier. "Little Oil Lamp" was deemed "pornographic"
and forbidden during the Cultural Revolution. Produced for China National
Radio (CNR), and adapted for NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
JIANG SUNWAN Biography unavailable. top |
|
| SWEARINGEN, DONALD | |
| Between
Fear and Longing: Marginally Stable in San Francisco
(1990) One of the first compositions
to derive its impetus from the October 1989 San Francisco earthquake.
In it Swearingen explores personal fear and longing as expressed in
the words and thoughts of various individuals "overheard" during the
earthquake and its aftermath. Interspersed with the spoken texts are
snippets of radio broadcasts. All are embedded in a musical context
whose rhythms and colors echo those of the spoken words. Commissioned
by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
Salvation at 1 A.M. (1991) takes its inspiration from the myriad of promotional programming on late night cable television. Typically they are 30-minute advertisements that imitate the format of talk shows. Anything you want: sex, money, self-esteem, God, celluloid freedom, a full head of hair, property, beauty, an exciting life style . . . just call 1-800. Call now. What are you waiting for? Put your hand on the TV screen. Feel the power! [Listen] We Elect To (1989) A radio opera featuring the voices of seven American presidents and singer Pamela Z, who counterbalances their lofty words with the reality of newspaper headlines. This piece is about the highly charged and emotionally loaded phrases that our leaders employ and which, over the years, have acquired a life of their own. In We Elect To they are placed in a musical context, with the music integrated into the flow and rhythm of their words, and their pronouncements highlighted by varying musical styles and moods. Interwoven throughout the piece are continuing references to religious themes and familiar hymns. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] DONALD SWEARINGEN (San Francisco, CA) Composer/Performer Donald Swearingen's professional career has been a garden of forking paths: to Memphis where he worked as a rock musician with legendary studios Stax and Hi Records; to California, where he designed software systems for LucasFilm/THX, Telenetworks/NLC, Fujitsu, NSC, Octel, NET, and numerous other Silicon Valley firms; to San Francisco, where he has established himself as an original and vital member of the Bay Area new music community; and to points beyond, touring, lecturing, and performing throughout the US and internationally. Along the way, he has picked up advanced degrees in music and mathematics, and pursues continuing interests in literature, physics, writing, cooking, and living, all of which feed his activities as a musician, composer, programmer, and designer of new instruments for the performance of expanded-music. In addition to performances of his own work, Swearingen has premiered several live sound works employing light-activated musical controllers of his own design; since 1990, he has been a regular consultant to LucasFilm/THX; and he is the software architect and programmer of the THX R2 Acoustical Analyzer. top |
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| T | |
| TAYLOR,
DOMINIC TEITELBAUM, RICHARD TERRANOVA, ELAINE THOMAS, MARTIN THORINGTON, HELEN TIETZ, WARD TOIVIAINEN, ILKKA TUREL, BOR UMOJA, MBALI UMCHLABA |
|
| TAYLOR, DOMINIC | |
| Session
One (1994-95)
African-Americans have had to define self and person before America
had its definition. One of the post-colonial mechanisms for self exploration
has been what we now call "therapy." Session One is a visit with one
woman as she encounters how she is imaged, as well as what she images.
The fluid nature of the constructed versus reconstructed self are examined;
the selves fight for equilibrium before her time runs out. Commissioned
by NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
DOMINIC TAYLOR (New Haven, CT) is a playwright who has worked extensively around the country in alternative and New Form Theatre. A participant in the International Playwrights Institute at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford, Connecticut in 1994, Taylor recently directed the workshop production of Fresh Faust, a hip-hop opera, at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. He is currently at work on a new opera entitled The Negroes Burial Ground for a 1995 production at The Kitchen in New York City. top |
|
| TEITELBAUM, RICHARD | |
| MELOG
XRAM (1990)
From out of the East comes the story of the giant MELOG. Conceived originally
by the old philosopher XRAM to help the people, and brought to life
by the crafty NINEL, MELOG soon grew powerful, corrupt and oppressive.
When the people tried to escape, MELOG built an iron wall and imprisoned
them in their own lands. Finally they rose up. In the triumph of their
revolts an electrician vanquished a general, a jailed playwright became
president, and the wall was dismantled and sold as art. The people were
joyous, but dark forces of violence and chaos threatened. Noone knew
what the future might portend. A sound work that makes use of the voices
and musics of eastern Europe and the Soviet Republics. Commissioned
by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen]
RICHARD TEITELBAUM received his Masters of Music from Yale University in 1964, and was then awarded a Fulbright scholarship to study with Luigi Nono and Goffredo Petrassi in Italy. Teitelbaum returned to Italy in 1966 where he co-founded the legendary Musica Electronica Viva group with Frederic Rzewski and Alvin Curran. Teitelbaum is recognized internationally for his live electronic performances and his work with interactive computer systems. His music and performances appear on over a dozen releases on Cantaur, Hat Hut, and other labels, broadcast and performed throughout Japan, Europe, and the United States. His opera Golem was performed at the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria in 1991. Teitelbaum teaches electronic music at Bard and Vassar College in New York. top |
|
| TERRANOVA, ELAINE | |
| Taking
Tap at Miss Patterson's (1990)
(5:00) A delicately crafted sound poem set in a children's tap class
in the mid-1940s, at a time when tap was king. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN
RADIO. (#51,90 with Alburger/Tietz and Thorington)
Poet ELAINE TERRANOVA (Philadelphia, PA) has contributed poems to Southern Poetry Review, American Poetry Review and Poetry Northwest among other journals. Her most recent awards and honors include a residency at the Tyrone Guthrie Centre in Ireland, 1988, and the 1990 Walt Whitman Award of the Academy of American Poets for her first book of poems, The Cut of the Right Hand (Doubleday). Terranova is currently reading/writing specialist at the Community College of Philadelphia. top |
|
| THOMAS, MARTIN | |
| Home
Front Manhattan (1991)
"When I arrived in New York, two tragedies were taking place. One was
the Gulf War, radiating like a day-glo nightmare from the nation's television
screens. The other was homelessness. The daily contact with extreme
poverty is still my most poignant memory . . . I was unprepared for
the sheer scale of the problem: the shanty towns on vacant lots, the
hordes of subway dwellers, the people living in cardboard boxes . .
. I could not help drawing analogies between the brutality and sheer
extravagance of the U.S. intervention in the Gulf crisis and the absence
of domestic social services." (Thomas). Produced for The Listening Room,
Australian Broadcasting Corporation, as a one-hour program.
MARTIN THOMAS (Sydney, Australia) is a writer and researcher. In the spring of 1990 he went to the U.S. to interview the rich and famous, and ended up talking to beggars. top |
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| THORINGTON, HELEN | |
| Aphids
and Others (1990)
(8:00) Written in response to Gregory Whitehead's Male Digger Bees,
this short work is a humorously poignant appeal for diversity and choice
in our lives. It features a laughing aphid, three bumping snails, and
an octopus arm that swims.
Building a Universe, Part 1 (1985) Outrageous, and at times downright silly, an experimental new drama that focuses on contemporary technologies, such as cloning, cross-breeding, and the ability to exchange body parts. [Listen] Building a Universe, Part 2: Rifts, Absences and Omissions (1987) Satiric and experimental new drama that focuses on the new reproductive technologies and the scientists responsible for their development. "I will get a Nobel, I will . . . " While shaped into dramatic scenes, the text is based on the actual statements and writings of scientists. Providing associational and causal links between sounds (an old record, semi military aerobic exercises, textbook lessons on female infanticide and the new technologies), Building A Universe creates an incredibly funny and disturbing picture of an active and unregulated new science, preparing a future with unexpected and undiscussed implications. [Listen] Congruent Appeal (1989) (18:00) An experimental drama composed entirely of sound—musical, electrical, vocal, environmental—most of it processed and organized into events that are not necessarily related, although their placement may suggest some sort of narrative. Someone is definitely getting squashed in the great technological machine! (#4,90 with Parrot Talk and Fiddling Around.) Dracula's Wives (1992) (12:00) An otherworldly geography peopled by the disembodied voices of the undead; a radio film, at times operatic in its approach, about women vampires, their bond with the vampire of all vampires, and their unending lust for that "juice of the rarest quality"—the blood of the living. With the vampire voices of Pamela Z and Agnieszka Waligorska, and the cello of Deidre Murray. Produced for RNE, Spain. Dream Sequence, Part 1 & 2 (1979) (5:58) One of the first compositions for radio to make use of electronic processing, The Dream Sequence unfolds associationally, its lyrical text reflecting humorously on the author's rural experience and her concern for personal disappearance. [Listen] Fiddling Around (1987) (3:21) A tiny monkey escapes his cage and is pursued by other monkeys