two transmitters at a time
It’s John Cage’s birthday.
Michael had plans to celebrate it this weekend by performing one of his compositions, but a fire in the Headlands kitchen put the kebosh on that plan. So with only Jon Brumit and I around we decided to do our own little tribute in a style less random and more patterned (and thus more appropriate maybe to a Steve Reich tribute).
We each recorded a loop of several minutes in length using our altered electronic instruments. We left the transmitters looping on the same FM station and placed three radios across the space at various distances from the transmitters. The transmitters were also spaced at different lengths from each other. The result was that you could hear more of each signal depending on the side of the room you were standing in.. we just recorded with a single omniddirectional microphone placed in the middle of the room, so there are no stereo effects to pick up. Here is an excerpt of about 2 hours. Jon’s loop sounds a bit like a helicopter.. and LeE’s sounds like a whale’s mating call, or an electric guitar (being generous, here).
(mp3)
Two transmitters loop (excerpt)