Cut-Up Radio (2003-06)
category: live FM radio sound collages
- Cut-Up Radio live in Berlin, July 2003
(photo: Rick Walker)
All of this music was improvised live, using a radio as its only sound source. Using digital looping devices, the radio stream - short wave noise, talking, classical or pop music, whatever happened to come along - was cut up in real time and immediately rearranged into rhythmic patterns, clouds of sound particles, or phaseshifting repetitions.
Unlike regular instruments, samples, or CDs, the output of a live radio stream is more or less unpredictable. Using it as the only sound source for an improvisation or a concert presents a special challenge. Chance rules, control is impossible, intuition is the only possible guide. And there are rewards - when something suddenly falls into place in an unexpected way.
All due respect and gratitude goes to the artists whose work happened to be played on the radio at the time, and used as raw material for these improvisations.
stream all short mp3 clips:
download short mp3 clips (1 - 3 MB each):
01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 26 27 28 29
Live in Berlin, July 4, 2003 - (22 min, 20 MB)
Live in Amsterdam, May 9, 2006 - (28 min, 26 MB)
Harold Schellinx's blog entry about this concert
- Cut-Up Radio live in Zürich, August 2005 (photo: Rick Walker)
- Cut-Up Radio live in Cologne, April 2006 (photo: Fred Garland)
- Cut-Up Radio live in Amsterdam, May 2006 (photo: Harold Schellinx)
Cut-Up techniques (first using pieces of newspaper, later tape recordings) were invented by Brion Gysin about 50 years ago. Here's a nice video by Matti Niinimäki, visualizing some explanations by William S. Burroughs:
