Category Archives: Art

Besnard Lakes: A Canadian band inspired by shortwave radio

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(Source: Madison.com)

“Deciphered your lines from the shortwave,” Jace Lasek sings on “Like the Ocean, Like the Innocent,” the opening track off the Canadian crew’s latest album, “The Besnard Lakes are the Roaring Night” (Jagjaguwar).

[…]Even as a child, Lasek enjoyed escaping into the shadowy underbelly of Cold War-era spy stories, huddling on the front porch of his parent’s home with a shortwave radio to listen to the mysterious, coded words being beamed in from all around the globe.

“I’d be sitting on the front stoop in broad daylight on a hot summer day and I’d still be scared as hell,” said Lasek, who brings the Besnard Lakes to High Noon Saloon for a show on Sunday, Oct. 2. “It really resonated with me. The transmissions coming in were really eerie, and it sort of mirrors the music we’re making as well. We want it to be eerie and (David) Lynch-ian, where there’s this sort of grotesque beauty.”

Read the full article and interview at Madison.com.

The Besnard Lakes video for “Albatross” from their Jagjaguwar release The Besnard Lakes Are The Roaring Night. The opening scene says it all:

Radius – Shortwave inspired audio art

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I have a particular fondness for artists who use shortwave radio to inspire their work, so you can imagine how pleased I was to stumble upon Radius–an experimental radio broadcast platform based in Chicago, IL, USA. In their own words:

Radius features a new project semi-monthly with statements by artists who use radio as a primary element in their work. Radius provides artists with live and experimental formats in radio programming.

The goal is to support work that engages the tonal and public spaces of the electromagnetic spectrum.

All audio works are broadcasted locally on 88.9 fm with a secondary stream online.

Radius’ website contains audio by episode. Most of this work is toward the art spectrum of the sonic journey–me, I love it.

Want a taste? Check out some of this audio from Episode 08 by Osvaldo Cibils:
Episode 08: Osvaldo Cibils by Radius #4
 

BBC Hindi brings Indian and Pakistani artists to talk music and peace

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(Source: indiaPRwire)

London, Delhi, London, August 2, 2011 /India PRwire/ — BBC Hindi is launching special programming which will bring together musicians from India and Pakistan. Every day, between 3 and 7 August, the Friendship beyond Borders series on the BBC Hindi FM programming, broadcast via partner FM stations across India, talks to some of the best known singers and musicians from India and Pakistan about music, mutual understanding and peace.

Artistes such as Shafqat Amanat Ali, Arif Lohar, Ali Azmat, Rekha Bharadwaj, Salim-Sulaiman and Mohit Chauhan are talking to BBC Hindi about the role of music in bringing people together from across the borders. Talking on the Friendship beyond Borders series, Salim Merchant of the Indian singer and composer duo, Salim-Sulaiman, says that music has no language: “It is a business of the heart. It has no nationality or religion.” The Pakistani singer, Shafqat Amanat Ali, tells the BBC that visa issues between the two countries should be relaxed so that people can meet their loved ones and families without any obstacles.

[…]The Friendship beyond Borders series will be aired across India by BBC Hindi’s FM partner radio stations. BBC Hindi will also broadcast the series on shortwave in the lead-up to India’s Independence Day on 15 August. The website bbchindi.com will feature special stories based on the series as well as the audio of the music of the profiled artistes.

Read full article at indiaPRwire.