and his keepers. A true story out of Monkey Jungle, Miami, told with monkey screeches and fiddle music. Going Between (1993) A hypertext fiction for radio about consciousness and the imagination; how thought and language materialize in the world; how we perceive, understand and communicate the nature of our existence, and what we define as "reality." Composed of a series of discrete yet linked stories, musics, geographies, word plays, and quotes that take place both in a real (fictional) world and a (fictional) virtual world. Its materials are earthquakes, mud and MUDS [on-line text-based virtual spaces]; dungeons and underground passages, worms and wormholes, black holes and white holes, and the idea of "going between." Going Between is the original from which the larger work Going Between—One Word at a Time (created with Jacki Apple) evolved. Produced for ORF, Austria, and Transit. Hard City Rock—New York City in Sound (1987) With radio documentarian Regine Beyer. Resounds with the energy, excitement, and noise of one of the U.S.'s largest metropolitan areas. The piece opens at South Ferry as the morning commuters arrive; it moves on to the Fulton Fish Market, Wall Street, and Chinatown in lower Manhattan; then on to Times Square and Central Park, and ends at a block party in East Harlem. A flow of sounding images interrupted by short informative and anecdotal comments from Robert Bennon of the Environmental Protection Agency. An environmental composition with an unusual twist. In the Dark (1990) (6:30) Audio images that evoke an unpeopled, cinematic geography. A landscape of loneliness and loss. In the Devils Footsteps, Parts 1 & 2 (1993) With writer Sarah Montague. Created especially for Halloween, these two complimentary programs celebrate and explore the vampire tradition, which is as ageless and enduring as its own subject, and the shadowy world of the bat, which though its popularity is on the rise, is still very much of an endangered species. The first part recreates the image of the vampire through dramatic readings from the rich literary tradition of vampire lore, and a lush compelling sound score. The second part focuses on the bat, a mysterious creature as fascinating in its own way as the mythological creation which, since Bela Lugosi first lifted his cape in 1931, has literally cast a shadow over its life. Bat experts Dr. Merlin Tuttle, founder of Bat Conservation International, and Dr. Roy Horst, discuss bat behavior and bats' vital ecological contributions, as well as the nature of true vampires. [Listen] Loco-motive (1992) (12:00) An electronic environment impervious to the hurried, energetic movements of the many little engines that scuttle back and forth across it. Based on the artist's sound score to a work of the same name by Suzan-Lori Parks. Loco-Motive (1991) by Suzan Lori Parks. A monologue set to a haunting, cinematic sound score by 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] Natural Classic (1987) (1:10) Drop-in cock-a-doodle-doo. Music for cello and rooster. North Country (1995) The second in a series of hypertext-inspired stories for radio: a narrative that uses short blocks or fragments of texts to shape a web of linked ideas that reflect the way the mind works. In North Country, meaning and memory, and fiction's role in both are part of the plurality of connections made. The cast of characters includes a forensics expert, a lawyer, a dead woman, and another woman who travels in a text based virtual world similar to the biological world once inhabited by the dead woman; a tamarack tree and the eleven Eastern woodrats remaining in New York State. With an original sound score by the artist. [Listen] One to Win (1989) (10:00) A short, humorous, audio art work that recreates a single event in a horse-racing day. Presented from many perspectives, including that of the horse, One to Win carries the listener quickly from one location to another—the announcer's booth, the betting hall, the racetrack, the horse's stall—as it presents the victorious race of Cold Spot, a bay gelding from Yukon by Smart Helen. The sounds range from the hushed movements of horses alone in their stalls to the tremendous visceral heave of their lungs as they plunge toward the finish line. Commissioned by New Music America '89, Miami. Parker's MOO Journals, Parts 1 & 2 (1995-96) A beginner's odyssey into the text-based on-line communities known as MUDs and MOOs. As Parker tries to learn how to communicate with the computer and the people he (or is it she?) encounters in text-designed living rooms, libraries, and coat closets, an on-line world comes to life that is very much about role playing, social interaction, and FUN. With a performance-narrative and a large-scale original score that express in sound and music the wildly animated print-expressions on the computer screen. Parrot Talk (1986) (5:00) Controlled insanity in sound. A work about repetition and entropy. Told with live recordings from Parrot Jungle, Miami, feedback, carnival music, static and other anathema of the broadcast world. Winner of First Prize in Macrophon '91, the First International Festival of Radio Art, Wroclaw, Poland. [Listen] Partial Perceptions (1991-92) Cinematic audio that works on different levels of perception. Its underlying concerns are closely linked to the reshaping of traditional concepts of nature, woman, and machine. Recipe for a Lark (1992) (1: 35) With vocalist Shelley Hirsch. It's a lark! Story Space An audio essay on her work