KUNSTRADIO - RADIOKUNST

STR Jingle 2005
by Station Rose

PLAY

http://stream.mur.at:8000/kunstradio/mp3/2005A/24_07_05a.mp3

[ Deutsche Version ]

The Austrian artist group Station Rose/STR, namely Elisa Rose (visuals and concept) and Gary Danner (sound and concept), operates between art, technology, and society and understands itself as "within the continuity of media art which has generated diverse concepts of art and practices in close succession. To be brief, we are dealing with a concept of art which meets the expanding mobility of mankind, of symbolic capital and the mediasation of the world via tele-media in a highly contemporary manner." Since 1991, data STReaming is a basis for Station Rose's work. Since then, Elisa Rose and Gary Danner have been operating a digital broadcasting station on their website (http://www.stationrose.com) with which they can transmit audio-visual arts as well as live interviews and chats into the internet - in the form of "audio-visual jam sessions" during which animated films, sounds and texts are sampled and re-arranged in realtime.

Already since 1988, at more or less regular intervals, Station Rose has arranged programmes for Kunstradio. The Station Rose Jingle, a fix part within Station Rose's work as well as of ORF Kunstradio, is a mod survey of their recent activities.

With the latest jingle that the duo Elisa Rose and Gary Danner have composed for Kunstradio they are proceeding an otherwise rather rare tradition within their work, that is to combine sound and voice/text. Thus, these sonic STATION ROSE news, popular amongst listeners and users for years, offer the opportunity to hear a verbal statement of the media artists on topics they find relevant. Designed as a "spot" and enriched with found footage from Station Rose’s digital audio archive, the Jingle 2005 creates sonic spotlights: Titled "Die aktuellen Umstände 2005" (Current circumstances 2005), Elisa Rose reports their observations on current ways of life in Europe, Frankfurt, an in the net. This personal commentary, report-like slams such as „Will China buy the West – Dragon tale or soon familiar reality?“, is scattered throughout the jingle.

Faschina - or the journey into the land with 1.200 cows
by Gue Schmidt

PLAY

http://stream.mur.at:8000/kunstradio/mp3/2005A/24_07_05b.mp3

[ Deutsche Version ]

The cowbell, a widely spread primitive locating instrument in Alpine regions, is used as acoustic basis for this new piece by sound artist Gue Schmidt. Every hitchhiker is familiar with its sound mixed with the specific acoustic of mountainious regions and with nature sounds. The bell’s size is proportionally related to the cow’s age: The older the animal, the larger the bell. Thus, due to the animals’ motions, a cow herd always produces a total of different tones – random melodies.

The acoustic material used for "Faschina" comes from a region of the same name in the Vorarlberg Alps, to be exact, from the Great Walser Valley. In 2004, Gue Schmidt travelled there, equipped with his small cassette recorder and intending to record the acoustic atmosphere of the mountains. But the „cow bell concerts“ which he discovered when using the chair lift suddenly seemed to be far more interesting. For his soundwork the artist only slightly edited the material.

Gue Schmidt about "Faschina":
I wanted to record mountaineous atmospheres. When I arrived in Fachina, I found a chair lift which led right up to some of the nearby mountain peaks. I decided to take the lift and to record the ride, too. Doing so, I noticed that I was repeatedly passing groups of cows, each cow decorated with a bell of its own, and so each herd was giving its own individual concert. In a way, I was riding from one concert to another with the lift; I totally forgot about recording mountaineous atmospheres. I could only think of one thing: to repeat these rides as often as possible in order to take pleasure of this wonderful sonic experience. It turned out that by the end of the day I had made a ride to the top and back again eight times – completely addicted to this activity, and I’d have loved to continue doing so till the next morning. The whole time recording these sounds.