anna friz

Two NRRF: B Radio episodes from earlier this summer, Voyage to the Forbidden Planet and Landfall on the Forbidden Planet are being rebroadcast as part of the LAK Festival for Nordic Sound Art in Copenhagen, DK September 26-29, 2013. Curated and produced by Jan Høgh Stricker and Kasper Vang as part of their 24-hour radio program Avantgarde FM II.

LAK Festival of Nordic Sound Art presents new Nordic, experimental sound art in raw and urbane settings. In 2013, LAK focuses on how sound art is used as a laboratory to explore new forms of sound and new ways to listen to the world.

NRRF: B Radio is a collaborative effort to make unlicensed neighborhood radio art. NRRF mashes b-list genres with radio art to structure the improvisational nature of the shows. It’s live radio, streamed, with special guests and live audience. The core group consists of Jonny Farrow, Anna Friz, Steve Germana, Jeff Kolar, and Peter Speer with Sarah Knudtson (documentation).

No Comments | In: installation, news, transmission | tags: B Radio, LAK festival, NRRF. | #

Forgot to post a link to this excellent review by Meredith Kooi over at Bad at Sports, a blog about contemporary art. In May 2013, myself and Coppice did a one-night installation and show over at the TriTriangle space in Wicker Park, Chicago. The aim was to hear what kind of environment would emerge when two sound installations overlap one another, and we also performed within the active sound of the two installations, again overlapping one another. Both Coppice and myself are fond of free reeds, so there were two accordions in the house, along with various other twittering whispering breathing speakers and radios. A lovely evening, and very satisfying from the creative point of view. Read all about it in Meredith’s article Suspended Radiophonic Breath Terrains: Anna Friz and Coppice at TriTriangle.

No Comments | In: news | tags: anna friz, bad at sports, Coppice, meredith kooi, TriTriangle. | #

I’m shacked up in East Iceland, for a two-month residency at the Skaftfell Center for Visual Art. It’s just about the most beautiful place I’ve ever been, in a small town called Seydisfjördur tucked in to the fjord and surrounded by mountains, and filled with friendly folk. The shift was a bit of a shock, to fly from my southwest neighbourhood of Pilsen in Chicago (rambunctious urban living in a full summer heatwave) to this northern sparsely populated place whose green defies the name ‘Iceland’. It’s already dipping below freezing at night, but there are blueberries, bilberries, and crowberries on the hill for the picking. Enjoying some Russian and Romanian shortwave radio too.

While here I’ll be working on two main projects: first an upcoming episode for Radius in Chicago entitled Radio Telegraph which will be simulcast in Chicago and here in Seydisfjördur across some days in October. Exact dates, times, and frequencies TBA. The second task is to work on the final version of The Joy Channel, a project conceived and created together with Emmanuel Madan. We will be doing the final mix in Berlin in November 2013.

Seems my work here is entering a blue phase….

It’s all absurdly scenic around here.

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Yup, it’s time to sally forth for our fifth and final episode of NRRF B Radio this summer, kindly hosted by the Experimental Sound Studio here in Chicago, with streaming support and rebroadcast from our favourite station WGXC and Wave Farm (free103point9) Transmission Arts in Green and Columbia counties, New York state.

This week, NRRF goes underground and returns with BROOD II: Emergence. Year 17 has arrived, and genus Magicicada are crawling out of the ground and playing the largest noise show of all time. But there may be more than one kind of insect emerging from its pupa…. All things insectoid, especially those that come in clouds and swarms.

TUNE IN! WEDNESDAY JULY 31, 18h-21h CDST (GMT -6).

If you find yourself on Chicago’s north side, tune in to 87.9FM, or better yet, drop in and say hi at ESS,         5925 N Ravenswood, where the live radio is happening.

or listen online at http://free103point9.org.
free103point9/ WGXC in Greene/Columbia counties NY will rebroadcast the show following the live show at 11CDT.

