“Still Lives” is the third solo full length by the Finnish composer Marja Ahti, following a pair of releases on the Hallow Ground imprint. As a collection, it may be seen as a series of studies on the liminality of the listening act and an investigation into the physicality of sound. Ahti forges vivid electroacoustic environments from field recordings, analog synthesizers, acoustic feedback, magnetic tape and digital processing, resulting in a set of articulate, prickly, and surprising compositions. In the artist’s words, “These pieces could be conceived of as vanitas paintings of a kind – selections of mundane or archetypal objects, sounds that have their own distinct qualities, but exist only by virtue of being temporary events. From another angle, one could think of them as shrines – objects assembled and set in a particular relationship to each other, charging each other in their given constellations.” Marja Ahti (b. 1981) is a musician and composer based in Turku, Finland. Originally from Sweden, Ahti has been a part of the Finnish experimental music scene for more than ten years in different constellations. She is currently active in the duo Ahti & Ahti with her partner and as a member of the Himera artist/organizer collective.

Shrine (Still Life With Glass Bottle, Flower and Microphone)

extr : 8’35’’ -  1978 – CD: Cultures électroniques 14-27° concours international de musique et d’art sonore électroacoustique -
                                                  série Imeb / UNESCO / CIME 2000 - voix : Mercedes Cornu

Echos - extr : 8’35’’ - 1978

Taken from AST142: BOBBY WOULD - RIPS & FOLDS C33  

Physical / digital available here:
https://alteredstatestapes.bandcamp.com/album/rips-folds

Bobby Would - Rips & Folds (excerpt)

First time on CD for this classic Merzbow duo album from 1983.

Material Action is a favorite among early Merzbow free-music, junk-noise workouts. Psychedelic improvised instrumental energy abounds on this essential early recording that is PURE MERZ.

Masami Akita plays tapes, percussion, electro-acoustic noise, organ
Kiyoshi Mizutani overdubs tapes, synthesizer, violin, machine noise

Merzbow - Material Action N-A-M 2 - First Time On CD - Available Now

Méryll Ampe "W7E" CD
MAR060
Release Date: November 4th, 2022

A multitude of processes, techniques, and forms unfold and unfurl within the work of Méryll Ampe,
an intermedia artist from Paris working through sound, sculpture, and installation using a wide assortment
of materials. What is immediately striking about Ampe’s work is the vibrant, non-linear approach to
electro-acoustic composition.
Here on the debut for Misanthropic Agenda, Ampe liberally reconfigures / deconstructs / genetically mutates
all sources: hydrophone recordings of vibrations through skin, analog synths, tape machinations,
sequencing programmed through algorithmic variability, and plenty of digital processing.
As Ampe describes it, the music on W7E is "a research with an experimental dimension, guided by notions that
systematically translate a form of ambivalence, between inside/outside, micro/macro. These intentions are
vectors of the dynamics, reliefs, depths and rhythm. My training as a visual artist also leads me to go through
mental images (such as a steep landscape, a boiling organism, an organic matter) which will then find a
sound form, states that I would describe as syncope, sound effluvia, abrasive arrhythmias. I look for a form of
plasticity in the sound medium, and that this energy become a living matter."
This multi-dimensional overlay through composition telescopes in and out of the body (not necessarily always
a human body, it should be noted), through a connectivity with technology that can influence psychological states
of being. The work addresses liminality, transitory slippages, and quantum theories of a particle being the two
separate places at the same time. If that can occur at the atomic level, why not through sound?
W7E stands as a dynamic, polydactyl album reflective of the aesthetics (if not concepts) of Keith Fullerton Whitman,
Francisco Meirino, and Bernard Parmegiani.
- Jim Haynes

links:
https://misanthropicagenda.bigcartel.com
https://misanthropicagenda.bandcamp.com
https://meryllampe.com/

Méryll Ampe "Close To"

