Output details

The Radio Series

To BBC or Not (2008, 8-channels – 13’) and Radio-aktiv (2011, ZKM commission – 8- and 24-channel ‘Klangdom’ Zirkonium versions– 9’) are two parts of the composer’s radio series (commenced 2007 with the GRM commission Oh là la radio – 9’). These recent pieces focus on my approach to the ‘flexible work’ (Landy/Jamieson, 2000 – Devising Dance and Music), namely altering works to communicate directly with a particular audience. They also continue to apply my notion of combining humour with what I call ‘the 1% tilt’, taking something from the real world and re-presenting it as part of an artwork. Inspired by dada and surrealism, these text-sound compositions turn one’s daily life into a piece of sample-based sound theatre accessible to a broad public. The two submitted works and its predecessor use material solely taken from national broadcasts and are primarily intended to address French, British and German audiences. Their general structure and approach to quirky spatialisation are identical, but their ‘recomposed’ content specifically reflects cultural broadcast patterns of behaviour, eg, Verfremdung, banality and the highly organised in Germany. Traditional music devices, such as gesture, tension/release and many more are employed using source material known to all listeners in the target countries, by association to all others. Ironically, the works have been performed on every continent except Africa (selected performances are listed in the portfolio) although the majority of performances (and several broadcasts of the French work) have taken place in the key countries. Sound manipulation is used only by exception as it is the ‘as is’ state reflecting today’s sampling culture and its cat-and-mouse game regarding legality that is at the heart of these works. A fourth, collaborative work in Mandarin, Chinese Radio Sound was completed in Shenyang and performed at the Musicacoustica Festival in Beijing October 2013.