B Radio: a series of radio shows mashing b-list genres with radio art. Each B Radio episode features a theme to structure the improvisational nature of the shows, though tangents are frequent and encouraged. It’s live radio, streamed, with special guests and live audience. The core group of performers play live instruments and electronics, sample wildly, speculate broadly, and have been known to sing.

NRRF is a collaborative effort to make unlicensed neighborhood radio art. For this Chicago iteration, the core group of noisemakers consists of Jonny Farrow, Anna Friz, Steve Germana, Jeff Kolar, Peter Speer, with Sarah Knudtson (documentation and props wrangling). Earlier projects include street radio in Montreal (2001), the NRRF Radio Roadshow (2004), and Radio Free Parkdale in Toronto (2005-2007).

No Comments | In: news, performances, transmission | tags: anna friz, B Radio, Brood II, ESS Chicago, jeff kolar, jonny farrow, NRRF, peter speer, stephen germana. | #

If you are in Chicago, come on down, up, or over to Experimental Sound Studio (ESS) where you will encounter at least five very soggy pirates having a picnic in the Bermuda Triangle. There will be costumes, custom cocktails, and very large knives! Sea shanties! Sentient squid! The innocent Devil’s Triangle! It’s B Radio, episode 4: Pirate Picnic in the Bermuda Triangle!

Here’s how to tune in:

1. If you are within a several block radius of ESS, tune in to 87.9FM starting at 6pm CDT ending at 9pm.

2. Come to think of it, if you are within a several block radius of ESS, just come over and “watch” radio being made.

3. Use the innernets to listen — here’s a link with instructions. Seems slightly complicated, but if you can cut and paste, you can get to radio space. http://transmissionarts.org/event/b8hyq4

More about NRRF B Radio:

B Radio: a series of radio shows mashing b-list genres with radio art. Each B Radio episode features a theme to structure the improvisational nature of the shows, though tangents are frequent and encouraged. It’s live radio, streamed, with special guests and live audience. The core group of performers play live instruments and electronics, sample wildly, speculate broadly, and have been known to sing. NRRF is a collaborative effort to make unlicensed neighborhood radio art. For this Chicago iteration, the core group of noisemakers consists of Jonny Farrow, Anna Friz, Steve Germana, Jeff Kolar, Peter Speer, with Sarah Knudtson (documentation and props wrangling). Earlier projects include street radio in Montreal (2001), the NRRF Radio Roadshow (2004), and Radio Free Parkdale in Toronto (2005-2007).

More about Episode 4: “Pirate Picnic in the Bermuda Triangle”:

Five jolly NRRF pirates set out to sea in their sloop to ride the radio waves. They quickly encounter a massive storm which diverts them into the Bermuda Triangle, where the ship is scuttled and underwater adventures abound, complete with creatures massive and minute, friendly and menacing. Finally they wash up on a remote island, and have to fend for themselves. This radio event might even include a cooking demonstration. Vegan option available.

“It’s just the innocent devil’s triangle / It dares you to come down, that’s it’s angle / That’s the way of Bermuda.” -Roky Erickson

“If you can’t cook your friends, then who can you cook?” – Captain Cooke

No Comments | In: news, performances, transmission | tags: anna friz, experimental sound studio, jeff kolar, jonny farrow, NRRF Radio, peter speer, stephen germana. | #

I have a site-specific installation up this weekend in Berlin as part of the conference Digitale Sinneskulturen des Radios/Multisensual Radio Culture.

21./22. JUNI 2013
STUDIO P4 | Nalepastraße 18-50 | 12459 Berlin

Studio Time is a new piece which adapts compositional elements from For the time being (2010) and What the cuckoo knows (2013), two recent pieces of mine exploring aspects of radio and timekeeping. This family of works considers the fallibility and musicality of broadcast clocks. Studio Time uses incidences of official time signals (such as UTC broadcast on shortwave radio, the National Research Council time signal heard on Canadian public radio, and clock tower bells heard at noon on Finnish and Dutch radio stations), as well as sounds from domestic analogue striking clocks, particularly cuckoo clocks. The installation was created for the conference on the site of the former studios of the DDR Funkhaus, now a recording studio and venue. The studio is preserved in its original design, and Studio Time occupies four voice-over isolation booths adjacent to a main studio. Each booth has a different part of the piece: two single channel pieces are heard over a mono speaker in each of two booths, a set of headphones plays a stereo piece in the third booth, and a mono radio transmits a composition in the fourth booth.

