a few months ago i found a small portable radio, dating probably from the 1980′s and made during soviet times, is a secondhand shop in the small village of mooste in southeast estonia. i have a thing for old radios, so i bought it, and it got me to thinking about the place of radio, not in this present world of internet streaming, podcasting and so forth, but in our past, and in our memories. i know i have distinct memories of radio, radio stations, djs, events, situations, and even places that i relate to radio from my own past, growing up in boston, during my student days in western massachusetts, all the way through my years at the resonance fm studios in london, and my attempts now to listen to estonian radio to improve my language skills. i wondered if this particular radio, alien to me but possibly familiar to estonians, might trigger memories for those around me, and i decided to find out.

::: jun 08-09 ::: jedburgh, scotland ::: weekend schedule @ soond gatherin #1 :::

(see below for event details)

::: 2012 :::
::: 2011 :::
::: 2010 :::
::: 2009 :::
::: 2008 :::
::: 2007 :::
::: 2006 :::
::: 2005 :::

photo: ben owen

w/ felicity ford & james wyness

saturday & sunday, 8-9 june
oxnam village hall
oxnam, near jedburgh

A weekend of workshops, social listening and field trips investigating common ground between textiles and sound, with visiting artists Felicity Ford (Reading) and Patrick McGinley (Rapina, Estonia)

full schedule:

Saturday 8 June

Materials Provided: one small pillow speaker, pure wool stuffing, pure wool yarn. Participants should bring: your own knitting needles, circulars or DPNs, sizes 3.5mm and 4mm. Maximum participants: 10. Booking essential, to make sure there are enough materials for all! This workshop is for people with some experience of knitting. Participants will know how to knit in the round, and how to cast stitches on and off. At the end of the workshop you will have a very wee 100% wool covered and stuffed pillow which you can bring with you anywhere or keep in your actual pillow at home, for listening to woolly sounds. You will need your own iPod, mp3 player or similar device to plug the woolly speaker into, and all workshop participants will be given a specially-created mix of wool-themed field recordings to play back through their speaker pillow!

::: molmika ::: mp3 ::: 2013 ::: download :::

latvian friend and collaborator max shentelevs has posted a piece on the bernu rits website made by latvian television about a series of workshops and performances that took place there in 2008. max, john grzinich and i led the sound as space / sound as language workshop over 6 days in two locations. some more information about the workshop, from the murmerings archives:

“a workshop focusing on sound as transmitter of nonverbal information, whether as a tool for communication or as a description of physical or imaginary space. we will focus on sound’s ability to define/describe space, and on our ability to resonate, alter, or create space by using sound. we will also explore animal communication and group activity. a strong focus will be placed on environmental listening, and the development of the ear toward detailed sonic perception. using small acoustic objects and the space itself, we will experiment with methods of group nonverbal sonic communication, with giving our location a voice, and with creating new spaces toward an understanding of sonic scenography. the workshop will open with an extended listening session, after which participants will work through a series of sonic games and be asked to bring objects to use in the later stages.

more information (in latvian) and images from the week’s events here. the film is also in latvian, but includes much to see and hear!

w/ bruce tovsky, ben owen, & ana carvalho

friday, 16 nov.
20:00
106BLDG30
BUILDING 30 Suite 106
Brooklyn Navy Yard
$5

directions: enter at the Clinton Ave & Flushing Ave gate, ask for Building 30 Suite 106 at the guardhouse, they will direct you. a BNY map link and directions can be found here.

RSVP: via FB, btovsky (at) gmail (dot) com or 917.674.6647

after a long hiatus we are pleased to announce the first of a new series of events:

MURMER (SOUND) + BRUCE TOVSKY (VISUALS)
BEN OWEN (SOUND) + ANA CARVALHO (VISUALS)

w/ nmperign & ernst karel

saturday, 10 nov.
20:00
studio soto
10 channel center street
$10 suggested donation

Join Studio Soto for an outstanding evening of rare performances by American expat sound artist Patrick McGinley (aka murmer), and the renowned duo Nmpreign (Bhob Rainey and Greg Kelley), along with the sterling Ernst Karel.

Patrick McGinley (aka murmer) is an american-born sound, performance, and radio artist who has been based in europe since 1996. since then he has been building a collection of found sounds and found objects that has become the basis of all his work. in 2002 he founded framework, an organisation that produces a weekly field-recording themed radio show, broad- and podcasting around the world. in 2005, he began working closely with the artist-run organisation MoKS in southeast estonia, relocating there permanently in 2009.

one square meter is a project in micro-exploration. all sounds were recorded within a small radius of one another, a study of the different resonances perspectives, and focuses of a small space. for this project the chosen spot is on the riverside of the drava in maribor, the ruins of an old staircase that once led down to the water. the site contains the support poles for the now-gone staircase handrails, metal guardrails and fences, discarded bottles, reeds and cables dipping into the water, concrete walls, and life (insects, birds, fish, etc).individual sounds can be heard from the map on the right. here as well is a composition made using the recordings:

one square meter: maribor riverside is one outcome of the maribor maps project, a collaboration with udo noll, creator of  the aporee soundmaps, and as we speak, which was a part of maribor capital of culture 2012.

