Deep Wireless 15 Compilation Album

“A slow-burning visual and aural tapestry takes you inside an imaginary museum of transistor radios. The curator lounges on a red sofa, and silently extols the virtues of several items in his collection. An announcer babbles incoherently in Yiddish. and a lone laptop jockey coaxes out a series of androgynous landscapes.” – Zev Asher

Zev Asher (1963-2013) was a Montreal-born filmmaker and musician. He performed extensively in North America, Europe, and Japan with the duo Nimrod (with Tim Olive) and his improvisational project, Roughage. Both Nimrod and Roughage appeared on a number of recordings released on labels in Canada, the U.S., Japan, France, Croatia, and Russia. Zev Asher had also produced several documentaries that covered as subjects artists from the newly-formed country of Croatia, the Nihilist Spasm Band, and the artist Jesse Powers’ killing of a cat in an artwork, as well as the incomplete documentary Zev Asher:GVH.

B-Radio is a series of radio shows mashing b- list genres with radio art. For Deep Wireless, the NRRF cosmo-noise-nauts voyage into uncharted territories of deep (radio) space. This piece is an excerpt from a May 2013 live telematic performance between collective members in Toronto and Chicago.

NRRF is a collaborative effort to make unlicensed translocal neighborhood radio art. NRRF mashes b-list film genres with radio art to structure the improvisational nature of its shows. The core group consists of Jonny Farrow, Anna Friz, Steve Germana, Jeff Kolar, and Peter Speer, with Sarah Knudtson (documentation). For more information on NRRF: https://wavefarm.org/ta/archive/artists/59pd5w

Gambletron’s multi-tonal AM RadioTheremin was created, tuned and played with during this live performance using many radios and boomboxes. Gambletron interacted with the instrument by adding electronics, musical saw and their voice into the ever-morphing, interactive, massive, polyphonic chord produced by the radios. This performance was transmitted live using a short-range transmitter and was accompanied by a video created by Johnny Forever Nawracaj. This recording is an excerpt of the performance from February 2016 at Trinity Square Video, Toronto.

Gambletron is a Queer, non-binary, interdisciplinary sound/ performance artist and musician based out of Montréal. They are known for their noise-electronic improvisation, multi-tonal “AM Radio Theremin”, roving transmitted “Field Trips”, “Noise Karaoke.” and performance based media collaborations with artist Johnny Forever Nawracaj. Gambletron has toured internationally and participated in various festivals and residencies around the world.

Since the advent of the radio transmitter, human beings have been unintentionally broadcasting a record of their existence into space. These radio signals, as they travel across the universe traveling at the speed of light, will long outlast our time on Earth. “Tunguska” is a sonic journey, a chronicle of our desire to reach out to one another, an unwitting cry for help received millions of years too late, an accidental message-in-a-bottle sent by a civilization that didn’t know it’s dying. – Christopher Stanton. This performance of “Tunguska” was performed in May 2011 at Theatre Direct’s Wychwood Studio, Toronto by the multi-disciplinary ensemble of Christopher Stanton, Darsha Hewitt, Erin Gee and Hank Bull with dramaturgy and staging direction by Mark Cassidy.

A leader in the independent Theatre scene of Toronto, Christopher Stanton has been involved with ARC, The Room, and Unspun Theatre, among his many roles as a director, performer, sound designer, composer and producer. He has worked in Toronto, Edmonton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Montreal, and internationally in New York, Bogotà, Munich, Brisbane, Dublin, and Vienna. Darsha Hewitt uses experimental electronics, radio-craft and aging technology for sound installations and performances. By handcrafting, rebuilding and cross-wiring basic electronics, she strips them of their commercial obligations and exposes them to the noisy and invisible ethereal realm. In addition to her art practice, Darsha teaches people how to build electronics. Erin Gee (Montreal) is an artist and composer inspired by the human voice as a conceptual object, linking the vibration of vocal folds to electricity and data across systems. She translates the materiality of the voice into zones of affect and biofeedback, and is best known for her work in choral composition, networked performance, ASMR, virtual reality, AI and robotics. Hank Bull is a multi-faceted artist recognized as an innovator in radio, telecommunications, performance and social practices. As curator, administrator and advocate, he has participated in the development of the Western Front and Centre A, the Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art.