for radio, a creative audio compilation with commentary that includes: (1) an excerpt from Locomotive (5:20); (2) Dracula's Wives (8:30); and, (3) an excerpt from Terra Dell'Imaginazione (Landscape of the Imagination) (3:10). Straight Ahead (1989) (11:00) Originally created for the award-winning experimental film Optic Nerve by Barbara Hammer, a work about the filmmaker's grandmother. Thorington's sound score takes its title from the question, "Straight ahead, Grandma?" repeated by the filmaker as she pushes her grandmother around the hospital in a wheelchair. In the fragmented context of the score, the phrase, repeated by the grandmother, "Yes, Barbara, straight ahead," becomes a metaphor for endurance. [Listen] Terra dell'Imaginazione (Land of the Imagination) (1990) A sound composition in which the artist evokes a landscape and tells a story without a text. Originally commissioned as an audio installation for a riverside cave in Mattera, Italy, Terra reflects the artist's view of the place for which it was intended but which she had not as yet seen: wet, quiet, and dark but inhabited by multitudes of insects and small mammals. The story is that of a solitary person paddling through these waters. [Listen] The American Buffalo (1980) (2:00) Why the American buffalo is not a true buffalo but a bison. And what we may learn from this ancient creature. The Hunt is on: Reflections on the Human Genome Project (1994) A documentary work on the federally supported Human Genome Project. According to the producer, "I intended an entirely other kind of production — a sort of associative drama with satirical overtones, but when I inquired, I found very few people who know what the Human Genome Project is, let alone what impact it is already having on us. And satire is impossible without shared knowledge. So here's some information. And here's hoping, that at a time when health concerns are national concerns, the questions raised by this production will be treated seriously." Interview participants include: Dr. Ruth Hubbard of Harvard University, co author of the book, Exploding the Gene Myth; Dr. Daniel Callahan, President of the Hastings Center, Briarcliff Manor, New York; Dr. Barbara Katz Rothman of Baruch University, author of The Tentative Pregnancy; and Dr. Steven Hilgartner of the Center for the Study of Society and Medicine at Columbia University. turbulence (1997) is an open-ended sound composition that centers around the theme of turbulence. It began with an imaginary geography created by the artist on tape, in which myriad sound events took place. This composition enlarged and altered as improvisational performers interacted with it in real-time performances. The taped composition was revised after each performance to include aspects of the improvised materials. It features noted double reed player Joseph Celli (on the Yamaha WX7 midi breath controller) and guitarist, Nick Didkovsky. turbulence was conceived and executed by the artist for PORT – a project originated by artnetweb, New York City, that presented the flux of digital culture in the networked environment of the Internet as a two-month exhibition at the List Visual Arts Center at MIT in 1997. HELEN THORINGTON (Jamaica Plain, MA) is a sound artist, writer, and radio producer. Her work has been presented in Australia, Canada, Europe, and the United States for the last twenty years. The Co-Director of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore), the founder and producer of New American Radio (1987-1998), and the founder and producer of the Turbulence.org and Somewhere websites, Thorington is also an Internet artist. Her net work includes the narrative exploration "Solitaire" and the real-time Internet performance event "Adrift," a multilocation collaboration with Marek Walzcak and Jesse Gilbert, initially created for the Ars Electronica Festival in Linz, Austria in September 1997. An evolving project, "Adrift's" final iteration was as a performance spectacle utilizing three projectors and screens at the New Museum in New York City in 2001. Thorington continues to create sound compositions and narrative explorations for the internet. Her audio work "9_11_scapes" won the 2003 Honourable Recognition, PRIX BOHEMIA RADIO FESTIVAL, Czechoslovakia; and was the winner at the 2003 AETHER FESTIVAL, KUNM-FM, Albuquerque, New Mexico. Collaborators: REGINE BEYER Documentarian Hard City Rock. (see Beyer, Regine) SHELLEY HIRSCH Vocalist in Recipe for a Lark. (see Hirsch, Shelley) SARAH MONTAGUE (New York, NY) Co-writer, co-director, In the Devil's Footsteps, Parts 1 & 2. Montague is a writer, radio producer, and director who was born and educated in Great Britain. Since the early 1980s she has built a career in New York City with numerous radio drama productions for public radio. A co-founder of Exit 3 Productions, Montague is currently the executive producer of Radio Stage, a series of dramatic works co produced with radio station WNYC. top |
|
| TIETZ, WARD | |
|
See Alburger, Scott, "A Sound Education." top |
|
| TOIVIAINEN, ILKKA | |
| Letters
From The Front (1990)
(12:30) With Mikko Laakso. Original idea, Pekka Siren. Produced for
the Finnish Broadcasting Company (YLE) in 1990, and based on letters
by unknown soldiers dating from 1939-41, the work is a multilingual
radio performance that movingly conveys the human aspects—and universality—of
the Western war experience: "This nation—its standard owned by
Heaven itself—can never be defeated . . . " "First, I am a soldier.
