Radio Spirits in the Night

The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music

Episode 115

Radio Spirits in the Night

Introduction

Track Start Times

Onda, “Part 1”

10:06

Onda, “Part 2”

28:22

Onda, "Seoul"

47:26

Onda, “Köln”

1:08:03

Onda, Lewisburg”

1:11:35

Onda, “Wroclaw"

1:19:47

Holmes. “3 Open Windows, 1 Small Antenna”

1:27:36

Playlist

1. Aki Onda, “Part 1” (18:16) and “Part 2” (19:04) from “Transmissions From The Radio Midnight (2023 Dinzu Artefacts). Limited Edition 12" Black Vinyl. Limited to 200 copies. “for this album, I selected some of my favorite segments from the recordings made in ten-or-so countries over the span of roughly a decade, beginning in 2008. All of the fragments are presented just as they were captured. Since frequency behavior is often unpredictable, and since the act of catching waves was done manually, the recordings capture all sorts of incidental sounds, including various kinds of static noise and radio interference.” (Aki Onda).
2. Aki Onda, “Seoul” (2010, 20:37), “Köln” (2012, 3:32), “Lewisburg” (2014, 8:12), “Wroclaw” (2013, 7:49) from “Nam June's Spirit Was Speaking To Me” (2020 Recital). Includes 20-page art booklet including rare photographs of Nam June Paik from the set of Michael Snow’s film Rameau’s Nephew (1974), two essays on radio-wave phenomenon (by Onda and Marcus Gammel), and a remembrance of Paik by Yuji Agematsu from an interview conducted by Aki Onda.
3. Thom Holmes. “3 Open Windows, 1 Small Antenna” (1973 Private recording). I realized this piece in the electronic music studios of Temple University in 1972-73. I recorded various shortwave radio sounds at my apartment in Philadelphia, then edited and embellished it with synthesis and modulation using the Moog Modular III synthesizer at in the Temple Music School. I was a student of Paul Epstein at the time, and he asked several of us to join him for a performance on the WBAI Free Music Store, a program radio in NYC. I developed and sketched-out some vocal parts to sing along to the tape and Paul and my friend Ed Cohen joined me for the performance in NY. The lights were dim, the mood was quiet, and we soared along on the sounds on this piece over the airwaves. A recording of that radio broadcast exists somewhere in my storage but for this instance I present the tape piece alone. 24:53.

Opening background music: Thom Holmes, “Signatures Revisited” (2023), an extended version of a piece from my album Intervals (2017), based on the experience of listening to shortwave radio. 01:07:40. Listen to the complete work on my Soundcloud channel.

Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.

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

See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.

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