Thanks to Emmanuel Madan for setting things up for me in absentia. He’s exhibiting an installation exploring mechanical induction and bodily capacitance at the conference as well, entitled Lueurs.

Digitale Sinneskulturen des Radios is presented by Masterstudiengang Online Radio, Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg mit Breitband, Deutschlandradio Kultur und Experimentelles Radio, Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.

No Comments | In: installation, news | tags: anna friz, emmanuel madan, radio art, radio sinne, studio time, transmission art. | #

NRRF presents: B Radio

Episode 3: Landfall on the Forbidden Planet

After a harrowing encounter with the Nebulaic Alliance, at which point they may or may not have been cloned, our intrepid NRRF cosmonauts leave the solar system to land upon a mysterious distant planet, enshrouded in fog and murk. Adventures on the Forbidden Planet and the Mandatory Planet ensue, with the possible cloning of the entire human species at stake!

Wednesday June 19, 2013  18h-21h.

LIVE radio at the studios of the Experimental Sound Studio, 5925 N Ravenswood, Chicago

Online (link TBA), and on air in the neighbourhood.

Streaming generously provided by free103point9 Transmission Arts, and the show will be rebroadcast on WGXC 90.7FM NY June 20, midnight-3am.

B Radio: a series of radio shows mashing b-list genres with radio art. Each B Radio episode features a theme to structure the improvisational nature of the shows, though tangents are frequent and encouraged. It’s live radio, broadcast and streamed, with special guests and live audience. The core group of performers play live instruments and electronics, sample wildly, speculate broadly, and have been known to sing.

NRRF is a collaborative effort to make unlicensed neighbourhood radio art.

For this Chicago iteration, the core group of noisemakers consists of Jonny Farrow, Anna Friz, Steve Germana, Jeff Kolar, Peter Speer, with Sarah Knudtson (graphics, documentation and props wrangling).

Earlier projects include street radio in Montreal (2001), the NRRF Radio Roadshow (2004), and Radio Free Parkdale in Toronto (2005-2007).

NRRF flag by Jonny Farrow.

No Comments | In: news, performances, transmission | tags: anna friz, B Radio, ESS, experimental sound studio, Forbidden Planet, jeff kolar, jonny farrow, NRRF, peter speer, Pirate radio art, radio art, stephen germana. | #

Usually when more than one sound installation moves into a gallery space, it’s an instant competition where the loudest wins the day. This Saturday, myself and Coppice (Joseph Kramer and Noé Cuéllar) seek to prove otherwise. We are installing two different sound-based installations that intentionally overlap, interested to see what they produce in conversation with one another. We’ll be performing within/with them as well, each taking a turn to add to the sonic environment.

I was excited from the first time I heard of Chicago-based Coppice, as they are also focused on free reeds and electronics, unstable systems, and spatialized, often quiet sounds.  Here’s what we’re up to:

Anna Friz/ Coppice   Saturday May 25, 2013     TriTriangle   Third Floor, 1550 N. Milwaukee Ave  Chicago    Installation open 6-11pm.  Performance around 9pm.

Anna Friz: Nocturne

An intimate atmosphere of transmission inside a multi-channel array of radio receivers and micro-watt transmitters, suspended and dispersed throughout the space. The radios express nighttime respirations, radio-synthesis, and uneasy dreams. The larger array is joined by three table-top custom radio/tape players built by Hyde Park inventor George Kagan.

Nocturne will overlap in installation and performance with A Vinculum Variation by Coppice, engaging in conversation with the elements of the shared sonic landscape and the live instruments of all three performers. Anna plays free reeds, electronics, and cassettes.

