Spy Numbers Stations are shortwave radio stations that are speculated to have been broadcasting since World War I. The true origin and purpose of them are unknown. 

They generally broadcast artificially generated voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a spelling alphabet), tunes or Morse code. They are in a wide variety of languages and the voices are usually women's, though sometimes men's or children's voices are used. (Wikipedia) 

Performance from the U10 gallery, Belgrade, December 2012
Ana Gnjatović (voice), Karolina Baeter (bass recorder), Milana Zarić (toys, cymbal), Woo (el.guitar), Milena Pavlović (computer keyboard), Svetlana Maraš (electronics). 

Another performance of this piece: https://soundcloud.com/svetlanamaras/its-about-spy-stations
www.svetlanamaras.com

It's about spy stations

Short segment taken from: The Infra-Quark Universe based on Felix Guattari's script for a science fiction film for Hollywood. (1980'ies).

Guattari's Radio Screenplay for The Infra-Quark Universe

Extrait d'une performance de P-Node à Berlin : lecture du texte généré par un logiciel de reconnaissance vocale branché au flux radio.

Performance radiophonique de P-Node à Berlin

Arnaud Rivière & Mat Pogo : Sunday Morning Live at π-node radio (Berlin - jan.14)

This is the story of a box
A leather box that is over eighty years old and has lived in three different countries, and on two different continents. It contains over fifty 78 rpm recordings of  classical music and opera hits of the day. The box and its contents were inherited by my grandmother who was born on the Gulf Islands, British Columbia, in 1910. She grew up on Salt Spring. She took the box with her when she left the island in 1925 and carried it to her various adult homes until her death in 2000. In September 2012 I retraced the box’s long journey and took the records back to the island where they were first played. Using my great-grandfather’s diary and daily notes on the weather as a guide, I played the records outdoors, on a portable gramophone in spots around Salt Spring where my grandmother and her family had picnics, played tennis or danced, and I recorded what happened. I also talked to today’s Salt Springers, and my late Great Uncle, about their memories and reasons for being on the island. This composed sound work blends memories, observations, field recordings and music. This piece is about rekindling lost, and perhaps forgotten, sounds. Are they so very different to those my grandmother heard ? It is a personal response to the people and places of Salt Spring Island, British Columbia.

More Information: http://www.gruenrekorder.de/?page_id=12542

A Box of 78s | DinahBird


2min 35 (2014) 
Sound installation made with radios. 
A limited edition of vinyl records, and stickers were also produced for the occasion. 

In the 1950s and 60s a scientific report compiled by the record industry stated that teenagers, due to their very short attention span, were unable to listen to a piece of music that lasted more than 2 minutes 50 seconds. This is perhaps one of the reasons that rock’n’roll and pop songs from that period only last around 2 minutes 35. 
In 1967 Sylvie Vartan sung the song “2 minutes 35 de bonheur” (‘ 2 Minutes 35 of pleasure‘) 
With this in mind we decided to make life - and listening to music - easier for the ageing adolescents of yesteryear. We sampled hits from the 1960s and 1970S, some are easy to recognise, others not. We then played these loops on radios and ghettoblasters in different places around Paris. Whilst the loops were being played DinahBird, in the manner of a radio continuity announcer, filled in the pauses and described what she saw going on around her. 

We call them : Pop Field Recordings.


2min 35, was commissioned for the group exhibition “Reformer le Monde Visible” au centre d’art Le 116 in Montreuil, Greater Paris. 

Curator : Marlène Rigler
Sticker artwork : Coraline Janvier. 


2min 35  - Kunstradio edit by DinahBird & JP Renoult

First numbers station found on my SW, 8136khz

Erin Sexton
Electromagnetic Dimension (LA1B test), 2015
05:09

The electromagnetic field extends its influence to all possible scales, creating a continuum from radio waves and chemical bonds to the oscillations of thought — experience itself. We perceive three dimensions, and yet contemporary physics asserts the existence of many more. With this in mind, Sexton installs antennae and performs a series of spatiotemporal experiments with radio interference, weather, site, and feedback.

