RADIO WONDERLAND
Joshua Fried
About this work:
Solo performance by Joshua Fried.
Currently a work in progress, RADIO WONDERLAND in its 'final' state will be a 35-50 minute solo performance using laptop computer, boom box plus electrified shoes and steering wheel to transform bits of live commercial FM radio grabbed live on the spot--with all due unpredictability--into organized structures and patterns, sometimes funny, even funky, explicitly musical and implicitly political--LIVE.
THE SHOW:
I walk on stage carrying boom box, tuned to a commercial FM station, spin the dial a bit, place boom box on a stool and wire it, through my setup, into the sound system.
No one knows what will come up next, not even I, because it is LIVE RADIO.
Grab and loop a short bit of sound off the air--could be Elton John singing "Saturday!", could be a current headline.
Slice into patterns. Re-shuffle. Pitch-shift. Percussion-ize. Morph into bassline.
Improvise. Make layers. Make music.
Pause. Grab more bits. Change stations. Construct new motifs, chords; different beats, different moods. Trigger with drumsticks on shoes; modulate with knobs and pedals. Themes and radio bits may recur.
This project is huge as I'm programming the software myself in Max/MSP; full-length concerts will occur in late 2003 at the earliest.
Nonetheless RADIO WONDERLAND is being performed regularly as a 20-minute work-in-progress.
The next step will be to create the Pattern Maker: a set of software algorithms or templates designed to cobble riffs and beats out of unpredictable source material.
THEN: design and construction of the Musical Wheel, a gigantic knob in the form of an old steering wheel.
THEN: RADIO WONDERLAND will become a much longer piece, to be presented in performance spaces, clubs and concert halls everywhere.
Version: 2000-ongoing
Year composed: 2003
Duration: 00:25:00
Ensemble type: Solo instrument, non-keyboard
Instrumentation:
Instrumentation notes: Powerbook, shoes, drumsticks, FM radio, controllers, accessories