Making Waves

Guest Host Claude Schryer from the conscient podcast has invited three Canadian sound artists to have a discussion in response to the phrase, ‘death as a natural transformation of energy and consciousness, not an end’ 

All three artists have been on past episodes of the Conscient podcast which is about Art and the Ecological Crisis. They are Azul Carolina Duque (e211 art as medicine), Kenneth Newby (e207 living with grace) and Wendelin Bartley (e222 restoring our connection with nature). 

Initially Making Waves invited Claude Schryer to chair a discussion on climate change. This discussion touches on the climate crisis but through the subject of death. Death in the sense of how spirit and consciousness continues when the body goes back to the earth. What might this spirit and consciousness sound like? How might this heightened awareness relate to climate change?

At the top of show we play the opening from Chasm by Kenneth Newby, off his album From Solitude: music for spectral orchestra. At the end we play Wendelin Bartley’s composition Stone Mysteries from her 2012 album Sound Dreaming. Mid-way through the program she sings part of The Keening of the Three Marys, which was taught to her by Mary McLaughlin. At another point, Azul improvises a vocalization that she may do as a Death Doula.  Her album Telurico features her work as a folk singer.

Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

https://naisa.ca/

Today we are featuring two interviews from the Conscient podcast series. Conscient is produced by Claude Schryer in Ottawa. It revolves around conversations with artists about the climate emergency. The show includes an extensive collection of interviews and discussions with a diverse range of artists that are all tackling the climate emergency in their own unique and distinctive ways. 

The majority of the show will feature a longer interview that Claude did with Joan Sullivan for episode 96 of Conscient. Joan is a photo artist in Rimouski Québec who has devoted her work to confronting the realities of climate change. In her view nobody is exempt from having a role to play in the energy transition. In terms of energy and consumption, the world is currently in a liminal space between what was and what lies ahead. 

Making Waves concludes with a conversation between Claude Schryer and Tina Pearson. It was recorded for episode 220 of Conscient in September 2024. Tina Pearson asks, "what is art anyway?" How can artists use their talents to allow people to listen more deeply - and also to leave time and space to breathe and consider. 

In between the interviews we will listen to the soundwalk composition Intertidal Room by Jaceck Smolicki. Recorded at slack tide in the Vancouver harbour at Stanley Park, Smolicki’s composition contrasts the linear rhythms of industrial sea cargo with the cyclical rhythms of the water lapping at shore.  

Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s show we feature sound art works by two Indonesian sound artists. The hour will conclude with selections from Gardika Gigih’s Mikrokosmos series of works, but the majority of the show will feature a recording of a recent performance by Rani Jambak that was recorded on September 20, 2025 at NAISA in South River.

In last month’s episode we heard an interview with Rani JambakKincia Aia. She talked to apè alliermo from the VenusFest about the Kincia Aia, which is an electronic music controller adapted from a traditional North Sumatran water wheel. In the performance she uses the Kincia Aia to control her electronic and soundscape recordings which are complemented by Jambak's vocal and flute performances. Part of the adaptation of the Kincia Aia for indoor performance contexts requires running the water wheel on a motor and you will hear some of that in the recording.

Gardika Gigih is an Indonesian composer, pianist, and soundscape researcher. He composed the Mikrokosmos series while in residence at the Abbaye de Noirlac in France during the autumn of 2023.  The pieces are a reflection of humanity's relation to nature during the current climate crisis. Gardika Gigih composed the music in collaboration with natural soundscape recordings made by the French audio-naturalist, Fernand Deroussen and recordings of Hye-Ohn Park playing the Daegum, a Korean flute. Mikrokosmos in this way explores sonic dialogues across different cultures, to find common ground in a fragmented world.

This monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

https://naisa.ca/

apè aliermo from VenusFest in Toronto interviews sound artist Rani Jambak. Jambak’s music is influenced by the many traditions and musical cultures that can be found in Minangkabau and her birthplace in Medan, Indonesia.  In the last 5 years her main focus has been to re-interpret in musical form Minangkabau philosophy and ancestral knowledge which includes creating her instrument based on a traditional water wheel with a series of wooden pestles, the Kincia Aia.

The beginning and end of the episode includes excerpts from Jambak's 2022 performance Malenong (M)ASO. In the performance the sound samples are being manipulated and controlled by the Kincia Aia. In the conversation we will learn more about that instrument and the cultural roots and environmental concerns that drive Jembak’s work.

Jambak’s music is influenced by the many traditions and musical cultures that can be found in Minangkabau and her birthplace in Medan, Indonesia. Medan is a unique city as it has 8 original ethnic groups which makes it very rich in sound diversity. In the last 5 years her main focus has been to re-interpret in musical form Minangkabau philosophy and ancestral knowledge. Starting from learning the culture and history through its sounds, to creating instruments like the Kincia Aia, and from understanding history through Tambo Alam Minangkabau, a manuscript about the origin of Minangkabau from the early 19th century.

The interview was recorded prior to a tour to various Ontario and Québec venues taking place in the last two weeks of September, 2025. In the middle of this episode the track Joget Sumatera is heard from Rani Jambak's album Vibra Genetika on the Yes No Wave label.

Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

Composer Annea Lockwood talks about her work with river sounds throughout her 50 plus years of composing. Her sound map installations of the Housatonic, Danube and Hudson Rivers (and others she has made recently) underscore the value of water in shaping life on earth. Rivers not only bring energy, but Lockwood points out that rivers also have an agency of their own. That agency pushes back against the western inclination to want to control and dominate the course of water flow. In the second half of the show we will listen to an excerpt of her piece A Sound Map of the Housatonic River.  

Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

https://naisa.ca/

Does water have a voice? On today’s show we explore that question through listening to underwater sounds and Darren Copeland’s conversation with sound artist Eric Powell. In his sound installation la Voix de la riviere Powell modified a rotary telephone and connected it to a live transmission of the Haute Yamaska River in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. He is currently working on a new iteration Voice of the Water that also uses the rotary phone, but this time to playback sounds of rivers, creaks and lakes located near South River Ontario. To learn more about Eric Powell’s work visit his Wordpress site and Bandcamp page.

Making Waves is a one hour program about radio art and sound art and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

https://naisa.ca/

This is the first of two episodes about vibro-tactile artworks. These are artworks that are centred in sound, but the sound medium bypasses the cochlea and transmits to listeners directly through their bodies. The first half of the show is a conversation that host Darren Copeland had with Satoshi Morita. Morita is a Japanese sculptor and sound artist based in Germany. He created a number of vibro-tactile works in the mid to late 00's including Sound Capsule, Sonic Helmut and Sonic Suit.  He is currently making wooden organ pipes for his piece Primal Response that have some overlaps with vibro-tactile audio.  Visit this link to view pictures of Satoshi Morita's sculptures. 

The second half of the show includes a radio documentary made by Dutch sound and media artist Ricardo Huisman that he calls a tactile sound portrait of Toronto. The work was made from a visit to Toronto in 2008 when he presented his installation Super Sonic Sound Scape Shoes at the Deep Wireless Festival. The installation had visitors place their feet inside very large Dutch wooden shoes which had speakers built inside them. Soundscape recordings he made in Toronto would play through the shoes and transmit through the body of the installation visitor. In the documentary Huisman captures the sonic environment of the symposium host site and the conversations he had with other festival participants. Visit this link to learn more.

Lastly, WGXC's pledge drive for donations is coming up later in June.  Please consider making a donation at This Link Here.

In this edition of Making Waves we pay tribute to the work of the late Andra McCartney who died in 2019. She was a composer, radio artist, educator, biographer and musicologist active in Canada in the fields of electroacoustic music and soundscape studies.  Her colleagues and close friends Hildegard Westerkamp, Wendalyn Bartley and Gayle Young join us in this episode to share their experiences of working with her and spending time with her.

The show includes excerpts of her radio piece “Waiting Games And Widespread Smoke (feat. Narcy)” which is featured on the Deep Wireless 19 album.   That piece describes a train trip Andra McCartney took across Canada during the 2018 wild fires in British Columbia. It was also the last piece she made.   The show ends with her radio piece "Learning to Walk" which can be heard on the Andrasound soundcloud page.

Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s show we are going to listen to the long form sound art composition Zand by Dutch sound artist Marieke Van de ven. And after listening that host Darren Copeland will have a conversation with her to learn more about the piece.

Zand explores sand grains as material, concept and sound. Viewed from different perspectives, the sand grains become a place to explore and wander. A composition of subtle grains to colossal layers of sound and back again. A movement, a duration, a route.

As a composer and sound artist, Marieke Vande vin likes to zoom in on environmental sounds. The sound of sand is a sonic adventure where texture and associations with the material guides her process. Van de van searches for the meaning of the ordinary in the mundane details of life - and she connects the listener to the origins of the materials she explores.

The show closes with an excerpt from Black Poplar 86.3 Mhz by American transdisciplinary artist Dann Disciglio.

Explore the Deep Wireless 19 compilation album for more information about the works on today's show and for further listening.

On today’s show we listen to two works that capture animals and environments in interesting and unique ways. Both works come from the 19th edition of the Deep Wireless Radio Art Compilation, which is now available on soundcloud.  

We are going to spend the majority of the show listening to and talking about the multi-species project Pigeon Band, which began with the question: “Do pigeons like music?” 

Two toy synth keyboards were installed on Emmie Tsumara's kitchen window sill, awaiting the daily pigeon visitors. Over several months of practice, the pigeons learned to play the keyboard as they snacked on sunflower seeds. Though each pigeon can be hard to tell apart visually, they each have their own personalities and movements. With those differences they each play a different song.

The Pigeon Band benefited from the collaboration of many artists, including Blunderspublik, D Badua, Julia Fenn, Charlie Glasspool, Sarah DeCarlo, Polly-Jean Vernon, Veronica Ing, The Burning Hell, Jas Nasty, Chris International, Babe Chorus, Anomalia and Charlie Petch.

The album was produced by artist, designer and pigeonfluencer Emmie Tsumura and it is mastered by Julia Fenn. I had a conversation with both of them to tell us about Pigeon Band and how it came to be.

At the end of the show we will go on an electromagnetic hike up Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City with sound artist Matthew Driggs McMurray in his piece Meta-Frequency Field Recording: Salt Lake City // Ensign Peak.