This test was performed outside the LA1B club station in Bergen, Norway. In 2015 the piece has been performed publicly for the Sight + Sound festival at Eastern Bloc in Montreal, Canada and for STWST48 at Stadtwerkstatt in Linz, Austria.

http://theradius.us/episode66

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Episode 66: Erin Sexton

Jon Ciliberto
Radio Works
54:49

Jon Ciliberto’s Radio Works is composed of five pieces: Radio Ethnographer; Radio Trio; Two Circles of FM Feedback, Related; Radio Centipede; and Three Part Frequency. The first uses radio as a method of ethnographic encounter, while the remaining four utilize short-range FM transmitters and radios as instruments.

I. Radio Ethnographer (21:49)

Radio is often public in other ways. For instance, when radio inside a car is often audible from outside the car. This ethnographic survey uses this overlap between public and private radio to discover the radio culture of a particular time and place. For an hour during rush hour in Atlanta, GA, Ciliberto took an audio survey of the radio escaping from the private cars of myriad drivers. Many drivers willingly let him get close to their radios and capture them quite intimately; in other instances, the radio spills from cars and intermixes with ambient noise.

II. Radio Trio (04:54)

A simple exploration of the sonic possibilities of short range FM transmission.

1. One handheld radio’s audio output is sent to a short range FM transmitter.
2. A second radio is tuned to the transmitter’s FM frequency.
3. Moving the first radio nearer or closer to the second creates FM radio effects.
4. A stereo in the room picks up the transmission; audible through room speakers.

III. Two Circles of FM Feedback, Related (06:17)

1. Two wireless FM intercoms (left and right), are placed near enough to feedback with one another.
2. First radio (left) is tuned to 108.0 MHz; short range FM transmitter is plugged into its audio out, transmitting at 108.0 MHz.
3. Second radio (right) is tuned to 108.0.
4. Right FM intercom also picks up second radio’s sound and transmits it to left intercom.
5. Variations are created by tuning the radio dials, adjusting the intercoms’ volumes, and moving the devices physically.

IV. Radio Centipede (06:47)

For Radio Centipede, Ciliberto created feedback by tuning a radio to a frequency, then plugging a short-range FM transmitter set to that same frequency into the radio’s audio output. Here, this arrangement is repeated three times, with the resulting audio recorded from the last radio in the chain. In this recording each radio is tuned very lightly throughout, moving around the transmission/reception frequency.

V. Three Part Frequency (14:04)

1. Three instruments, each transmitting to the same FM frequency. Resulting recording is from one radio.
2. Three instruments, each transmitting to a different FM frequency. 
3. Resulting recording is from three separate radios.

Instruments:

Korg Microkorg >> 87.7 MHz >> Sony ICF 7601
Roland Juno 60 >> 107.9 MHz >> Panasonic RC-X220
Casio SK-1 >> 102.0 MHz >> Degen DE1125

http://theradius.us/episode67

Episode 67: Jon Ciliberto (Radio Trio)

Episode 67: Jon Ciliberto (Two Circles of FM Feedback, Related)

Episode 67: Jon Ciliberto (Radio Centipede)

Brandon Bauer
Transmission: Hectic Mix
14:48

The sound collage Transmission: Hectic Mix was originally created in 1999 and conceived for a pirate radio broadcast on the eve of the year 2000. The work is a collage of radio broadcasts, analog media and film samples, static, and noise textures that reflects the apocalyptic discourse surrounding the turn of the millennium while offering voices of hope and resistance.

http://theradius.us/episode69

Episode 69: Brandon Bauer

Created and produced by Anna Friz at Skálar | Sound Art | Experimental Music, Seydisfjördur, East Iceland. Excerpted from “Two Sleeps”, a radio artwork produced for Radio Arts, UK. Recorded in 2015. Taken from the Soundplay 2014 CD compilation by Laznia Centre for Contemporary Art, 2015.  

