In contrast to The Wire‘s Minimalism special last year, this month’s issue is themed around ‘excess’. I contribute a short history of the use of explosives in music. Some additional coruscations on this topic can be found on the main Miraculous Agitations blog.
A new blogpost over at the main Miraculous Agitations blog examines a few 1860s publications of the Brighton printer and publisher J. F. Eyles, and reveals a very curious ‘pre-postmodern’ text (described as a “wild bit of writing”) appearing in an 1860 issue of Eyles’ newspaper, The Brighton Examiner (one of the many interesting newspapers not yet available online as a digitised resource, currently existing only as restricted/fragile volumes held at The British Library).
The Buried Treasure label’s monumental project ‘The Delaware Road‘ returns this August, 2019. The multimedia extravaganza previously unleashed its haunted wonders within a time-capsule-like decommissioned nuclear bunker in 2017, combining folklore, science, theatre and magic (under the auspices of the shadowy ‘Corporation’) and of course there were plentiful sonic emissions! (Radionics Radio was among the Corporation’s worshipful, diffusing tones in the medical bay).
This year, the psychoacoustical-psychogeographical jamboree returns to a secret military base located just a dowsing-rod-wobble away from Stonehenge. ‘The Delaware Road: Ritual & Resistance’ will be jam-packed with thrills – tickets are now available here. There will be an extraordinary collection of artists involved.
Buried Treasure released a teaser trailer which happens to be soundtracked by a Radionics Radio piece ‘Frequency Cluster’ (live at the Delaware Road) available on the label’s Creeping Cinquefoil compilation.
A line-up of the acts is viewable on the tickets page – surprise additions are expected! In a rare live outing, the as-was Sound and Music-sponsored Radionics Radio joins the happening with a special one-off electroacoustic microtonal diffusion (more details soon), once again bringing the Delawarr Laboratories radionic frequency-diffusion techniques to The Delaware Road…
The headphone audio guide at the Tate Modern’s new exhibition, Picasso 1932: Love, Fame & Tragedy plays host to a medley of new original musical pieces I composed (on instruments both post-electronic and more conventional sorts) with the complex dynamics of Picasso’s inner life at this period firmly in mind. The audio guide was produced by the talented Samuel Shelton Robinson.
Picasso 1932 runs from the 8th March to the 9th September.
The latest issue of The Wire (#409) contains my article on ‘psyphonics’ – the idealistic practice of attempting to embed idea, emotion and ‘thought’ within sound. A blogpost over at the Miraculous Agitations blog gives a little background to the idea. The Wire article charts how this romantic concept survives and even flourishes within modernity’s rigours.
A newly formed Psyphonics Facebook group now exists for anyone wishing to explore the idea further and share related music/recordings.
Two separate labels have just released limited edition LPs of Meadow House ‘tapedropping’ material (that is, music designed to be left on cassette – later CDR – in public places for people to pick up). They showcase the volatile, fun, idiosyncratic, daring, irritating, despairing and inscrutable styles that this mode of soundmaking has gravitated towards over the years.
Misadventures on the Scorn Cycle is on Public House Records, and This Should Not Be Happening is on Feeding Tube Records.
Background fluff pertinent to these releases is readable on the Miraculous Agitations main blog.
Artreview has published my lengthy review of Aki Onda’s Space Studies – an epic 5-hour performance at the South London Gallery – readable here.
My paper – ‘Failed Histories of Electronic Music‘ – appears in issue 2 (vol. 22) of Organised Sound. It brings to light some electronic music precedents that have never received detailed attention, if at all.
The background of the ‘failed histories’ concept is given in a new blogpost over at my Miraculous Agitations blog – click here. It raises many questions, including “why can’t I earn a living from my research?”
Oscillatorial Binnage will be performing at IKLECTIK tomorrow (13th June)! More details can be found on the Iklectik website: here. There’s a Facebook event page here. It forms the second in the series of Resonance Extra’s ‘Extra Nights’.
A posting over at the main Miraculous Agitations blog gives an idea of what to expect.
Here’s an impromptu behind-the-scenes photograph of us setting up for our rehearsal at the weekend:
Toby Clarkson, Fari Bradley and Chris Weaver
This month the Radionics Radio album – An Album of Musical Radionic Thought Frequencies – is released on Sub Rosa. An introductory blogpost can be found at the Miraculous Agitations blog.
Miraculous Agitations - Daniel R Wilson 