Secondly, I am a soldier. Thirdly, I am a soldier." "I can't write to
you myself, since I can't see. What's more, there's only a small chance
that I'll ever see again. The war is over, maybe you want to forget
me . . . "
ILKKA TOIVIAINEN (Helsinki, Finland) has directed over 200 radio plays for the Yleisradio's radio theater department. He has also directed several indoor and site-specific sound performances. Toiviainen is a member of the sound art group, ProTon. MIKKO LAAKSO (see Laakso, Mikko) top |
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| TUREL, BOR | |
| Etude
for the Requiem (1992)
(16:50) Based on brief quotations from requiems with an innovative and
daring musical language. The artist makes use of highly contrasting
materials, composing them into an electro-acoustic commentary. Produced
for Radio Slovenia.
BOR TUREL (Ljubeljana, Slovenia) studied music at the Academy of Music in Ljubeljana. After further studies in Austria, England, and France, Turel now works in Ljubeljana as a freelance composer. His electro-acoustic compositions have been performed at many European New Music venues, including the Composer's Forum in Cologne; the Zagreb Biennial; and the Biennial of Young Composers in Paris. top |
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| U | |
| UMOJA, MBALI UMCHLABA | |
| W | |
| WEIS, WARD WESTERKAMP, HILDEGARD WHITEHEAD, GREGORY WILSON, ERIN CRESSIDA WILSON, JOHN WOJNAROWICS, DAVID |
|
| WEIS, WARD | |
| Acte (5:27) by Ward Weis. A radio ad, "Always Coca-Cola", as stimulus for an improvisational sound art piece. WARD WEIS (Antwerp, Belgium) is a well known sound artist whose work has been aired throughout Europe and abroad. He is the co-founder of the Planktone CD label. |
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| WESTERKAMP, HILDEGARD | |
| A
Walk Through the City (1981)
(16:08) An environmental composition based on a poem by Canadian poet
and playwright Norbert Ruebsaat. Urban sounds such as car horns, sirens,
brakes, pinball machines and the rhythmic pounding of trains are presented
both as they were recorded on Vancouver's skid row and as they were
processed in the studio. The voice of the poet reading his poem moves
in and out of the composition, entering into dialogue with many of its
sounds. A continuous flux is thus created between real and imaginary
landscapes, recognizable and transformed places, between reality and
composition. Produced for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. [Listen]
Cricket Voice (1987) (11:00) A musical exploration of a cricket whose song was recorded in the stillness of a Mexican desert region called the Zone of Silence. Slowed down it is like the heartbeat of the desert; at its original speed it sings to the stars. The percussive sounds in Cricket Voice were created by playing on desert plants, dried roots and palm eaves, and by exploring the ruins of an old water reservoir. [Listen] HILDEGARD WESTERKAMP was born in Osnabrück, Germany in 1946 and emigrated to Canada in 1968. After completing her music studies in the early seventies Westerkamp joined the World Soundscape Project under the direction of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver. Her involvement with this project not only activated deep concerns about noise and the general state of the acoustic environment in her, but it also changed her ways of thinking about music, listening and soundmaking. The founding of Vancouver Co-operative Radio during the same time provided an invaluable opportunity to record, experiment with and broadcast the soundscape. One could say that her career as a composer, educator, and radio artist emerged from these two pivotal experiences and focused it on environmental sound and acoustic ecology. In addition, composers such as John Cage and Pauline Oliveros have had a significant influence on her work. Westerkamp taught Acoustic Communication with colleague
Barry Truax in the School of Communication at SFU until 1990. Since
then she has written additional articles and texts addressing issues
of the soundscape and listening and has travelled widely, giving lectures
and conducting soundscape workshops, internationally. She is a founding
member and is currently active on the board of the World Forum for Acoustic
Ecology (WFAE). as well as the Canadian Association for Sound Ecology
(CASE). Between 1991 and 1995 she was the editor of The Soundscape Newsletter
and is now on the editorial committee of Soundscape -The Journal of
Acoustic Ecology, a new publication of the WFAE.
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|
| WHITEHEAD, GREGORY | |
| Beyond
the Pleasure Principle (1987)
A journey into the seductive and dangerous zone between Eros and Thanatos.
With a "cameo" appearance by Freud's prosthetic jaw.
