project > soundwave
april 28, 2004.
Alan So's Me'd1.ate network ('a not-for-profit creative community that produces cross-pollinating collaborations between diverse artists and mediums and incites innovative ideas and visions through its exhibitions, products and live events') earlier this month released the Project > Soundwave CD - subtitled An Exploration into the Nature of Sound - to which I contributed 'Les Années Pop', a short montage dating from 2001's summer, based upon the announcement of the murder of John Kennedy ('années pop' !) by radio announcer Matthey Doret, 11.23.1963, on Swiss national radio.
I was almost seven at the time.
Of that particular Kennedy's murder, I mean.
I have this vivid memory of a long gone early morning. It is still dark
outside, lights in our living are up. My father's in his undies, his head
almost inside the speaker of what at the time was our one and only
medium, a tube radio - a Nordmende, that grew up with
me, from radio to mono blaster for my first stereo turntable,
to one hell of an electric guitar amplifier, to ... - ... oh, I beg your
pardon, I'm digressing ... My father? Yes ... so, he was in his undies,
kneeling before the Nordmende. And my mother was in tears. She
whispered about oncoming doom. World War Three. About blinding lights, mushroom
clouds. About Cossacks riding horses.
"Even in our front yard?"
Yes! Even in our front yard. They will be cutting up the cats & the
dogs & all the nice children. But worst of worsts: they will be raping
these kids' mums.
Oncoming doom, yes: maybe today, but surely tomorrow. That's how mummy felt that long gone early morning JFK got himself shot in Florida. And we weren't even in Florida. We weren't even in the US of A.
'False' as they may be, as such "Where were you when..."-recollections apparently tend to be, hearing the 1963 radio message for me very vividly evoked once again these 'memories' of me as a child witnessing my parents' confusion and 'emotions' in view of 'world events'. To be even more precise: they were located in between the announcer's words.
So I decided to remove all the words from the message.
Everything that remained, all that was in between, subsequently became the main 'sonic material' for Les Années Pop.
The track also appeared early 2003 on Cory Thrall's Samsarecords While the World Waited-compilation (limited limited edition CDr), and somewhat later that same year became part of DJ Zang's 'promotional mix' (Start > Transmission) for the San Francisco based Me'd1.ate's Project > Soundwave, on the 'audio CD' part of which it now sort of seems to have found a 'final destination'.
Curated by Alan So, the Project > Soundwave appears to be as carefully planned & executed as it is ambitious. I did not (yet) have the pleasure of meeting Alan in person, and our exchanges were limited to some short emails regarding my contribution to the CD, but all does strongly point to this being a true 'labour of love'. "Project > Soundwave," it says in the press release accompanying the CD, is organized into a two-part program featuring an audio CD and performance/listening events held as part of the forthcoming Soundwave > Series."
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The Project > Soundwave audio CD collects 18 tracks by 15 artists, based in the United States and Europe (Canada, Belgium, France and Austria). Me'd1.ate moreover put up a flash-website dedicated to the project, at www.projectsoundwave.com, with short biographies of all participating artists, liner notes to their contributions and sound fragments.
Also the live events parts of Project > Soundwave look very promising indeed. Now wouldn't it be great to participate in one of those? Might even be a great excuse to try and hop over to the Bay Area later this year. Well, why not?
[ "Proceeds of the CD release and events will support the production of Project > Soundwave and benefit local organizations to develop programming in the creative sound arts and education." ]
[ earlier related SB-entries: start > transmission | language removal | while the world waited ]
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