“Herd” is a performance which turns an ear to materials, such as caribou antlers, to sound the transmission of embedded and layered ancestral knowledge. This performance was aired live on NAISA Radio in a special Art’s Birthday broadcast on January 17, 2017 in Nipissing Territory from White Water Gallery in the the exhibition “wnoondwaamin | we hear them,” (curated by Lisa Myers). The exhibition called for the occupation of sound waves, exploring the capacity of these energies to access knowledge and memory. “wnoondwaamin | we hear them” was organized and circulated by Trinity Square Video with the support of the Ontario Arts Council. It is acknowledged that this recording took place in Robinson-Huron Treaty territory and that the land on which it took place is the traditional territory of the Anishnaabeg people and, specifically, the Nipissing First Nation.

Jeneen Frei Njootli is a Vuntut Gwitchin artist and a core member of the ReMatriate Collective. Her practice concerns itself with Indigeneity-in-politics, community engagement and productive disruptions. She has worked as a performance artist, workshop facilitator and crime prevention youth coordinator. As one of the five finalists of the 2018 Sobey Art Award, Jeneen Frei Njootli’s work “wind sucked in through bared teeth” (2017) was included in an eponymous exhibition featuring the finalists at the National Gallery of Canada.

This is an excerpt from a May 2008 improvised performance at Gallery 1313 in Toronto for which iNSiDEaMiND was invited to remix and transform (with permission) selected tracks from the first five editions of the Deep Wireless Comp.

With the definition of the word DJ continually expanding, iNSiDEaMiND (Prof. Fingers and Steptone) are a two man scratch band from Toronto, further stretching artistic boundaries by performing live original compositions with vinyl. The ‘scratch musicians’, as they call themselves, bring for a unique angle to what a pair of DJ/Producers armed with instruments called turntables can create. By developing outside of the often limited ‘battle- oriented’ frame of mind that scratching is too often associated with, the crew brings new life to an ever evolving art form.

“another gay wedding. another scan through the radio dial. another christian radio station. another CBC cross country check up. another story of getting married when your right to do so is the issue du jour.” – Evalyn Parry Between 2004 and 2010 NAISA formed different ensembles of artists from various disciplines and genres to create live radio art performances. In this recording from May 2005 at The Drake Hotel in Toronto, the ensemble consisted of Evalyn Parry (storyteller), Eric Leonardson (Springboard instrument), Chris Brookes and Anna Friz (additional voices). The performances were collectively created with each member responsible for directing the content for a piece. Mark Cassidy provided dramaturgy and staging direction.

Evalyn Parry is a Canadian Singer, songwriter, playwright and director who has toured and performed internationally. She has won numerous awards, including Dora Mavor Moore Award for Outstanding New Play, and KM Hunter Award for Theatre. She was most recently the Artistic Director of Buddies in Bad Times, an LGBT theatre company in Toronto from 2015 to 2020. Evalyn is also a distinguished musician, her unique combination of music and spoken word has been presented at folk festivals, theatres and campuses internationally.

Eric Leonardson, a Chicago-based audio artist, is Adjunct Associate Professor in the Department of Sound at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). Leonardson performs internationally with the Springboard, a self-built instrument made in 1994 and often presents on acoustic ecology to new audiences. In Acoustic Ecology he serves as President for the World Listening Project, Midwest Society for Acoustic Ecology, and the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology.

Anna Friz is a radio and transmission artist, composer, and media studies scholar. Since 1998 she has created self-reflexive radio for broadcast, installation or performance, where radio is the source, subject, and medium of the work. She also creates large-scale audiovisual installations and composes for theatre, contemporary dance, and film. Anna is Assistant Professor of Sound in the Film and Digital Media Department of the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Chris Brookes is an audio artist and documentary maker who has crafted audio features for three decades. His productions have won many international awards including the Peabody Award and the Prix Italia. He has also directed documentaries for Canadian network television, is a published author and playwright, and has taught documentary storytelling at workshops in North America and Europe.

