Polyphasic Recordings: Michael Snow – 2 Radio Solos Cassette

Michael Snow – 2 Radio Solos Cassette

This incredible document, inseparable from the exact time and place it was created, tunes in to the culture of airwaves and atmospheric frequencies present across the shortwave dial in August 1980. The results, both time-capsule and moody electronic composition, sound something like the Sublime Frequencies’ Radio Series if it was performed by David Tudor or like Holger Czukay’s contemporaneous radio experiments, if he was jamming solo, without Can.

These 2 short-wave pieces are both ‘played’ continuous improvisations. There was no editing, no post-facto electronic alteration. The sounds were found by paying intense attention to fate tuning in and out between stations, changing bands, bass, treble and volume. The radio played is a circa 1962 Normede. The gradual change in pitch and speed on SHORT WAVELENGTH is an ‘accident’: batteries were losing power during the recording. The tape were made at night in a remote North Canadian cabin lit by a kerosene lamp.

- From the liner notes by Michael Snow

Side A

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Side B

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Michael Snow – 2 Radio Solos Cassette $12

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