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Playlist: O'Dark 30 episode 179 (4-23)

Compiled By: KUT

Caption: PRX default Playlist image

KUT's O’Dark 30 features the very best from the world of independent radio that we can find here on PRX and elsewhere. Sunday nights at 10 on Austin's KUT 90.5 we present 3 hours of a bit of everything from the big wide world of independent radio production.

Episode 179 (4-23) includes The Symphony of Sirens, Revisited...Episode 7 -- Cerfing the Net from Decode DC...99% Invisible #56- Frozen Music...Billie Holliday from KUT's Views and Brews Liner Notes...WTF Episode 202 with Amy Poehler...The Potato Ball Caper...Rare Earth...#29 - She Sees Your Every Move from HowSound

The Symphony of Sirens, Revisited

From Charles Maynes | 13:44

In November of 1923, a Soviet composer named Arseny Avraamov stepped onto a Moscow rooftop clutching two oversized flags. His plan: to conduct an orchestra comprised of the city itself. Enthralled with the Russian Revolution's break from the past, Avraamov envisioned a «music of the future» made from a strange choice of choirs: factory sirens, barge foghorns, soldiers' footsteps, artillery fire, workers songs, steam whistles, and proletarian shouts. Together, it was music. Every city had it. Only how to arrange it? 'The Symphony of Sirens' was his answer.

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In November of 1923, a Soviet composer named Arseny Avraamov stepped onto a Moscow rooftop clutching two oversized flags.  They may as well have been magicians’ wands. For his plan was audacious enough: to conduct an orchestra comprised of the city itself.  Enthralled with the Russian Revolution's break from the past, Avraamov envisioned  a «music of the future» made from a strange choice of choirs: factory sirens, barge foghorns, soldiers' footsteps,  artillery fire, workers songs, steam whistles, and proletarian shouts.   Together, it was music.  Every city had it.  Only how to arrange?  'The Symphony of Sirens' was his answer.  

2.5 attempts were made – in Baku, Moscow, and (.5) Nizhny Novgorod.  Yet no recordings exist – making the performances all the more the stuff of legend.

Equal parts detective story and R. Murray Schaeffer's sound treatise 'The Tuning of the World',  this radio feature revisits Avraamov's famed magnum opus by mining for details about Avraamov.  What did he hear?  And are there traces still to be heard today?  Using flights of audio fancy and real world reporting, Moscow-based producer Charles Maynes introduces listeners to both the sirens that were, and the symphony that has become.  


Episode 7 -- Cerfing the Net

From Decode DC | Part of the DecodeDC series | 24:34

Internet co-creator and now Google Chief Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf on the net's origins and future.

Vint_cerf_-_2010_small Andrea Seabrook speaks with Internet Evangelist Vint Cerf about the net's origins and future.

99% Invisible #56- Frozen Music

From Roman Mars | Part of the 99% Invisible (Director's Cut) series | 10:08

Composer Jon Brion reminds us the difference between a performance and a song

99invisible-logo-square-for_prx_medium_small [For Standard 4:30 version, go to: http://www.prx.org/pieces/84065-99-invisible-56-frozen-music-standard-4-30-ver]

Goethe said, “Architecture is frozen music.” I like that.

Of course that was before audio recording, so now, for the most part, music is frozen music.

It’s only very recently in the history of music that we’ve been able to freeze music into an object. In my life, the form of this object mattered a lot. I once bought vinyl albums and cassette tapes, where there were two first songs per album, Side A and Side B. The energy of a first song makes it stand apart, at least in my head it does. Then the CD came along and eliminated Side B and there was only first song, and the actual number of a track (that you see prominently on the UI) became my index for sorting songs. Then MP3s jumbled my sense of track order, and albums began to feel more like a loose grouping of individual pieces rather than a conceptual whole. I could name hundreds more examples like these, and I welcome you to chime in, but my point is: the form of the thing matters.

But no effect has been as world changing as that original innovation: freezing music in time onto a recording, where a single version of a song, a single performance of a song, became the song. An inherently mutable method of communication was fundamentally changed.

I heard a radio broadcast several years ago that really affected the way I thought about all this. Jim Derogatis and Greg Kot are the hosts of a radio program I’m a huge fan of called Sound Opinions (subscribe now). The songwriter, composer, and producer, Jon Brion came to WBEZ in Chicago to talk to Sound Opinions in 2006. At the time, Brion has just co-produced Kanye West’s album Late Registration and he was also already a renowned film composer. In this interview, Brion talks about the difference between what he calls “performance pieces” and “songs” and how recorded music has changed the way we appreciate the different art forms.

