NUMBERS.FM: The name of the station comes from those so-called “numbers stations,” shortwave radio broadcasts of people reading lists of numbers — probably encrypted dispatches to spies — that have been going on for the last 70 years or so. [...]]]> Evan Merz: Why? Why start this sort of radio station right now? What was the inspiration?

NUMBERS.FM: The name of the station comes from those so-called “numbers stations,” shortwave radio broadcasts of people reading lists of numbers — probably encrypted dispatches to spies — that have been going on for the last 70 years or so. The messages in those broadcasts are encrypted using a technique mathematically provable to be impossible to decipher, so stumbling across one is an encounter with some human-generated but ultimately unknowable audio composition, something that really blows our minds and reminds us a bit of experiences we’ve had discovering experimental music and sound art.

More directly, we are inspired by our experiences on glitch.fm where
we do a weekly radio show from the perspective of our label Southbridge Slow Electronics. We are really into a lot of what happens on glitch.fm but also we wanted to pursue a more open and experimental format, such as those used on radio stations like WZRD, the Wizard, in
Chicago. We started to think of online stations such as rand()% (which was an automated net.radio station streaming realtime generative music) and Resonance. We also draw from our experiences with online platforms for Noise or Glitch musics such as furthernoise and microsound. As we discussed all this we imagined an actual “numbers station” that would also feature experimental shows.

EM: How does this project relate to Southbridge Slow Electronics?

NUMBERS.FM: Southbridge Slow Electronics is the record label we run, and also “Slow Electronics” is a genre we set out deliberately to create at the intersections of experimental Media Art and Noise. Many of the folks who will be performing and DJing on NUMBERS.FM are artists connected to Southbridge or who we’ve met through our long-term involvement in noise & experimental music scenes, i.e. here in Chicago. Also there’s a way in which Southbridge’s existence as both an experimental music project and a conceptual/media art project is something we really want to keep pushing with NUMBERS.FM, and create a platform for artists who have that same kind of sensibility.

EM: Can you explain slow electronics a little more?

NUMBERS.FM: Slow Electronics is a genre that we set out explicitly to define and produce within the record label Southbridge. It’s about playing “slow” noise music — records at 0.01% speed, sonic events that take a lifetime to ensue, processes that are too simple to codify but take too long to repeat — and also about “slowness” as an inversion of the claim to “power” in the genre Power Electronics, which we consider to be a theater of misogyny and fascism. So one thing we do is these Slow Electronics “remixes” of Power Electronics records — usually playing them slowly and/or backwards & thru other processing.

EM: My Pandora station for experimental music doesn’t work so well. Can a radio station like numbers.fm succeed when listeners all have such different views on what electroacoustic music is?

NUMBERS.FM: Pandora works great for music that has really mass appeal, where it’s possible to think “I’m looking for something light-hearted with guitars and lyrics about broken promises” (the kind of categories Pandora uses to sort its music catalog and relate tracks to one another) and still come up with something that two people could agree upon just by virtue of having a huge pool of listeners to draw from and pluck some consensus out of. But stuff like noise music, weird dance music sub-genres, sound art, etc. is much more niche and so individual voices, tastes and other quirks are all above the noise floor. So this kind of more bespoke, handcrafted — not to mention *live* — approach is much more natural to the kind of music & sound we’re all invested in.

EM: Going forward, how is numbers.fm going to change and expand?

NUMBERS.FM: Right now we’re figuring out our process, getting all the tech in place and documenting it for new DJs, and generally finding our voice. We have a handful of shows scheduled to start with that we’re totally thrilled about, and look forward to building that roster out as we go. We also hope to do some weird stuff with the station as a platform for our own mysterious encrypted broadcasts and we already have all the code for the station’s online platform (for the playlist/archive tools & and website) available openly: https://github.com/jakevsrobots/NUMBERS.FM

EM: What else are you guys working on?

NUMBERS.FM: Lisa Slodki’s limited edition VHS videotape artwork on Southbridge is coming up next on our label. Lisa also works under the name Noise Crush with the band The Fortieth Day and under her own name with the band Haptic. She is a Chicago-based artist who has exhibtited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago with Haptic. She makes VHS tapes as individual “loops” with samples on them taken from her own and other sources. During live performances she runs a series of VCR’s through mixers in an analog video world! Her work is flowing and slow-moving video which has been referred to by reviewers as dissonant, hypnotic and haunting emotional states, so we’re really looking forward to that!

Note: Be patient. The first few minutes are music only.

Nowhere. is a high-definition video presentation filmed across seven states over the course of seven months. It is inspired by the filmmaking of Ron Fricke and Godfrey Reggio in its employment of non-narrative structure, use of time-lapse photography, and observational technique.

I saw this project as [...]]]>

Note: Be patient. The first few minutes are music only.

Nowhere. is a high-definition video presentation filmed across seven states over the course of seven months. It is inspired by the filmmaking of Ron Fricke and Godfrey Reggio in its employment of non-narrative structure, use of time-lapse photography, and observational technique.

I saw this project as a personal challenge to create a film with production values that are as comparable as possible to the works of the filmmakers mentioned above, even with a limited amount of funding and equipment. The film was shot entirely on a Canon HV20 digital video camera and features music that was recorded and mixed on my home computer and in the computer music studio.

The resulting film seeks to uncover where we find the greatest wealth of beauty in our habitat by observing the way we live and the how we affect the land we inhabit. Through its poetic structure, the viewer is allowed to question both the aesthetics and meaning of our environmental impact and discover where the lines between garbage and grandeur are distorted or ultimately realized.

Connecting two writings : one with the light and one with the acoustic wave. Sound doesn’t comment the picture and is not either its audible side. However, the connection between the two elements requires a rebuilding, a drift of the [...]]]> Guillaume Loizillon just posted Phono Photo No. 6, an online exhibition of images with music.

Connecting two writings : one with the light and one with the acoustic wave.
Sound doesn’t comment the picture and is not either its audible side. However, the connection between the two elements requires a rebuilding, a drift of the sight and listening.

Components
A photography : in all the possible extension of the word
A phonography : sound recording, editing, mixing, synthesis…
A title : sometimes
One or more signatures
Minimal interactivity : clicking on the photography makes ear the phonography

Nolan Stolz in the Recording Studio

Listen to the ComputerMusicBlog interview with composer [...]]]> This week I interviewed Nolan Stolz about his upcoming concert, which features works composed simultaneously in a 60-minute time span. The concert is being sponsored by New Music Hartford, and is a benefit for the South Park Inn.

Nolan Stolz in the Recording Studio

Listen to the ComputerMusicBlog interview with composer Nolan Stolz.

To donate to the South Park Inn before the concert on Sunday, donate through Nolan Stolz paypal account. To give to South Park Inn after the concert, visit http://www.southparkinn.org/.