Techno Memory 00002 (Radio Listener)

Bernhard Living - Techno Memory 00002 (Radio Listener)

Varvara was listening to the crystal radio set that her father, Aleksandr Rodchenko, had made for her tenth birthday, and while being simple in design, the little radio is capable of exploring a vast world of sound [1]. Varvara was listening to not only music, but was also absorbed in the many different sound and noises of short-wave radio static, immersed in a technological resonance of atmospherics and sun-bursts, totally lost in these unmusical yet otherworldly sounds. There was a mystery to these noises that entirely captivated her. Varvara continues listening to the radio, turning the dial, first hearing some Beethoven, the Pastoral Symphony, which she quickly recognises, then a fragment of distorted speech, and then white noise which oscillates with a sine tone. She eventually finds a station that’s broadcasting Kurzwellen by Karlheinz Stockhausen [2] [3] [4]. There are electronic pulses and bursts of noise, sound textures that she’d never heard before. Varvara loves this music of the future, of a time that is different from hers, but it’s something that she feels part of in some way. Her father always encouraged her to think about the future, and he would say, ‘the future is our goal’, and here she is, listening to it right now, right here in her own time, in her parents Moscow apartment. The short-wave static sounds used by Stockhausen join her from the future - existence through noise and sound, through transmissions and bursts of electrical energy being heard on a crystal radio. While she’s sitting there, the sounds of Kurzwellen continue to pervade her thoughts - thoughts of shimmering sound and ethereal noises.

Notes

[1] Radio Listener https://artblart.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/rodtschenko_8-web.jpg Accessed: 04.10.2015

[2] Kurzwellen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kurzwellen Accessed: 04.10.2015

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF1EB5I1-fo Accessed: 04.10.2015

[4] http://www.stockhausencds.com/Stockhausen_Edition_CD13.htm Accessed: 04.10.2015

[5] http://www.bernhard-living.net/techno.memories/techno.memory.00002.html