Hiranyagarbha

Silence

"Magnet Blues" presents Zhu Wenbo and Zhu Songjie’s unique and utterly bizarre take on American blues, as if filtered through layered variations of darkness. Throughout the recording, we hear barely audible vocals, minimalist, smart, and subtle guitar work, and the folkish atmosphere of what sounds like distant train activity and dying radios. Instrumentation is notable here: Songjie uses the peculiar Casio EG-5 electric guitar, with a built-in cassette deck, while also playing harmonica. Wenbo plays a Fisher-Price toy cassette player, sings, and also plays harmonica. Throughout bursts of noise and rustling midrange timbres, Zhu and Zhu navigate an understated, focused, and dreamlike realm of song and texture.

NTR078 - Zhu Wenbo - Zhu Songjie - Magnet Blues - "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"

from Rudolf Eb.er 'Meditation on a Broomstick' CD (Tochnit Aleph TA100) released 2012

Rudolf Eb.er - Meditation on a Broomstick

Sublime radio transmissions, field recordings, records & tapes from some of the least known corners of the Arab world, including excerpts from Mark Gergis’ mesmerizing audio expose I Remember Syria (ca. 1998) and Alan Bishop’s head-spinning radio montage Radio Palestine: Sounds of the Eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1985), both on the Sublime Frequencies record label, and much more. Intrepid listeners can expect everything from Syrian dabke, Jordanian reverb guitar, and Arabic pop music from Beirut to the traditional Nubian sounds of southern Egypt. Cover Image: Gamal Abdel Nasser listening to portable radio.

RIAFC 019

Transmissions from the Eastern Mediterranean (RIAFC 019)

chOOn!! is an arts collective that began life as a notoriously wild radio show on Subcity Radio (Glasgow, Scotland), 2012-2019, and is now about to launch as a newly formed reissue label. Radio is a Foreign Country is thrilled to share chOOn!!’s warped take on a bewildering range of retro folk and popular styles spread throughout the Indonesian archipelago. Prepare your earballs for loads of gamelan funk, Javanese electro, discoid degung, queasy quasidah modern, Sumatran devil-synth, hyper footwork jaipong, cosmic calung, plasmic pop-Sunda, and drum-machine dangdut. You can hear the extended version of this mix at https://soundcloud. com/radio-choon.

chOOn!! would like to thank Romain de Ferron for generously sending his wonderfully curated tape of Sumatran gems culled from his journeys throughout Indonesia; VK and his generous gifts from Malaysia; the digging savant Herpi and his expertly curated selections; and to the ever-reliable grotto of Indonesian delights that is Madrotter - thanks Henk!

PLAYLIST
Break Pong Medley, Yayah Ratnasari & Karawang Group
Jalma Dengki, Darso & Detty Kurnia
Wening, Becky Wilson & Nano. S. Kasmaran
Disco Medley Jaipong (Extract), Nus. S.
Tari Pasambahan, Sanggar Syofyani
Pariaman,  Fetty
Asih Can Laas, Detty Kurnia
Kunci 2 Asmara, Ety Yulianty
Tahun 2000, Nasida Ria
Jangan Putus Asa, Orkes Gambus Al Hadid
Imut Nu Ngajalanan, Detty Kurnia
Ginggiapeun, Titin K. Somantri & Odang Sundara
El Sahara, El Sahara Group
Bonus Cinta, Becky Wilson & Nano. S. Kasmaran
Cucu Deui, Darso
Instrumental Jaipong (excerpt), Nus. S.

CALUNGA CHOON (RIAFC 024)

calunga chOOn!! (RIAFC 024)

Taken from the album 'Microphone Permission' released as LP and digital.

Microphone Permission

Jasmine Guffond 'Forever Listening' (EMEGO 273)

We no longer publish here. For the latest, tune in here:
https://www.radioisaforeigncountry.org/
​

Transmissions from the Eastern Mediterranean (RIAFC 019)

RADIO IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY

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