Here is a rather chronological list of radioplays, curated by Worm/Klangendum. With ‘curated’ we mean; we invited these makers to produce a radioplay for us, most of the times they came to Rotterdam and worked at the Worm/Klangendum studio to make the piece, sometimes they just send us the files. The first pieces were made in 2006, and all the radioplays were broadcasted by the VPRO, Cafe Sonore. Some were also broadcasted at other locations (radia network, Free Music Archive, Concertzender).
If there are still any working links availabe we will try to maintain them and link them here. This is a work in progress.
4 Science Fiction Radioplays Curated by Felix Kubin
first broadcast; may, 2010, cafe sonore, vpro radio
For a short time Felix Kubin worked @WORM intensely with some people who all produced a Science Fiction radioplay. All to good results, as you can hear here…
Frozen Hope (10’31”)
Marit Shalem, Vincent Denieul, Selena Savic
TALKING HEADS 8.47′
Clara Lozano, Ludmila Rodrigues -Writers
Iris van Vliet, Jeroen Kuster, Lukas Simonis – Voices
Robert Kroos, Felix Kubin – Sound edition/effects
Synopsis:
The terrible story of a young woman who contracts a strange disease and finds herself lost in an unknown place.
SWIMMING OUT 11.14′
Jan van Nuenen – recording, editing
Mariette Groot – recording, editing
Laura D’Ors – text
Lukas Simonis – text
Karoly Toth – voice
Synopsis;
A Paranoid (?) loner thinks that Electricity is an alien and finds proof for that in several texts of rock songs.
SUCKING LIFE 5.00′
Florian Kramer – direction, editing, recording
Jeroen Kusters – voice, text
Synopsis;
Surreal and erotic things happen in a basement stuffed with aliens.
first broadcast; june, 2010, cafe sonore, vpro radio
A Silent Film for the Radio
Produced by Vernon & Burns during a residency at WORM studios, Rotterdam. First performed live as part of ‘Popular Noise for the Masses’, March 2010. Narrated by Giles Bailey.
“When the devil pulls the strings, all the world must dance…”
Constructing an episodic narrative from silent movie intertitles, Vernon and Burns translate grand melodramatic gestures and deadpan pratfall pantomime into the audio realm. Hand-tinted frames of sound, under-cranked audio slapstick and sepia-soaked expressionism for the ear are projected onto the cinema screen of the mind’s eye.
Vernon & Burns are a duo of sound makers who create radio plays, records and performances through an innovative mix of samples, field recordings, voice and music. Performed across Europe, their eclectic live act encompasses everything from ventriloquism and magic to music hall and comedy. They have produced work for radio stations including the BBC, VPRO, Resonance FM, WFMU and The Audible Picture Show. Recent releases include an LP on Gagarin Records and a CD in Staalplaat’s Mort Aux Vaches series.
first broadcast; november 30th, 2010, cafe sonore, vpro radio
by Sarah Washington & Knut Aufermann
instructions;
As the title says, the duration of the piece is unknown, and this is because we would like to ask you as the host to interfere with the timing of the broadcast. Let me explain this: at a certain point during the piece we would like you to make an announcement and then fast forward the CD through a long drone section to a later point in the piece. Lukas said that you normally pre-record your shows, so I hope this is something you can do in the studio beforehand. (Lukas also offers his help to achieve this if needed).
Here is a detailed description of what we would like you to do and say.
At 12’19” into the radio play we would like you to talk over the top of it: “I am sorry, but we just found out that this piece is too long for our programme, so I will fast forward it a bit…”
“…this should work now”
Then you fast forward the CD to 35’35”. We don’t mind if it produces clicks during the forwarding, because it needs to be audible that you are fast forwarding the CD. If needed, you can stop and start the fast forwarding to help you find the correct point.
When the piece is playing normally again at (or as close as possible to)35’35”, you say: “…this should work now” and then you let it play normally to the end.(This will make the piece approx. 24min long.). Our aim is to make it feel as if it is happening live in the studio. This interference hopefully challenges some preconceptions of the listeners.
Here is the information about the piece: Duration Unknown by Knut Aufermann and Sarah Washington
A journey, perhaps by car, into a world of uncertainties. The concepts of ‘where we are headed’ and ‘how we will arrive’ are turned into twin impossibilities, inviting us to open up for examination the steadfastness of some firmly held beliefs. We encounter unexpected answers to searching questions, but are never entirely sure if we are being offered obscure philosophical suggestions, directions to modify our outmoded habits, or if we are simply tuning in to the confused internal duologue of a divided conscience.
Title: Duration Unknown Length: unknown Text & sound: Sarah Washington Sound and editing: Knut Aufermann Music recorded at WORM Electronic Music Studio, Rotterdam, June 2010 Produced by: Mobile Radio, Ürzig, 2010 Language: English
first broadcast; january, 2011, cafe sonore, vpro radio
by the Martiensgohome collective from belgium.
“laisser entendre, éviter de dire”
In 2004 the China-based duo Fm3 released their first Buddha Machine, a small electronic device capable of playing a selection of 9 sound loops of varying length. It was to be followed by several updates, introducing new features, new design, or musical interventions by other musicians (one has been made by Throbbing Gristle for instance). As an artistic statement, the device was a totally new concept, offering the audience a product that was not a record but still a recording, and one which could be played at length, in various settings, according to the buyer’s will, or used as an instrument to play, as the duo presents it themselves, using several machines to orchestrate chessgame-like performances.
But the device has roots that pre-date its re-invention by FM3. It had before that been a longstanding product that was to be found in tourist shops around buddhist temples throughout China, or south-east asian countries. Similar in a weird way to the Tibetan prayer wheels, it is a mechanichal praying device that is considered as valid and efficient as an oral prayer, or a recitation, even if it is used distractly. Simply touching a wheel, or spinning it without concentration is said to bring the same benefits as actually praying or chanting. Similarly, the modern electronic buddha machine is a device that can be used by the layman, with the same effect as a real incantation. Most existing machines play various buddhist mantras, chosen among the most efficient invocations, but also, for technical reasons, chosen among the chants based on repetition, like the famous “om mani padme um” sanskrit mantra. Some are traditional songs of the Theravada lineage, sung in Pali, some are new age songs with a buddhist pretext. It is used by the faithful to soothe the mind and purify it. They function like a cybernetic version of a chanting monk, accompanying you everywhere, like a pocket choir that could be switched on and off. They can also be considered to be praying alone, indifferent to human presence or absence, like a mystic robot intoning its chant for its own salvation as much as for the universe’s.
Martiensgohome has put these buddhist robots in various situations where they can be heard chanting alone, or among themselves. They are recorded as they were overheard, amid their alien rituals. As such they celebrate alone, automatically processing avalokitesvara’s world peace, and at the same time revealing the aural architecture of the place they are singing in; their site-specific devotion shaping and modifying the perception of these places and at the same time being influenced by their sonic characteristics.
At the crossroad between a beautiful but kitsch gadget, and a “serious” religious artefact, the buddha machine is a curiosity, a freak of nature like motor-powered praying wheels, or computer-controlled church bells, but it also possesses a great emotional power, and a great musical and artistic potential
MEDITATION ON A BROOMSTICK 53.24
first broadcast; february, 2011, cafe sonore, vpro radio
One of our favorite pieces we ever curated; the radiophonic radio play of the Swiss multimedia performer Rudolf Ebner, better known as Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock. Or as Ebner describes himself: “Scaling Moons Clown am Rande der Selbstauflösung”. Not much to say about this -just like it’s makers is not a big talker- but to listen to this brilliant piece…