MichaelSnow - 2 Radio Solos FLAC album

Tracklist

1	The Papaya Plantations	42:35
2	Short Wavelength	35:19

Versions

Category	Artist	Title (Format)	Label	Category	Country	Year
none	MichaelSnow	2 Radio Solos ‎(Cass, C90)	Freedom In A Vacuum	none	Canada	1988

Notes

Recorded August 1980.

In conjunction with the 2009 exhibition awashawave, curated by Christof Migone, the Blackwood Gallery has rereleased Michael Snow’s Two Radio Solos. Originally released as a cassette in 1988, the two pieces have been re-mastered for release on this CD.

“These 2 short-wave pieces are both "played” continuous improvisations. There was no editing, no post-facto electronic alteration. The sounds were found by paying intense attention to fate tuning in and out and between stations, changing bands, bass, treble and volume. The radio played is a circa 1962 Normende (pictured). The gradual change in pitch and speed on SHORT WAVELENGTH is an "accident": batteries were losing power during the recording. The tapes were made at night in a remote North Canadian cabin lit by a kerosene lamp......................” –Michael Snow

“The radio signals of shortwave frequencies featured in Snow's Two Radio Solos manifest a veritable cornucopian palette of sounds in these lengthy tracks (titled "Short Wavelength" and "The Papaya Plantations"): pulses, beats, cracklings, hisses, tones, ethereal emanations, saturated groundswells, a Babelian assortment of voices, music of various genres, and noises of all stripes. Their complexity and countless number are foregrounded by Snow's acute listening and fine tuned improvising. He animates these densely populated frequencies from an isolated location—the solitary player in a cabin tuning in the multitude.

Two Radio Solos presents a forest of unintelligible sounds with brief moments of recognition; the signs are sporadic amidst the awashed soundscape.” –Christof Migone

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