Dead Letters (abridged version) (1985) Starring in this unusual documentary are the Rosetta Stone, the Body of Judy Garland's Voice, Hitler's Handwriting, Fake Fingers, the Tongues of Extinct Dinosaurs, Napoleon's penis and other dead letters. Both darkly humorous and highly informative, this work points new directions in the art of radio documentary. Dead Letters was produced independently as a one-hour program. Degenerates in Dreamland (1991) "A radio manifesto in memory of the body in pieces." (Whitehead) Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Display Wounds (1986) A fictionalised monologue that addresses the "woundscape" of the human species in the wake of the history of technology through the brooding ruminations of a "vulnerologist"—a wound doctor whose slow and seductive voice unfolds the history of wounds, and the damage that extends even into the future, (mis)shaping the unborn. Punctuated by periodic suggestions from tango music ("Life is but a dry wound. Oh hot-blooded sadness, bleed away from me.") Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] Escalated Ziggurat Inhalation (1986-87) (4:35) A reflection on the fate of language in the mouth of time. Here Comes Everybody (2:15), with Dan Lander, is a seductive (ly) ironic comment on radio and its gurus. Premiered live over a telephone line. How to Pronounce "Prosthesis" (1991) (4:45) A new castaway in search of a prosthetic language. A co-commission of Harvestworks, Inc., the Wexner Center for the Arts, and NEW AMERICAN RADIO. If a Voice Like, Then What? (1986-87) (2:20) In Malpais (1990) (5:30) "It's the Malpais. We're talkin' about hot sand, black rocks, and a whole lotta dead things." A dreamlike geography. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO It makes me blush . . . (1990) (3:45) Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Lovely Ways To Burn (1990) A fascinating docu-performance on the contradictory aspects of fire/electricity: seduction and power—fear and destruction. "Everybody's got the fever," a chorus sings in many variations, providing the glue for several intercut and inter-related stories: the fiery childhood memories of a young woman; expert ruminations on the use of electro-shock in therapy and as capital punishment; and sonic outbursts of pyromania. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Male Digger Bees (1990) (5:44) An account of the energetic habits of the male digger bee. "Listen to the following scenario: Powered by the laws of Darwinian selection, each digger bee is born with the instinct to reproduce more than any other member of its species, driving the males to excavate, tumble, fight, mount and sing in the hot desert sun." (From the work). Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. M is for the Million Things (1991) (2:40) A co-commission of Harvestworks, the Wexner Center for the Arts and NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Phantom Pain—The Theater of Operations (1989) "I opened this place," the narrator says, "as an inter-disciplinary center for exploring the phenomenon of phantom pain. Phantom pain is the experience of pain in an area where the real organs of sensation no longer exist. The problem then is finding some way to address the reality of feelings that have been cut loose from the body. So as a director of the center my main role is to try to facilitate making connections in a situation, where real contact among the subjects is impossible." (from the work) Pressures of the Unspeakable (1991) Over the course of several weeks, Whitehead, as "Resident Director of the International Institute for Screamscape Studies" established a Scream Room at the Australian Broadcasting Company and a National Scream Line answering machine, where screams were collected. The resulting work for broadcast combines selections from participating screamers, in counterpoint with notes and ruminations on the fundamentals of scream discourse. Together they map a journey into the vast territories of the Australian screamscape. Produced for The Listening Room, Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Winner of the 1992 PRIX ITALIA. [Listen] Principia Schizophonica (1998) (6:40) A lecture-demonstration on communication technologies and electronic media, cut into radiophonic life. Radio Degree Zero (1990) (1:25) A drop-in polemic to slow the frantic pace of current radio programming. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Reptiles and Wildfire (1989) (18:10) Soundspaces of water, rain, and wild fire transport the listeners to a place where "The Heat is heavy, but soft. And all that moves, moves quietly." A dream-like piece of great sensual beauty and lyrical power in which nature and reptiles and humans merge. "It's hot and wet. And above my head I see mangrove, gumbo, limbo and cocoa plum. Where are we? . . ." Created for New Music America '89, Miami. Shake, Rattle and Roll (1992) A personal history inscribed in a technical history. Or, as Whitehead himself describes it, "The strange and inescapable desire to electrocute myself, under the delusion that I will then somehow be able to fly. Brainwaves and radiowaves: magnetic dreams. BUT: the con/current fear of the CRASH, 'ending up in a burn unit.'"Radio as a sensual seduction and political provocation. Radio as a theater of ideas. Winner of the 1993 PRIX FUTURA Berlin. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. The Pleasure of Ruins (1989) (14:20) Begins with a haunting new age style incantation of obliterated civilizations—a slow-paced voicing of ruins. Then, with closely-timed razor interruptions, brief outbursts of sound are heard that increase in speed and density—and drive the work relentlessly forward until it becomes a ruin of voices. An excellent example of conceptual art that expresses itself with a highly sensual sound language. The Respirator (1990) (5:30) Sensual and unusual audio art inspired by the terminal illness of the broadcast medium. "There is no sign of brain activity, but we are able to keep the patient breathing through the use of the respirator." Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. The Thing About Bugs (1994) With Christof Migone. In this collaborative "field trip," Migone and Whitehead invite us into their bug-infested soundscape to investigate live wire cross-currents of extermination and redemption; the vitality of dirt and the urge to clean; the joys of pure noise and the fate of bodies gone to the worms. Professional exterminators philosophize about their daily warfare against other species while the producers orchestrate a mad carnival of the True Bugs. Winner of a Special Commendation at the 1994 PRIX FUTURA Berlin. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen] This is Not a Test (1991) (2:10) A new castaway in search of a prosthetic language. A col-commission of Harvestworks, Inc., the Wexner Center for the Visual Arts, and NEW AMERICAN RADIO. This Mindless Thing (1990) (5:00) The story of a twelve-year-old forced to show and be shown. Totenklage/Lacrimosa (1990) (3:30) Two words migrate into each other to compose an acoustic requiem. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Twilight for Idols (1990) (4:25) An incantation in hommage to the wasted memory of utopia. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. GREGORY WHITEHEAD is a writer, audio artist, and the director of sea-crow media. He has produced over fifty radio features, voice works, and earplays for programs in the United States and abroad. Drawing on his background in improvised music and experimental theater, Whitehead has created a body of radiophonic work distinguished by its playfully provocative blend of text, concept, voice, music and pure sound. Production credits include: Dead Letters; Pressures of The Unspeakable (Prix Italia, 1992); and NEW AMERICAN RADIO commissions: Lovely Ways to Burn; Shake, Rattle, Roll (BBC Award, Prix Futura, 1993); and The Thing About Bugs. He is also the author of numerous essays on subjects relating to language, technology, and "the public," and he co-edited Wireless Imagination: Sound, Radio and the Avant-Garde, a selective history of audio and radio art (MIT Press). top |
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| WILSON, ERIN CRESSIDA | |
| Flying
Hormones (1989)
A highly entertaining musical on teenage sexuality in the age of AIDS.
Developed by playwright Erin Wilson and performed by a group of San
Francisco high school students, it describes the plight of Cinderella
and Prince Charming, hurled out of their fairy tale world (where neither
pregnancy nor disease exist) into a present-day high school. What follows
is a series of interwoven vignettes and songs that educate Cinderella
and the audience about birth control, AIDS, and anatomy. Among them
are two sportscasters announcing the sperm race; a condom song, an AIDS
rap, and Dr. Abstinence. Barney Jones of Earwax Productions was the
technical director and mixing engineer. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN
RADIO. [Listen]
The Berlin Understudy (1990) In poetic inner monologues, dramatic scenes, staged interviews, and eclectic music and soundscapes, the story of a woman unfolds whose spiritual power borders on magic. Born in Berlin and lost by her mother during a riot at the time the Berlin Wall was erected, she was adopted by an American serviceman and brought to the United States. In the 1980s, at the time the Wall was dismantled, she suddenly hears the cries of her younger self and returns to Berlin. What follows is a sensual journey inside this woman's imagination and the depiction of how she finds power, strength and healing in her own creative way of living. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. ERIN CRESSIDA WILSON is an internationally produced and award-winning playwright and screenwriter. She has written over fifteen plays produced regionally, in New York City, and abroad - at such stages as The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Joe's Pub at the Public Theatre, Classic Stage Company and the Traverse Theatre in Edinburgh. In 2003, she won the Independent Spirit Award for her screenplay, Secretary. Her musical, Wilder - co-written with Red Clay Rambler composers Jack Herrick and Mike Craver - opened at Playwrights Horizons in October of 2003. Her first novel will be published in 2004 by Simon & Schuster. Formerly an associate professor at Duke University, Wilson is now on the English Department faculty at Brown University. top |
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| WILSON, JOHN | |
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See Sleight of Mind Group, "The Underseen World of Claude Jateau, Parts 1 & 2." top |
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| WOJNAROWICS, DAVID | |
| ITSOFOMO—In
the Shadow of Forward Motion (1991)
(10:00) With Ben Neill. An excerpt from a large-scale, multi-media performance
piece. Wojnarowics' urgent, eloquent text juxtaposes the transfiguration
and ecstasy sought in sexuality with the harsh reality of intolerance
and repression against gays and people with AIDS in contemporary America.
Neill's fragmented musical score, performed on the "Mutantrumpet," along
with computer-generated and designed sounds, tapes and percussion, form
a counterpoint to the text. A co-commission of Harvestworks, Inc., the
Wexner Center for the Arts, and NEW AMERICAN RADIO.
