SONDHEIM, ALAN - Short Wave: Anomalous Recordings (1991)

Edition of 100. "Booklet" is a single piece of folded cardstock printed inside and out, reproducing Sondheim's "Another Mother of Us All (A Phenomenology of Short-Wave)" (originally printed in 1983). "From the Vault of the American poet, critic, musician, artist, and theorist of cyberspace, Alan Sondheim. Cor Ardens is thrilled present this intimate window into Sondheim’s longtime study of Anomalous Shortwave Radio signals. These recordings were transferred in all their generous warmth from original cassette home recordings made during the year 1991. They are presented in Long-Form excerpts, without editorial manipulations towards a kind of human musicality. They are presented in their pure form- as document. Sondheim’s accompanying 1983 essay “Another Mother of Us All (A phenomenology of short wave” describes Short-Wave as an ‘interactive medium’ in which ‘The Listener moves across the globe, through vagaries of weather and international politics, to envelop herself’ an experience at once embodied and orgiastic. This collection invites the listener into a multiplicity of interpretations, giving no immediate roadmap, we may become first enveloped in curiosity. Patterns emerge from static like fields of ribbon- arousing in the listener a Rorschach of associations from the lonely calls of aquatic life to the solar wind bouncing off Jupiters Magnetic Field. We listen and find ourselves presented with an innumerable series of possible pathways “Falling through another world. Falling through all possible worlds simultaneously”

Sondheim's forays into Improvisation and free music as tinged with the air of late 60's communalism was chronicled by the seminal label, ESP Disk. Over a span of decades his work has taken a myriad of forms including the the publishing of numerous books of criticism and poetry. More recently, he has created work focusing on the aesthetics of virtual environments; mapping techniques using motion capture and 3D laser scanners; Buddhist philosophy and its relation to avatars and online environments; and experimental choreography.

The Release features a Full Color- Six Panel J-Card Insert with original works derived from a Qbasic multivariable fractal program designed by the artist roughly at the same time as the recordings." - Cor Ardens.