Blank Forms RADIO

To conclude “Coming Together: Attica 50 Years On,” Blank Forms presented a day-long May Day radio show commemorating the 1971 Attica rebellion. Celebrating the 50th anniversaries of both Archie Shepp’s Attica Blues and Frederic Rzewski’s compositions “Attica” and “Coming Together,” the show featured key compositions and political recordings from the 1970s, including a rare concert of Rzewski’s Attica works with Julius Eastman, Sonia Sanchez reading at the prison accompanied by incarcerated poets and musicians, and a post-mortem from Bobby Seale about his participation in negotiations at the prison. Hosts Ciarán Finlayson and Lawrence Kumpf interviewed Renée Levine Packer, author of This Life of Sounds: Evenings for New Music in Buffalo (Oxford University Press, 2010); Glo Harris, wife of Beaver Harris; and Michael J. Hull, director of the film Betrayal at Attica (2021) and custodian of the digital archive of Elizabeth Fink's Attica Brothers Legal Defense evidence collection—writer Isaac Brosilow conducted an interview with Joshua Melville, son of Attica Brother Sam Melville. This event was produced in conjunction with the New York University Steinhardt Department of Art and Art Professions.

Coming Together: A Mayday Broadcast

The Public's Not Ready For You Yet: A Cricket Radio Show

Special guest shows from around the world.

https://www.nts.live/shows/guests/episodes/blank-forms-19th-may-2023

Blank Forms: Arbitrary Fun with Lawrence Kumpf and Lary 7 190523

The Warsaw-based club night Brutaż is helping to shape Poland's underground through thoughtfully curated parties and strong politics behind their grassroots ideals. Here's a new mix showcasing their style, to give a small taste of what to expect at the surprise room they will present at Unsound 2015.

In the words of Brutaż's founder: "There are many forms of dancing. Some of them are just a fad and a pose, others result from state-of-the-art entertainment. We're interested in neither. Rhythm results in movement. It's unavoidable, no matter how odd the tempo, context and environment. This mix is a tip of the hat to nobody, the nobody who dances. Nobody is the most outstanding dancer at Brutaż."

Unsound Podcast 24: Brutaż

Paonga Sea

Spice Village

Produced in conjunction with Clocktower Radio (clocktower.org).

Blank Forms' Lawrence Kumpf is joined by Ánde Somby via telephone from Tromsø, Norway for an hour of music and conversation dedicated to Somby's place within the yoik tradition. They discuss yoik history, Somby's encounters with Malcolm McLaren, and his collaboration with Chris Watson.

At its core, yoiking is a deeply spiritual performance of the individual in concert with their natural environment. The dynamic, semi-improvised vocal tradition practiced by the indigenous Sami people of Northern Norway, Sweden, and Finland has been recognized as the oldest surviving in Europe. 

Often it is an attempt to replicate or represent the sounds of animals, with the yoik of the wolf, yoik of the salmon, the mosquito yoik, etc. But just as often it is a means of storytelling. Kumpf plays music from Somby's 2016 album "Yoiking With The Winged Ones", the 1985 album Somby produced of his parents' yoiks, Inga Juuso, selections from the 1956 Folkways LP "Lappish Yoik Songs From Northern Norway", and a site-specific yoik composed by Somby for his upcoming Prismatic Park Residency—"new yoik". 

Ánde Somby's Prismatic Park residency runs from July 11th to July 16th at Madison Square Park. It is free and open to the public.

Blank Forms : : Clocktower.org

Blank Forms #17: Ánde Somby, Prismatic Park

A conversation between scholar and historian Amy Cimini, Yarn/Wire percussionist and Adjacencies interpreter Russell Greenberg, and Lawrence Kumpf situating Maryanne Amacher’s "Adjacencies" within the lineage of her larger body of work. They discuss the practical challenges surrounding the interpretation and re-staging of the piece 51 years after its last performance and play a variety of pertinent audio, including a rehearsal recording of "Adjacencies"’ original performance by Jan Williams and Edward Burnham, audio research material used as a model for its reinterpretation, and a selection from the later piece "City-Links..: Buffalo" demonstrating Amacher’s practice of recycling audio material from earlier work.