DAVID WOJNAROWICS was a visual artist and writer whose work was seen in galleries and performance spaces throughout the United States until his untimely death of AIDS. Active both as a composer and performer, BEN NEILL (New York, NY) is the designer of the "Mutantrumpet," an instrument which expands the capabilities of the normal trumpet. He has toured throughout Europe and the United States, and worked closely with such composers as John Cage, Rhys Chatham, Earl Brown, John King, David Behrman and Pauline Oliveros. top |
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| Z | |
| Z, PAMELA
ZWEDBERG, TOMMY ZUCKERMAN, ILANA |
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| Z, PAMELA | |
| Parts
of Speech (1995)
Utilizes found texts from advertising, communications systems, "buzzwords,"
and slang. The sound sources for the work are a combination of actual
samples from these language elements, and versions rendered by the artist
reading, singing, chanting, and processing the language. These fragments
are woven together by non language sounds sampled and composed into
a cohesive audio environment that deals with words as propaganda, words
as mantra, words as poetry, words as authority, and words as music.
Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. [Listen]
The String Movement (1994) (11:00) A brief, sonic journey into the puzzling world of exotic particles. Using her voice as the only sound source, the artist combines found texts, strange melodies, whispers, gasps, and pronouncements to depict the multi-dimensional world of particle interaction. The String Movement was developed and recorded during a residency at Yellow Springs Institute in August of 1992 as part of a larger work Exotic Particles. Trying to Reach You (1990) Text and musical episodes that describe the long, seemingly endless endeavor of trying to locate and communicate with a mysterious, unknown beloved. What is it that keeps the seeker separate from the sought after: language? distance? misunderstanding? Using her extraordinary singing voice and unique brand of music, clusters of other voices and ambient recordings, Pamela Z creates a playful and hauntingly beautiful aural journey. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. Which is Better? (1989) A youthful search for an answer to the questions: What is reality? What is fantasy? and Which is better? When she is unable to solve the riddle herself, she turns to others: to a coin-operated information machine and to friends. "This is all very interesting," she remarks, "but not terribly enlightening." Which is Better? combines expressive operatic solos, in which digital delay creates textures of varying denseness, spare percussion, and brief narrative statements. Be prepared for an upbeat, playful and utterly engaging production. Commissioned by NEW AMERICAN RADIO. PAMELA Z (San Francisco, CA) is a composer/performer. She has performed solo in Bay Area clubs and galleries, and throughout the U.S. since 1984. She works primarily with voice, live electronic processing, and sampling technology creating lush textures and frenetic rhythmic structures overlaid with melodic lines and spoken text. Pamela Z has also collaborated on works for dance and experimental theater and produced numerous multimedia performances, featuring her own work and that of other Bay Area artists. top |
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| ZWEDBERG, TOMMY | |
| Through
Water (Genom
Vatten) (1994) (10:10) The work invites its listeners for a ride on
the Swedish cruise ship, the M/S Birka Princess. Glasses clinking, the
voices of crew members and passengers, the thumping of disco music,
and water sounds are some of the sound phenomena that make up the material
of this sound-music work. "Genom Vatten" was produced for the Swedish
Broadcasting Company, and premiered on the M/S Birka Princess during
a music cruise.
TOMMY ZWEDBERG (Stockholm, Sweden) was a professional trumpet player for many years before taking classes in composition and teaching music at the Royal College for Music in Stockholm. Under the guidance of Lars Gunnar Bodin and Miklos Maros at the newly founded Electronic Music Studio (EMS), Zwedberg began exploring his own artistic language. His work combines music with film, music drama, and modern dance. top |
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| ZUCKERMAN, ILANA | |
| The
Angels of Tamara (1993)
(10:20) A text-sound-music composition with a tantalizing Middle Eastern
flavor. From the text: "Ilana looks at Tamara looking at Katerina observing
the angels of Tamara slowly moving around the edges of the room, dancing,
touching each other, floating lazily above the floor, dragging their
heavy, wonderful wings nonchalantly behind them, males and females nearly
alike, the signs of their sex almost invisible, ripe with sensuality,
smiling innocently." Produced for Studio One, KOL Israel in Jerusalem.
ILANA ZUCKERMAN (Jerusalem, Israel) is an audio artist and performer whose work has been presented in Israel, Italy, Spain, Germany, and Poland. She received a first place award at the international radio art festival, Macrophon 1991, in Wroclaw, Poland, for her composition Primot 84. Zuckerman is currently senior feature producer at KOL Israeli and the director of KOL's Radio Art Workshop Studio One. top |
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