Radio Droogdok has 2 different pieces selected for broadcast this February, by inspirational purveyors of radio art: Radiophrenia, and Cities and Memories
We are on air and online on the tremendous
Tune in on Thursday, 18 February within the buffer zone at 2:30 – 3:00pm for
On World Radio Day, 13th February, Shortwave Transmissions launches.
‘Radio Flatlands – The Shortest-Lived Radio Station’ – a piece made in collaboration with Jonny Fluffypunk for Shortwave Transmissions project – documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio – find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave
Synopsis: Miniature Museum duo Bart & Tara start to explore the attic stacked with Bas Bossinade’s extraordinary collection of valve radios.
Bas has decades of experience working, experimenting, innovating with electronics; he lives and works in 1930’s former ‘Da Costa School: now ‘Bossinade Lightworks’, the rooms and corridors are used as workspaces and filled with collections of all things electronic.
Bas’ expertise and support has been formative in the creation of Miniature Museum’s cabinets of curiosities. This time we went for inspiration and advice on all things radio… ‘Radio Heaven’ is a portal to the project Radio Droogdok evolving.
This sound piece was produced with thanks to Arts Council England & Bossinade Lightworks
We’re delighted to have our piece included in the Shortwave Transmissions project.
Launched to mark UNESCO World Radio Day 2022, the project features more than 120 remixed and reimagined shortwave radio pieces covering eight decades of the history of radio, and you can find it here: https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave
To find ours amongst all the other fascinating remixes, search for ‘The shortest-lived radio station’ or fast-track to the embedded version below.
Here’s our accompanying write-up:
‘Radio Flatlands – The shortest-lived radio staton,
or
It wasn’t just any old pie’
– Composition by Radio Droogdok – Tara Downs in collaboration with Jonny Fluffypunk.
Jonny Fluffypunk: “One of the joys of Short-wave listening that has captivated me all these years is the pure randomness and unpredictability of the experience…’
I was inspired by the explanation that accompanied the original recording; the listener surprised and thrilled by the sudden interruption of unfamiliar station idents and snippets of broadcast… so how about another, even shorter-lived station, ‘interrupting the interrupter’? What comes through on the original recording (some sort of banal anti-smoking advice) is rendered strange and exotic by virtue of it swirling, unexpected, out of the ether, from somewhere unknown on the far side of the world; our shrinking planet suddenly seems vast and mysterious again. So imagine you’re listening from a Polynesian island, in the dead of night, and how- distorted by distance, layered under interference and leaping out of nowhere- the voice of an aggrieved Englishman, exiled to a friend’s shed after a row over a tinned pie, might somehow sound similarly magical. So often when surfing across the wilder weirdnesses of the radio dial the imagination is forced to come up with some sort of flimsy raft of narrative, lashed together from incomplete, ambiguous and incoherent snippets, if for no other reason than so one can get to sleep.”
Technical Production & Sound Editing:
“A ritual attempt to invoke the gods of otherness and unleash the ghosts in the machine. Text and station ident recorded using 1986 Casio SL-1 keyboard and broken SM58 microphone, fed through Boss loop pedal and recorded on worn-out cassette on Tascam 244 portastudio. Result then played out via MW test transmitter and finally digitally captured for this project crackling from a cranky 1940’s Phillips bakelite radio. Then sent to Tara in the Netherlands for further burial into the static… “
Tara: “Jonny and I are similarly entranced by the magic of radio and divinations on shortwaves. This curiosity brought us together as colleagues and provides a constant, erratic wave that runs through Radio Droogdok & our Radiophonic Hut project.
This was a lot of fun, mixing Jonny’s story into the original piece (picked up by DXer Colin Newell), peppering with field recordings from my own collection (made when resuscitating old radios) , playing with rhythm, distance and proximity to evoke both the feelings of isolation of a lone broadcaster calling out through the ether, and the impulse to connect with the ‘other’ out there. I love both the contrasts between the transmissions and, strangely, the parallels. The seeking of solace in an invisible scattered congregation, and something of a therapeutic, self-help, ‘agony aunt’ quality. And there’s an irony to our piece: we really do both sit in our respective home-made sheds, playing with collections of beautiful old kit, swearing, experimenting and figuring out how to make it work, and how to reach out there into the impossible vastness of reverberating static…”