The fog of chemo and numbness of radiation. The brain surgery. Paralysis. The seizure that exposed it all. The sterile sounds of the hospital. One must find a way to heal.”Radio Therapy” expresses these sentiments by transforming the brutal sounds of Rodriguez’s MRI into a meditation on the healing process of his recovery from a cancerous brain tumor, creating both a soothing and battling ambiance of recovery & remission.”Radio Therapy” is produced by harnessing radio frequencies alongside a transmission of Rodriguez’s MRI brain scan through a transducer that is attached to a standalone guitar. The transducer forces the whole body of the guitar to vibrate. The resulting sound is a blend of musical notes, and scanned AM radio frequencies resonating through the body of the guitar and passing through a chain of manipulated sound effects. The performance was recorded in February 2017 at Geary Lane, Toronto. – Martin Rodriguez

Martín Rodríguez is a multidisciplinary artist and curator. His work draws connections between the intrinsic communications in sound to create experiences that engage in the present. His work utilizes unconventional techniques to expose the rhythms, harmonies, & melodies found in the cracks of the radio spectrum.

The piece “Room” combines room tones sampled from several films, sfx libraries, with field recordings of other rooms and spaces. These sound sources are processed to highlight the various inherent or imagined states of dramatic narrative possible with their acoustic properties. What are the unheard undercurrents behind the sonic atmospheres we inhabit and what meanings lie behind the boundaries that these “space containers”present? – Michelle Irving

Michelle Irving is a Composer, DJ and Sound Designer living in Toronto. She has contributed her creative skills to a number of award-winning projects including Mark Achbar’s documentary “The Corporation,” Velcrow Ripper’s film “Scared Sacred” and The National Film Board’s “The 7 Interventions” directed by Katerina Cizek. Other releases include remixes for New York-based SSION. As a DJ Michelle Irving spins exclusively vinyl and is resident with Produzentin for a night called Hotnuts.

A few months ago I wrote a note to myself: “Try to create a mask that that doesn’t have anything to do with anything.” I kept wondering what that could mean until I started to imagine Mask/Mirror. Mask/Mirror is a sampler that processes recordings of spoken language in real time. It uses samples of my own voice creating the ambiguous situation of being interrupted by myself all the time and of having to resort to all possible resources to keep making sense. The sampler follows both sound and meaning criteria in sorting, organizing and processing samples and formulating utterances. It randomly manages sample banks of words making it possible to determine the syntactic form of a phrase (for example noun – verb – noun) but not the actual words the phrase it’s made of. Mask/Mirror is a software tool based on Max/Msp that interacts with my own voice during performances. It also explores the sounding character of the voice/speech material through sound processing and pitch tracking. – Alessandro Bosetti

Alessandro Bosetti is a composer and sound artist. He works on the musicality of spoken words and unusual aspects of spoken communication and produced text-sound compositions featured in live performances, radio broadcastings and published recordings. In his work he moves on the line between sound anthropology and composition often including translation and misunderstanding in the creative process. Field research and interviews often build the basis for his abstract compositions along with electroacoustic and acoustic collages, relational strategies, trained and untrained instrumental practices, vocal explorations and digital manipulations. Since he’s curious about differences he travels. Just in 2006 he’s been living and working in West Africa, China, Taiwan, Holland, Scandinavia, United States , Germany and Italy.

Christof Migone has been using contact microphones to manipulate gutted reel-to-reel machines in his live improvisations since about 1998. At first principally in the context of his work with Alexandre St-Onge in the duo undo, but also in all sorts of other configurations, with the groups Set Fire to Flames, l’oreille à Vincent, Fly Pan Am, Klaxon Gueule, Mecha Fixes Clock; and with individuals Tim Hecker, Martin Tétreault, Sam Shalabi, and Magali Babin. He usually does not like to title these types of live performances, but in 2004 organizers asked for a title, so “Fingering” came to mind, and he has been using that title or variations on it ever since. This performance of “Fingering” was recorded at the NAISA Space, Toronto on June 2, 2012 in an event curated for the Deep Wireless Festival by Nick Storring. Other performances of Fingering can be heard at https://christofmigone.bandcamp.com/album/fingering

