Various Artists - Essays on Radio: Can I have 2 minutes

Crónica is proud to present: Crónica 020~2005 and Crónica 021~2005, our second compilation, and one in two volumes. This compilation comprises an audio CD + DVD release and, as merely compiling tracks is of no big interest to us (no matter how interesting the tracks may be), what we searched for was an unifying idea that could help to create a coherent collective composition, not only showcasing both the artists and the label, as well as providing the possibility for some meaningful work to be done. And though the concept of this particular release still revolves around the sound medium, we've decided to stress the media label tag a little further with a full DVD release. The dvd showcases video work specially produced for this compilation, from some of our artists and some special guests. Essays on Radio aims to comment on the sound medium, on the technology and the culture of radio. In the midst of media saturation, radio can easily end by being an overlooked medium, not only due to its lower visibility compared to most mainstream media but mostly because it is an un-visual medium. It is also one of the longer standing and of the oldest electronic media that is still alive, so the novelty factor is not a help. Radio was the first broadcast medium, as well as the first that was sound-specific and intangible. Historically, radio was the primary responsible for an awareness of sound that went beyond the strict scope of music. Radio is a saturated live medium, where much happens simultaneously. Having little or no control about the sources and the interferences during broadcast and reception turns radio into a medium where we can easily and objectively experience noise. Therefore, it was probably through radio that many first heard white noise. It was probably with a radio receiver that many first modulated noise as it was probably through radio that we experienced randomness along with the lack of control and indeterminacy. This theme was intended to provide the artists with a starting point to approach the work. Unlike we did in the previous compilation, there would be no audio sources provided to the artists beforehand. In this release, what we were looking for were not exercises on composing from shaping any given sound matter but rather on relating the musical pieces to this particular context: Radio. As a further way to coherently organize the CD, we asked all the artists to produce the pieces with a fixed duration. This symbolic length allowed us to fit work from some of the artists we released so far and a few selected guests and it also served as a strong structure binding all the compositions together. Given the fact that we are closing the 2nd year of Crónica releases, we proposed that all tracks should have the fixed duration of 2 minutes, exactly. Therefore the sub-title: Can I have two minutes of your time?


Yummy glitchy audio in a minimal vein is set to heavily effected video. A great package overall! Most of the pieces have different artists doing the video and audio - in other words the people making the music didn't make the video. The music is very sparse and, although done by many different artists, centers around pops and glitches without melody or rhythm, just hardcore experimental sounds. What makes this truly outstanding is the video element, though. These videos are sometimes computer animations, but not silly 3D images walking around in a house or anything lame like that, but simple lines drawing on similar to an old screen save, or an artistic mouse-clicking montage. Some of these make me think of the movie Tron. Other pieces use real footage, in one case video from Japan cut to the music, or another has a face bobbing around, effected in a clean manner, or one of the more outright entertainin ones of a dog and his shadow. Topping it off, one of my favorite artists, Frans de Waard, is here making an appearance with his band, Freiband. Overall, the minimal videos match perfectly with the minimal music. Nothing overdone, just clean lines with jarring music.(Don Poe)