Blank Forms #21: Maryanne Amacher's Adjacencies

Blank Forms' Lawrence Kumpf is joined by composer Tashi Wada for a show surveying Wada's work and methodology of the past decade. They discuss Wada's time and studies with James Tenney at CalArts, his early forays into just intonation, and his close collaborations with cellist Charles Curtis and his father Yoshi Wada.

Tashi Wada is a Los Angeles-based composer and performer whose works explore harmonic overtones, resonance, and dissonance through precise tuning and a gradual change in pitch. Grounded in a belief that “music should be as direct as possible,” his compositions use apparently simple structures to generate rich and unanticipated perceptual effects. Working in relation to American experimental music, microtonal music, and so-called drone music, Wada’s practice is also informed by interdisciplinary performance and Fluxus-affiliated artists. He studied composition at CalArts with James Tenney and for many years has performed alongside his father, composer Yoshi Wada.

Blank Forms Radio

Blank Forms #22: Tashi Wada

Lyrics:

There was a place beyond the pale,
Thousands of miles that a man would sail.
Busy streets all paved in gold.
Anyone can make it here, or so I’m told.

There she stands the light and the law in her hands.
Beautiful as can be, set my spirit free.

Chorus:
She’s got a lot of love to give,
That don’t make it for free.
She’ll have you spending all your money
From sea to shining sea.
I’ll cross any bridge to her,
I’ll ride any rail.
Cant keep a promise,
But she sure can tell a tale.

I saw your face bleak in the bay,
Eyes cold as stone as you were telling us please stay.
A cinderella story, bell of the ball.
Knocking on your door I’m at your beck and call.

Lady liberty looking right down on me.
Bureaucratic as can be living under a fee.

Chorus:
She’s got a lot of love to give,
That don’t make it for free.
She’ll have you spending all your money
From sea to shining sea.
I’ll cross any bridge to her,
I’ll ride any rail.
Cant keep a promise,
But she sure can tell a tale.

Tell Tale

Excerpt from side B of 'Gog Magog' on We Are One (WAO 001)

T.D. / S.S. "On The Rocks!" (excerpt)

Recorded in Chicago, Toronto, and Manhattan, 2019
Mastered by Mikey Young
John Daniel: Turntable (Debussy's La Mer), Signal Processing, iPhone
Photograph Taken By Ed Stuparitz

forestmanagementadr.bandcamp.com/album/after-dark

Forest Management - The Blue Light Blues

Dustywave

My Life Is Music

Dustywave Part 5: My Life Is Music

slipsilver

justin

Thirst idea fire company/SahelSounds of Sahara/Gordon Hempton Solitude/Genggong II David Attenborough/Ocigam Trazom Christina Kubisch/Pierre Mariétan Rose Des Vents IIB Camp 2 Gir Jenssen/ 3 Hour Delay Packed Inside the Plane (Shenzen/Hong Kong) Grzegorz Bojanek/Joe McPhee Graham Lambkin Chance Meeting /Voices From Possessed Children (1978) Okkulte Stimmen/ EX HK. Side B Hans Kruesi+Endless Humiliation The Gerogerigegege/Halim El-Dabh Leiyla Visitations 2/Desert Lizards & Insect Solo G Hempton/Mahalid Destin Manambitamby/Aaron dilloway mudwalk, more Thirst idea fire,K&K Shots/Jeph Jarman Recording of Hail/Arno Peeters Elements/Incident at Ras Oumlil Jos Smolders/ Jag en gök Hans Appelqvist/John Tilbury, Keith Rowe, Kjell Bjørgeengen Sissel/Tom Didn’t Get the Right Gift Mechanical Sterility/Sheep Wind Fence Flute recorded on Dartmoor 1971 David Toop/Tomoyuki Aoki, Harutaka Mochizuki, & Hasegawa-Shizuo Enka Moods/Jem Finer Water and Birds/Birds Pauline Oliveros + Andrew Deutsch/World Trade Center 1999: Processing Sound through a window on the 91st floor, facing North  - Stephen Vitiello

DISSOLVE IN THE PRESENT

Non-profit curatorial platform for ⏳-based art.

Blank Forms #17: Ánde Somby, Prismatic Park

Blank Forms

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