Feature image: Aliyah Aziz, PASSING, STATIC, PERSON, SCREEN
EARS HAVE EYES // Episode 36
Airing Wednesday, February 12, 2024 at 8 pm MST
on CJSW 90.9 FM, NAISA, & Golden Co-Op Radio
STATIC/SHIFT:
sonic shapes emerging from the snow
ARTISTS:
Aliyah Aziz
Cristina Italiani
Her Motives Are Silent
Jason Kahn
Petra Dubach & Mario van Horrik
This program is co-hosted by Caitlind r.c. Brown & Wayne Garrett. This episode edited by Caitlind Brown. Thanks to CJSW, Golden Co-Op Radio, and NAISA (especially Kaamil, Claire, and Darren) for supporting this show!
EARS HAVE EYES is a monthly sound art radio program airing on CJSW 90.9 FM in Calgary/Mohkinstsis, Golden Co-op Radio in Golden, BC, and NAISA Radio in South River, Ontario. You can listen to podcasts of previous episodes here.
For our February program, we are leaning into the double-meanings of “snow,” both as a natural weather phenomenon of Canadian winters, and a type of static or visual noise. The static on a television set is ever-shifting, like a blizzard. On today’s program, sonic forms vibrate in and out of being and familiar sounds hide in the static; artists share sounds that reveal themselves as you listen, emerging like shapes melting through the snow.
Thanks to the participating artists and our friends at CJSW, NAISA, and Golden Co-op Radio!
Aliyah Aziz
Aliyah Aziz is a multidisciplinary storyteller, poet and musician who uses light to talk about shadows, and sound to physically move them through us. Her expressions take many forms, from multimedia moving collages of archived material, experimental sound and poetry compositions, interactive media installations, to live performances. Her work is an exploration of identity and the power that stories hold, from the history of our shadows to the projection of our futures.
About PASSING, STATIC, PERSON, SCREEN:
“PASSING, STATIC, PERSON, SCREEN is an improvised set constructed of electromagnetic frequency from a screen, radio static, and video signal. In the work, I recite a poem, distorting my voice into the sounds. The static is used as a sonic material of resistance, to communicate a friction between the visual surface and depth of the technology that we engage with. When performed live, the set also consists of turning a video camera on the audience in the presentation and projecting their image back to them on a CRT screen, asking viewers to confront their position as both subjects and spectators—watching themselves in the act of watching itself. The sounds of the screen are used for the sonic composition, amplifying the presence of technology to generate a sense of Misophonia– giving to the ears the presence of a frequency that the eyes may have missed in the blue light.”
Cristina Italiani
Cristina Italiani, classically trained with studies and advanced courses in Conservatories and Academies also abroad, has developed an interest in improvisation and in traditional Mediterranean music, Oriental music and maintains the perpetual desire to erase the boundaries between genres to bring together different musical styles to develop different artistic projects. The artist has won numerous grants spending various periods of residence abroad for international foundations such as Culture Moves Europe – Goethe Institut, Anna Lindh Foundation Passionate about artistic performance and visual arts in general, she integrates in her practice the way of thinking about music and visual arts, scenography and performance as well as the poetry of resonance between all these fields. The artistic drive and the desire to connect with other artists and the exchange of energy with the public that for Cristina represent a strong motivation for musical and human growth
About Promenade Astronomique:
Exploring forms of relationship in the space that slowly takes shape and with the ringing of the bell of the Florence cathedral ”La Martinella” with a symbolic value of liberation, this piece conveys us through a mystical, metaphysical, erotic and cosmic soundscape.
This piece was recorded in Catania (Italy) with other musicians that must be mentioned:
The Ensemble
The Locals
Cristina Italiani: flute , voice
Antonio Aiello: Double bass
Giuseppe Lacinsky Schillaci: electronics and producer
https://www.doremillaro.com/
Her Motives Are Silent
Her Motives Are Silent is a project founded by artist, composer, and producer, Michael Valenzuela. Melodic ballads, layered with rich sonic textures, vulnerable lyrics, and melancholy nuance. The blend of alternative, orchestral, and electronic elements has drawn comparisons to Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Amon Tobin, Ólafur Arnalds, and Copeland.
February 14th (Instrumental) is an ambient piece created by improvising soft chords and melodies on a piano patched through to multiple delays with high decay to create a drone like texture.
Jason Kahn
Born 1960 in New York, Jason Kahn is a musician, artist and writer. He lives in Zürich.
About Beautiful Ghost Wave:
“The title “Beautiful Ghost Wave” occurred to me as I was composing the piece from different recordings I’d made in my studio during 2010. In order to keep track of all the working material I gave the different sound files names, and in this case “beautiful ghost wave” was one of them. This particular file struck me for the beauty of the peripheral sounds occurring, a kind of sonic aura hovering around the more central sounds in the recording. Thinking about this more I began to see this title as a model for the entire piece, where the partials of a sound, something analogous to “hearing between the sounds” (as in “reading between the lines”) became the focus for my compositional choices.
Beyond all this “Beautiful Ghost Wave” is a bit of a departure for me in that it deals more with dramaturgy than other work of mine. I wanted to extend a sense of movement to the sounds and create a feeling of the piece expanding and contracting, both through dynamic modulation and an emphasis placed on spatiality in the stereo field. Although the piece retains a sense of forward movement and an allusion towards an impending resolution, I wanted the feeling for the listener to be of an open system, where the actual ending or further continuation of the piece beyond its actual cessation on the CD could be filled in, much as one fills in meaning when reading between the lines of a text.
I recorded the basic material using analog synthesizer, mixing board, contact microphones, short wave radio and electromagnetic coils. The recording was made with microphones placed in front of the loudspeakers and in the room directly behind where I was sitting, thus lending a sense of acoustics to the sounds I generated and recording my movement as I made these sounds. These recordings were then edited and used to compose with on the computer.”
About Every Hand is Lunatic that Travels on the Moon:
“Recorded December 18, 2023 in Zürich.
Recording, mix, mastering and cover design by Jason Kahn.
Many thanks to Patrick Huber at Kunstraum Walcheturm for opening his space to make these recordings.
Also available in an edition of 100 factory pressed CD’s packaged in hand-painted covers on thick gray cardboard.
credits:
released August 20, 2024
Jason Kahn // voice, modular synth, mixing board, electromagnetic
transducers, radio, spring reverb tank“
Petra Dubach & Mario van Horrik
Petra Dubach and Mario van Horrik combine sound and movement in every form possible. They have presented their performances, sound installations and concerts world wide since the 1980’s, a o in New York, Moscow, Istanbul, Mali, New Zealand and Vladivostok.
About Kal #4:
“Setup where Petra’s voice is ‘feeding’ a long amplified string that balances or “doubts” whether it should feedback or not.”
Thank you to the artists & listeners!
Special thanks to CJSW.
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