Christof Migone is an artist, curator and writer. His work and research delves into language, voice, bodies, performances, intimacy, complicity, endurance. He co-edited the book and CD “Writing Aloud: The Sonics of Language” (Los Angeles: Errant Bodies Pres, 2001). He has released solo audio CDs on various labels (Avatar, ND, Alien 8, Locust, Oral) and has been the recipient of commissions from the Tate Modern, Dazibao, Kunstradio, Centre for Art Tapes, New Adventures in Sound Art, Radio Canada, New American Radio. He is a founding member of Avatar (Québec City). He currently lives in Toronto and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University in London, Ontario.

Martin Marier performs an improvisation using “The Sponge,” an electronic musical instrument that he created. This improvisation was one among several he did for a performance that occurred at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River on January 18, 2018 during NAISA’s Art’s Birthday celebrations. The sponge is an image that features prominently in Robert Filliou’s text “A Whispered Art History”.

Martin Marier is a composer, performer and digital musical instrument (DMI) designer with a Doctoral degree in composition at Université de Montréal. His work focuses on electroacoustic music and digital musical instruments. Generally his work involves “The Sponge,” a DMI he invented and uses for most of his pieces. To read more about Marier’s instrument go to: http://www.martinmarier.com/wp/?page_id=12 and https://www.nime.org/proceedings/2010/nime2010_356.pdf

Every year from 2004 to 2010 NAISA formed a different ensemble of artists from various disciplines and genres to create live radio art performances. In this recording from May 2008 at the Ryerson Student Centre in Toronto, the ensemble consisted of Kathleen Kajioka on viola, Debashis Sinha, Chantal Dumas and Andreas Kahre on texts, percussion and electroacoustic sounds. The performances were collectively created with each member responsible for directing the content for a piece. Mark Cassidy provided dramaturgical and staging direction. In his notes about this piece, Debashis Sinha, writes, “The kindest heart is a live improvisation exploring the notion of kindheartedness. We explored our kindest heart. We start slow, find it, enjoy it, and release it into the universe.”

A percussionist with a distinctive voice and imagination, Debashis Sinha has long been a fixture on Canada’s creative music scene as an acoustic and electronic musician, exploring the many different ways traditional and contemporary tools can inform each other. He is well known as a performer and sound artist, making many appearances nationally and internationally. He is active in the Toronto theatre community as an award winning sound designer and composer.

Andreas Kahre is an interdisciplinary artist and designer whose work combines images, sound and text in a variety of configurations. Born in Germany in 1959 and based on Gabriola Island, BC he has been working as a freelance artist, musician, writer and designer since the 1990s. His work encompasses interdisciplinary performances, audio art installations, and collaborations with theatre, dance and new media artists.

Sound artist, Chantal Dumas explores the medium of sound through the production of audio fiction and docu-fiction, sound installation, composition and sound design. Her work includes a participatory dimension. She has produced over 30 narrative works. Her work has received various awards, including the Opus Prize in music (Montreal) and the Bohemia and Phonurgia Nova prizes in radio.

Based in Toronto, Kathleen Kajioka is a violinist and violist. With a reputation as a musical multi-linguist, Kathleen moves between worlds with agility and uncompromising depth; including Classical music, World music, Early Music, New Music and Pop. In the world of radio, Kathleen is a host on Classical 96.3 FM.

Andrea-Jane Cornell improvises with field recordings, radio waves, and object-instruments. For this live performance recorded at the NAISA Space, Toronto in May 2015, she worked mainly with objects and machines left behind and never reclaimed, coaxing out their resonant properties and squeaky parts populating a soundscape with a confluence of broken, and sometimes silent elements.

A gleaner of sonorities, Andrea-Jane Cornell has been transforming sonic material over radio channels, and in live performance since 2003. Her approach employs additive synthesis evolving over long periods of time interjecting the meditative with moments of rupture and détournement. She composes, designs, and mixes sound for film and video, and is a member of Le fruit vert, with artist Marie-Douce St-Jacques.