Among other artists contributing are also: Christina Kubish (DE), BJ Nilsen (SE), Jana Winderen (NO), John Grzinich (EE/US), Kacper Ziemianin (PL), Roger Döring (DE) & Konrad Korabiewski (PL/DK/IS), Martyna Poznańska & Jacob Eriksen (PL), Porcje Rosołowe (PL), Rudy Decelière (PL)                                                                                                      More info: http://artandsciencemeeting.pl/?p=2478&lang=en

Anna Friz | Air Can Break Your Heart | excerpt

Absolute Value of Noise
Rain Motors: magnetic motion - remix for Radius
48:51

Rain Motors: magnetic motion - remix for Radius is an alternate radio version of Absolute Value of Noise’s (Peter Courtemanche) new audio release that features ELF recordings of various motor systems - modified film projector, electric bicycle, transit bus, rain motors, and solar engines.

The album features recordings of magnetic radiation from various motor systems, and Courtemanche used his ELF preamp and a collection of different coils and antennae.

Some of the motors are recorded from afar with his large bicycle wheel antenna (this is an antenna system that he uses in performances); some are recorded up close using smaller wheel antennas (1 foot) while some have coils wrapped around the motors themselves.

(1) Eiki ELF (April 2015): a modified Eiki 16mm film projector updated with a DC brushless motor and a DC lamp. Courtemanche originally recorded the “Eiki RT-0 Modernized” for a piece for Musique Concrète goes to the Movies - a compilation released on June 20, 2015.

(2) Crystallite (April 2015): riding/driving around town on his electric bicycle with an old 500 Watt Crystallite hub motor. This was recorded while trucking up a steep hill from 8th Avenue to 11th on the Ontario Street bicycle route in Vancouver.

(3) Number 25 Bus (August 2008 / May 2015): sitting at the back of the bus recording acceleration and deceleration. This is a diesel bus that runs past his house. The engine is at the back under the floor-boards. He imagines that the antenna is picking up the firing of the spark-plugs and whatever other electronic signals are flying about when the bus pulls away from the stop.

(4) Rain Motors (October 2015 .. had to wait for the rainy season .. too much sun this summer!): the ELF sounds from his “rain-powered” pager motor + bamboo resonator installation piece - Rain Stick. He wrapped tiny coils around a set of pager motors, then wired them up to his “rain-powered” circuits and stuck them out the window. The ELF signal is so quiet that there’s a fair amount of white noise, which sounds a bit like rain.

(5) Solar Engines (January 2016 .. hanging out the window on a rare sunny day): a solar engine is a type of circuit that stores up little bits of energy until it has a large charge, then it releases all of its energy in a short burst - typically to spin a motor or drive some other power-hungry device. In this case, Courtemanche hooked up a few circuits to some DC motors and recorded the (mostly) short bursts of action.

http://theradius.us/episode72

Episode 72: Absolute Value of Noise

Radioscapes are two sound pieces that propose to listen to complete radio landscapes. The nearly complete radio spectrum has been recorded methodically during weeks and assembled into one sound in two different locations: Malakoff, next to the Parisian ring and Besseuil in an isolated farm.

Listening to these pieces is going through 3GHz to 30 kHz, passing by wifi, cellphones, satellites, radios broadcasts, military coms, and natural waves, all of these composed by their occupied position in the radio spectrum. 

This is an extract of the B side recorded in Le Lieu Dit, Besseuil, France in April 2015. 
   Electromagnetic context:
   . Isolated farm in rural area
   . 500 m from a high speed train track
   . 10 km from an aeronautical reporting point
http://www.nimon.org/radioscape.php

Radioscapes

Radioscapes // B - Besseuil Extract // 8441 kHz - 30 kHz

Anna Friz and Konrad Korabiewski live radio performance at Radio Revolten International Radio Art Festival, Halle (Salle), Germany, October 2016.
More info: http://www.skalar.is/radio-revolten2016/
Cover photo from northern Iceland by Anna Friz

Anna Friz | Konrad Korabiewski | live radio performance | Radio Revolten Festival 2016 | Skálar FM

Anna Friz and Konrad Korabiewski live at Tsonami Arte Sonoro Festival 2016, Teatro Parque Cultural de Valparaíso, Chile, 2016. More info: http://www.tsonami.cl/programa/
http://www.skalar.is/

π

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