LABELLE, BRANDON - Automatic Radio

"This new Cd by Brandon Labelle includes three new compositions: "Speaking in Tongues": Conflating "human speech" with "animal speech"--a mimicry that draws the tongue outside "idiolectical" usage (to speak as a good boy should)--language and the body become part of the same mechanism of conveying a message; though in turn, this conflation emphasizes the schism that ruptures this process--the tension inherent in "speaking as a body (sensuality)" and "speaking as an individual (social behavior)". "Multitude-Solitude": This work was commissioned by Kunstradio and was produced during a 3-daystay in Vienna in August 2000. In response to the invitation to make a work for radio I decided to produce all the sound-materials while in Vienna, drawing upon a direct relationship to the city and my experience there. This process consisted of primarily two activities: firstly, amplifying pre-recorded sounds of "crowds" from various events and functions in public spaces in Vienna, and re-recording them--in essence, overlaying public spaces and public crowds on top of each other and highlighting the "multiplicity" of overheard voices, and through this, how language becomes abstracted when it is situated against public space; secondly, taking a series of walks around Vienna with contact microphones taped to the bottoms of my shoes. What resulted from these walks was a kind of sonic residue of the meeting between body and space, between private experience and public environment, underscoring how as an individual one is always part of a greater situation." "Pillow Talking"(in collaboration with l. chasse): This work was produced as a parallel performance to a concert by John Hudak at 7hz, San Francisco, September 2000. The parallel performance occurred through recording Hudaks own performance by placing contact microphones on a glass floor from a mezzanine within the performance space. In addition, a second contact microphone was mounted on a metal cooking funnel which I then placed inside my mouth. In essence, the final work is a combination of Hudaks performance and the subsequent "translation" of it as recorded through the microphones. This "translation" is in turn mediated through the architectural structure of the performance space, the metal funnel and through the cavity of my mouth. Edition of 500 copies in oversized cardoboard folder, with a color photo by Renato Rinaldi. Includes the text "Automatic Radio" by Brandon Labelle." - Fringes.