now available from malaysia’s herbal international:

the framework compositions are a series of experiments with untreated field recordings, exploring notions of musicality within the structures of found sound. the compositions were created with differing sets of self-imposed rules: framework 1 (whose sources were all recorded in paris, france in march/april 2003) was recorded, edited and composed entirely on a single minidisc with no overdubbing or alterations to the sounds or their relative levels; framework 4 (originally released on the soundwalk editions blog) is an experiment in sonic perception via the contrasts of resonance in different indoor and outdoor spaces; and frameworks 2 & 3 are both long-form works of multi-layered sonic environments originally commissioned as radio works (for the radia network and silenceradio, respectively). framework 3 also explores the use of voice as a musical tool within a larger public soundscape, and includes sounds produced by a group of workshop participants in an attempt to actively resonate and interact with a specific space, both of which call into question a recordist’s position as passive spectator. as an artist working with field recording who considers himself a musician, these works were in some way a reaction against this idea of documentary or objective presentation of found sound. if every microphone is a frame, can the works born via their vibrations be disconnected from a recordist’s perspective, decision, action, or emotion? these works could be said to represent a momentary perception of a place and time, or perhaps a conglomeration of overlapping memories and impressions of past moments, activities, and spaces.

all sounds found between 2003 and 2011.
vocal performance on framework 3 [swarm] improvised on a café terrace in the south of france by mari kalkun and piibe kolka.
sleeve design by lewisdoesdesign.com, with images by patrick mcginley.

disc 1
1 ::: framework 1 [paris cuts] ::: 14:19
2 ::: interlude [tengmalm’s owl] ::: 3:00
3 ::: framework 2 [ce soir on va se faire chier] ::: 32:57
4 ::: epilogue [seaside flagpoles] ::: 4:00

disc 2
1 ::: framework 3 [swarm] ::: 35:00
2 ::: interlude [thunder & cranes] ::: 3:00
3 ::: framework 4 [4 spaces] ::: 15:00
4 ::: epilogue [irrigation drain] ::: 4:00

2 x Audio CD
110 minutes+
Release date: October 2012

the framework:seasonal series of fund-raising audio releases continues with a very special issue #3 – the great chris watson, who, we’re sure, needs no introduction amongst framework listeners, has donated a single-take, 2.5 hour field recording from the rainforests of borneo, recorded and published at its full length at higher-than-cd audio quality. this stunning recording has never before been released, and has been donated by the artist in support of framework radio. it is available only through framework, in exchange for your donation of €20 of more on the framework website.

each dvdr is slow burnt onto the highest quality taiyo yuden archival discs, and is hand-stamped with the custom-made image of a borneo-native mushroom, in keeping with the previous issues of the seasonal series. each is housed in an offset and folio printed sleeve from a local printing press, on paper from a local papermill, both here in the southeast estonian town of räpina. the insert as well is printed on additive-free paper from the räpina mill. these audio dvdr’s will play in any standard dvd player, or on any computer.

the details:
Sunrise in the Sukau rainforest
Recorded during October 2011 by the river
Kinabatangen, Sabah, Borneo from 0430h

Sennheiser MKH 8040/30 middle and side array to a
Nagra ARES Pll recorder at 48Khz 16 Bits .wav

The Sukau rainforest is a relatively narrow strip of primary forest either side of the banks of the river Kinabatangen in Sabah, Borneo. Access to the forest floor is very difficult as there are no trails, however at the back of the lodge where I was staying there was a narrow old and decaying boardwalk that led, snake like, through the dense undergrowth and out into what felt like another world. Each morning for over a week I left my lodge around 0400h and set off carefully along a zig zag pattern of soft and splintered planks into the velvet darkness. Either side of the red glow from my head torch fireflies and other unknown bioluminescent insects blinked and flashed their alien languages whilst dead ahead the small piercing red reflecting eyes of hunting bats streaked, missile like, directly towards me. On several mornings my GPS guided me to a favourite looping curve at the furthermost point of the 2Km trail where I could stop and fix my mikes in a tree whilst trying to bat off the myriad host of mosquitos that quickly find anything warm blooded that is stationary. I rigged and set away the recording before quietly moving off, my ears straining to hear the distant songs of gibbons, the shrieks of macaques and the low whistle of a pitta. Sunrise, such as it is 30m below the canopy, is also accompanied by the slow drip of  condensation percolating down through the grey green gloom from a canopy 30m above as the forest is slowly revealed. – Chris Watson

Sunrise in the Sukau rainforest is published by Touch Music
http://www.chriswatson.net

to order your copy donate €20 or more by clicking here, or visiting http://www.frameworkradio.net. we’ll be in touch to confirm the best shipping address. copies of previous issues of framework:seasonal are also still available – donate €20 or more per issue and let us know which ones you’d like!

support framework radio and donate!