Electronic Music from Radios

Playlist

1. John Cage, “Radio Music” (1956) from John Cage (1974 Cramps Records). Performed on radios by Gianni-Emilio Simonetti, Juan Hidalgo, Walter Marchetti. Each of these performers used a Panasonic multi-band portable Radio Model RF-1600 B receiver. 6:00
2. Dick Raaijmakers, “Ballade Erlkönig (1967)” from Ballad 'Erlkönig'/5 Canons (1981 Composers' Voice). Tape composition by Raaijmakers. Recordings realized in the studio of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. 23:33
3. Karlheinz Stockhausen, “Kurzwellen” (1968), excerpt from Festival 0f Hits (1970 Deutsche Grammophon). Composed By, Mixed By, Electronics, Filters, Potentiometers, Karlheinz Stockhausen; Electronium, Harald Bojé; Tamtam, Alfred Alings, Rolf Gehlhaar; Piano, Aloys Kontarsky; Electric Viola, Johannes G. Fritsch. This is the opening of this long work, excerpted for this strange collection of greatest “hits” by Stockhausen (you had to be in 1970 to understand this). Kurzwellen is a piece where the musicians need to improvise and react to signals they receive on randomly tuned shortwave radios. This is from the Cologne recording made in the Rhenus studio in Godorf for the Cologne Radio (WDR, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln) on the 8th and 9th of April 1969 (53'30), which was record 2 of the original 2-record set. By the way, this ensemble also featured the Electronium Pi, made by Hohner beginning in 1952. It was a monophonic, electronic keyboard instrument and was an add-on instrument for the piano mounted under the keyboard, which is the model used by Stockhausen. His keyboardist, while Harald Bojé used the accordion-like model. 6:19
4. Michael Snow, “Short Wavelength, excerpt (1980)” from 2 Radio Solos (1988 Freedom In A Vacuum). Recorded August 1980. Short-wave pieces played on a circa 1962 Nordmende receiver. Reissued on CD in 2009. What I would call truly improvised; no score, no rules, just listening and responding with the radio. 15.18
5. Philip Perkins, “Radio Music” (1956) from Virgo Ramayana (And Other Works For Radio) (1989 Fun Music). From an obscure cassette released in 1992 of a studio recording made by Perkins in 1989. Note that the later CD-R reissue of this album did not include “Radio Music” but did include other interesting works including radio sounds. 6:00
6. Ann Hamilton, “Mantle” from recordings made at the Miami Art Museum in 1998 for an exhibit by the artists. This audio CD was made in Mantle on June 1, 1998, during a twelve-hour period. The tracks and timings are: 7:30am (4:20); 8:00am (4:19); 9:00am (3:01); 11:00am (3:01); Noon (4:16); 1:00pm (2:15); 3:00pm (4:28); 6:00pm (1:50); 7:00pm (3:27). Mantle was a 3,500 square foot, site-specific installation created by Ann Hamilton. It included over 60,000 flowers piked on a 48-foot-long steel table. Buried within the flowers 30 speakers emitted muffled voices and mechanical noises. Thirteen shortwave radios were placed high on a shelf. An attendant sitting by the window sewed together wool coats. 32:09

 

Background Music

• Thom Holmes, “The World” excerpts (2015) for shortwave and processed sounds. 23:30

 

Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.

Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.

For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.