Special thanks to Sound Opinions for allowing me to rebroadcast this segment. Extra special thanks to SoOps producers, Robin Linn and Jason Saldanha, for being two of my favorite people in public radio. 

Billie Holiday

From KUT | Part of the KUTX Liner Notes series | 03:04

Billie Holiday once said, "No two people on earth are alike, and it's got to be that way in music or it isn't music." As we look back on her life and legacy we gain a deep appreciation for her unique voice, and the authenticity and openness of her approach to music.

Playing
Billie Holiday
From
KUT

Billieprx_small Join Rabbi Neil Blumofe as he looks back at the importance of Billie Holiday's work in the jazz cannon. Even as she struggled with drugs, alcohol, abusive relationships and racism she maintained a raw understanding of her perspective. When she is judged by everything but the genius of her body of work, we recognize and fear that it might happen to us as well. However, as we listen and connect with her through her music we gain a deeper understanding of both the vulnerability and strength in our passions.

WTF Episode 202 with Amy Poehler

From WTF with Marc Maron | Part of the WTF with Marc Maron series | 59:00

Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler remembers her early days as an improv comedian in New York City when she used to cross paths with an edgy young stand-up named Marc Maron. She also talks about her feelings toward Lorne Michaels and her marriage to another very funny individual.

Banner_amy_poehler2 Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler remembers her early days as an improv comedian in New York City when she used to cross paths with an edgy young stand-up named Marc Maron. She also talks about her feelings toward Lorne Michaels and her marriage to another very funny individual.

The Potato Ball Caper

From Long Haul Productions | 07:46

On August 31, 1987, one of baseball's most peculiar plays took place in the minor leagues in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was a variation of the age-old hidden ball trick, except it involved a hidden potato. In this story, we hear from the man responsible for the play and two people who witnessed it.

Potatoball_small On August 31, 1987, one of baseball's most peculiar plays took place in the minor leagues in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. It was a variation of the age-old hidden ball trick, except it involved a hidden potato. In this story, from producer Dan Collison, we hear from the man responsible for the play and two people who witnessed it. The Potato Ball Caper was orignially broadcast in 2002.

Rare Earth

From Benjamen Walker | 29:59

An investigation into the stuff that makes anything digital actually possible: rare earth minerals. Host Benjamen Walker uncovers the dark story behind them, in a gonzo journey to the Chinese mines where 95% of the world's rare earth minerals come from.

Rare_earth_small An investigation into the stuff that makes anything digital actually possible: rare earth minerals. Host Benjamen Walker uncovers the dark story behind them in a gonzo journey to the Chinese mines where 95% of the world's rare earth minerals come from.
Besides experts like  
Dr. Alexander H. King. Director, Ames Laboratory; Dr. Karl " Mr. Rare Earth" Gschneidner and the BBC's Paul Mason, Ben encounters shady characters, enviromental messes, and the Chinese underworld. This program is part of the PRX Global Story Project made possible by the Open Society Foundations.

#29 - She Sees Your Every Move

From HowSound | 22:47

A LONG overdue HowSound on scoring --- using music in a story.

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Finally. A LONG overdue HowSound on scoring --- using music in a story. Jonathan Mitchell's provocative piece about photographer Michelle Iverson goes under the HowSound audio microscope.

Jonathan is a master at using music in stories for Studio 360, Radiolab, the PBS science program Nova, and elsewhere. He shows us how he uses music for transitions and mood and he reveals his process --- it's all incredibly helpful if you're thinking about using music in stories.

If you're thinking of using music in stories, keep copyright in mind. For broadcast on public radio, use whatever music you want. But, if you audio work is distributed via CD or on the web or in videos, copyright is another story entirely. There is a lot of copyright free music available. And, there's music you can license under a Creative Commons copyright. Here are just a few you might want to keep in mind for your next production.

Internet Archive

ccMixter

Free Music Archive

Moby Gratis

Happy scoring!!

Rob

PS - Jonathan has an excellent podcast you should subscribe to -- The Truth . He calls them "movies for your ears." Go listen.... after you listen to this HowSound, of course.