Music From Other Minds

Program 616: Sound Art

KALW Broadcast Date: September 4, 2020 | Host: Mark Abramson

In this episode of Music from Other Minds, we’ll take a look at some music that might be described better as “sound art.” This is music made with found sound, synthesizer drones, video game sounds, ambient recordings, custom-made instruments, scientific instruments, accidental and improvised sounds. Featured artists include Akio Suzuki, who often works on one-of-a-kind instruments of his own design, like the Analapos, which creates echoes through a spiral cord stretched between two metal cylinders; Aki Onda, best known for his “Cassette Memories” series, a set of sound diaries made from field recordings taped using a portable cassette recorder; and William Basinski, who employs advanced and obsolete technology with analogue tape loops to make haunting and melancholy soundscapes. We’ll also hear from Ai Yamamoto, a sound escape artist from Japan, now based in Melbourne, Australia, Lawrence English, another Australian who also runs the Room 40 record label which releases work by many of these artists, and DJ Olive, an American turntablist known for pushing the limits of hip hop into, well, sound art. In addition we play a few tracks from the Conet Project. These are recordings of shortwave broadcasts made during the cold war by radio stations of unknown origin, believed to be operated by government agencies from both sides of what was then called “The Iron Curtain” in order to communicate with deployed spies.

Program Audio

30-Second Spot