Coppice: A Vinculum Variation

This presentation expands the performed-installation practice of the duo to invite conversation with adjacent sonic work.  The multichannel installation and performance accommodates motifs and materials from Vinculum, an ongoing project since 2010.  Technically, the work relies on a custom-built inductive mixing table, formerly utilized in Copse (2010).  The table redistributes the sounds of the Vinculum archive as they are played back through small speakers resting at different locations on its surface.  The installation will be elaborated in performance by the reorientation of the speakers on the table and live material related to Vinculum.

No Comments | In: installation, news, performances | tags: anna friz, Coppice, radio art, sound installation, TriTriangle. | #

Saturday night, as part of my tenure as SOCAN composer in residence at Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art here in Toronto during the month of May, I’ll be doing a live solo show:

May 4, 2013, 8pm

Artscape Wychwood Barns, NAISA Space #252, 601 Christie Street, Toronto.

Toronto-based audio artist D. Burke Mahoney is also on the bill that night.

What the cuckoo knows/collecting clocks and losing time (2013)

In a country with deep forests and high mountains cuckoo clocks make their home, nesting in trees in flocks. Once upon a time, a cuckoo clock flew away on a long and perilous journey across many zones of soft time, until one day it encountered the factory where errant robotniks manufacture atomic time.

This solo performance utilizes recordings from my late father’s collection of antique clocks, with live instrumentation of mbira, sruti box, harmonica, Tetrax, electronics, and shortwave. Originally conceived in the studios of Ö1 ORF Kunstradio, Austria. Thanks to Martin Leitner and Elisabeth Zimmermann. The radio piece will air in 5.1 in summer 2013 on ORF Kunstradio.

Sunday May 19 I’ll be back in Toronto for the Trans-X Symposium to give a keynote talk at 10:00 in the morning (hello early birds!) and perform with Kristen Roos in the evening, a live piece under the rubric of Short Horizon. We’ll have a microwave oven, some FM radios, walkie talkies, and an HF “diviner”. Catch it at 20:00, the Artscape Wychwood Barns, Theatre Direct Space, same address as above.

No Comments | In: news, performances | tags: anna friz, d burke mahoney, deep wireless festival of radio and transmission art, kristen roos, NAISA, trans-x symposium, what the cuckoo knows. | #

My little mini-tour of eclectic shows continues…  Arrived in Toronto in time to open the 12th annual Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art, New Adventures in Sound Art‘s yearly exploration of all things wireless.

Tonight: NRRF presents B Radio: Voyage to the Forbidden Planet! B Radio is an ongoing series of radio shows created by the Chicago-based NRRF crew, mashing b-list genres with radio art. Tonight the NRRF cosmo-noise-nauts venture deep into unknown territories: beyond the Van Allen Belt, demoted planetlettes, beyond the heliopause and far away en route to the Forbidden Planet. This translocal performance features yours truly here in Toronto as Ground Control, with Jonny Farrow, Stephen Germana, Jeff Kolar and Peter Speer in the away pods.

NRRF is a collaborative effort to make unlicensed neighbourhood radio. Past incarnations include Radio Free Parkdale in Toronto, NRRF for FTAA in Montreal, and The NRRF Radio Roadshow which traveled from Montreal to New York. The current Chicago-based incarnation consists of Anna Friz, Jonny Farrow, Stephen Germana, Jeff Kolar, and Peter Speer, with occasional guests.

May 1, 2013, 8pm EDST (GMT -5)

Artscape Wychwood Barns, NAISA Space #252, 601 Christie Street, Toronto ON Canada

Tune in for the live stream here.

Documentation from the NRRF B Space Station here.

Audio archive to follow shortly.

No Comments | In: news, performances | tags: anna friz, B Radio, deep wireless festival of radio and transmission art, jeff kolar, jonny farrow, NRRF Radio, peter speer, stephen germana. | #