Sothis Medias
  • Home
  • The Radiophonic Laboratory
  • Down Home Punk
  • Seeds from Sirius
  • About
  • Publications
  • Home
  • The Radiophonic Laboratory
  • Down Home Punk
  • Seeds from Sirius
  • About
  • Publications
Picture

The Radiophonic Laboratory: ​Telecommunications,
Electronic Music, and the Voice of the Ether.

The history of electronic music is intimately tied up with the history of radio and telecommunications. Many of the same breakthroughs and devices invented by electrical engineers for communicating in morse code, telephone and radio were adapted for use by musicians. Electricity opened up new worlds of sound beginning in the 19th century. These articles are an exploration of this musical landscape and the voice of the ether.

Note: This is a book in progress. Check back to see what I've added. Not all chapters are written in order. All of these articles have first appeared in various issues of The Q-Fiver, the newsletter of the Oh-Ky-In Amateur Radio Society.

Tuning the Terrestrial Monochord: Music with Roots in the Aether 
(Thomas Watson, La Monte Young, Robert Fludd, Harry Smith)

Chapter 1: TELEPHREAQUENCIES 

​The Musical Telegraph

The Telharmonium

Sounds of the Arc

The Wireless Organ

​The Audion Piano & Vladimir Ussachevsky's Wireless Fantasy

Lev Theremin & The Vibrations of the Ether (Part 1)

Lev Theremin & The Vibrations of the Ether (Part 2)

Two Pioneers of Spread Spectrum Radio: Hedy Lamarr & George Antheil

Chapter 2 :  THE SYNTHESIS OF SPEECH

The Voder & Vocoder

SIGSALY: Muzak, Turntables & Cryptography

AUDREY: Speech Recoginition

A Bicycle Built for Two

From a Clockwork Orange to DMR

Chapter 3: GLASS BEAD GAMES: INFORMATION THEORY & CYBERNETICS

Games of Dice and Games of Glass 

Information Theory: When Data become Dada

Stockhausen, Information Theory & Cycles 

Cybernetic Systems 

​The System of LICHT

Data Sonification: From Mographs to Codes of Soil

Chapter 4: BORDER DISSOLVE IN RADIO SPACE

Imaginary Landscapes: John Cage part 1

Water Walk and Variations: John Cage part 2

Gesang der Jungline, Telemusik & Hymnen: Karlheinz Stockhausen part 1

​Kurzwellen & Other Shortwave Works  Stockhausen part 2

Holger Czukay: Radio Wave Surfer

Takeisha Kosugi: Wave Catcher

William Basinski's River of Shortwave

Eavesdropping with Scanner

Trawling the Megahertz

Chapter 5: WE ALSO HAVE SOUND HOUSES

Musician of Sounds: Noise, Pierre Schaeffer and Musique Concrete

The Sound-Houses of Daphne Oram

The Spherical Vortices of Delia Derbyshire

The Bell Sound: From Alice to Amy

The Bell Sound 2: Taking it to the Max

The Bell Sound 3: Grooving with Laurie Spiegel

Chapter 6: DO OR DIY 

The Strange World of F. C. Judd G2BCX

Chapter 7: THE ART OF TRANSMISSION

Telstar: The Bird and the Birdsong

Going Over the Edge: Don Joyce

Teletouring Across the Timezones

The Crystal Psalms of Alvin Curran

The Lunar Phases of St. GIGA

Chapter 8: VOICE OF THE AETHER

Voice of the Aether

A Brief History of Radio Astronomy

Dark Matter with Lustmord

Ylem: Music for an Oscillating Universe

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.