Latvian Classical Radio
Latvijas Radio LR3
Hosted by Rihards Endriksons

https://klasika.lsm.lv

The start of the piece "Latvian Classical Radio" was recording in the two stairwells of the building where I have my studio. Both of these stairwells are very resonant. I spent some time in each space recording myself vocalizing, striking different surfaces (handrails, windows, heater radiators, walls, etc), walking up and down the stairs, jingling my keys. I also made recordings in the hallways of the building, opening doors and windows, taking the elevator, walking back and forth. I then took these recordings and mixed them out on computer, cutting up and re-arranging the different takes into one longer piece. These recordings were then transferred to a media player to be used during the actual recording of the piece.

The piece was recorded live and in one take. I used a modular synthesizer, mixing board, a media player with the previously described recordings, a radio, an electromagnetic inductor, piezo microphone and open audio cable. The way I use the modular synthesizer is perhaps a bit unusual: I route the output of the synth into the mixer and back into the synth, creating an internal feedback circuit. I then use this feedback as both an audio source and control voltage to modulate the synthesizer. This creates a very unstable situation with the whole system often on the verge of either a complete explosion or dead silent implosion.

While playing the synthesizer I also spontaneously mix in live radio grabs and any recordings I have on the media player (in this case, the recordings from my building, though when performing live I usually make recordings before the concert of the place where I'm playing -- this could mean the city, the actual concert hall, etc.). The electromagnetic inductor picks up any electronic frequencies seeping out of the synthesizer, the mixer, the radio -- basically anything in range of where I'm playing that is electronic. I mix this input back into the synth, as well as the piezo microphone, which I press with my fingers, run across the cable of the synth or use to create external feedback (feedback you can hear over the sound system, as opposed to feedback which only takes place within the system).

I use an open audio cable to insert myself into the circuits of the system. This means, I hold the open cable with one hand and grab the open cables of the synth with the other. My body closes the circuit. This allows me to modulate the synth in a very tactile way, creating sounds which break up and stutter, depending on how i grasp the cables. I often hold several synth cables in one hand, churning them all together in a mix of colliding sounds. This technique also works with the piezo microphone in the same way, holding it in one hand and grasping the synth cables with the other. I like the idea that my body is completing the circuit, that all these signals are moving through me, filtered by my flesh and blood.

The piece was improvised. I didn't have a particular length in mind, other than not wanting to go over the maximum stipulated length of thirty minutes. I basically just stopped when I felt that I was finished. Other than some simple equalization, I didn't edit the piece afterwards. The synth was amplified through a tube guitar amplifier. The actual recording of the piece was made with three sound sources direct to computer: a mono synth track direct from the mixing board, a microphone placed close in front of the guitar amp and two room microphones placed between myself and the amplifier. Aside from recording the output from my mixer through the guitar amplifier, the room microphones also picked up the sound of my hands running through the cables of the synth and even the squeaking of the stool I was sitting on during the recording. These peripheral sounds might bother some people but to me they lend character and immediacy to the recording.

I come very much from the school of "live" electronics, which to me means electronics not bottled up in a hermetically sealed recording situation. I want to hear the buzz and crackle of an amplifier, the sounds the performer makes during the recording and the presence of the room a piece was recorded in. This all reflects my interest in the fragility of the human experience. Situations building up, falling apart. And the traces we leave as we move through different spaces. The resonance of our lives radiating in social space.

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