This station depends on contributions from listeners.
WPS1 Art Radio is the Internet station of P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, a MoMA affiliate, featuring an MP3 stream of music, talk, and historical recordings and a free on-demand archive of over 1200 programs.
The soundtrack for the Art Sound Lounge was selected and compiled by David Weinstein, Managing Director of Art Radio WPS1.org
In association with the Concrete Waves project at Art Positions, Art Radio WPS1.org presents a glimpse at the turntable as musical instrument and its influential role sparking creative innovation in music from the streets of the Bronx to the ateliers of the avant garde. Since Thomas Edison's first effort in 1877 through to digital interfaces like Virtual Vinyl, the mechanical spinning disk and stylus—and the musical material they capture, preserve, and release—have endured to provide an ever expanding vocabulary for artists in sound.
Through scratching, beat matching, montage, looping, and other techniques the turntable matured to something far beyond the “sound writing machine” that Edison introduced, Alexander Graham Bell improved, Emile Berliner perfected, Pierre Schaefer re-invented, Kool Herc manipulated, Grandmaster Flash elevated... …then Marclay found Bambaataa who listened to Kraftwerk who listened to Stockhausen who heard Cage who knew Schaeffer who studied Edison…
This collection is selective and subjective in its tilt toward some of the many who challenged themselves and the common practice use of the device. Artists not included but well worth investigating are numerous and easily found along the path of the curious.
Playlist
01 Introduction by David Weinstein 01.17
Background by Otomo Yoshihide & Martin Tétreault duo from their disk, Tok.
02 Thomas A. Edison: Mary Had A Little Lamb (1877/1927) 00:17
The inventor of the phonograph demonstrates in 1927 what he said on the very first recording on his tinfoil device. The original 1877 recording was not saved and no longer exists (the tinfoil recordings could only be played back once).
03 Grandmaster Flash: The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel (1981) 06:15
This influential dance track was created using three decks (turntables) and mixes bits of Blondie, Queen, and others. Flash invented “cutting” (between duplicate disks) and was a master of the “break” (a kind of mixing solo). With the Furious Five (The Message) he was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame by Jay-Z in 2007.
04 Pierre Henry & Pierre Schaeffer: Divinitès irritèes (1962) 03:48
A segment from a score, Le Voyage, for Maurice Bèjart and an astonishing anticipation of an aesthetic for noise that has endured for decades. The two collaborators (student and mentor) emerged from the French Radio Television Network in the late forties to establish musique concrète (the montage of sound fragments).
05 DJ Afrika Bambaataa: Death Mix (1980) 08:51
DJ culture honors names like SoulSonic Force and Universal Zulu Nation which revolve around Bambaataa and his crew of rappers, MCs, DJs, graffiti artists and others working toward positive social progress. He is also a major contributor to the form as shown in this early track; considered a watershed moment, it was recorded live in a South Bronx gymnasium.
06 Philip Jeck: Lambing (2002) 04:48
The British turntable artist has established himself as an elegant and disciplined conceptualist where technique and content unfold in consort.
07 Grandwizard Theodore: Live at the Clocktower (2004) 07:22
From an interview and demonstration with Charlie Ahearn (filmmaker, Wild Style) for a show on Art Radio WPS1.org, Theodore tells the tale of his discovery of scratching in 1975 and spins some favorite tracks.
08 DJ Ghetto: Ghetto on the Cut (1995) 03:53
An extraordinary display of the new virtuosity by a scratcher from Philadelphia.
09 Pierre Schaeffer: Étude aux Chemins de Fer (1948) 02:52
The inventor of musique concrète and the first cut-up composer (loops and repeat phrases) performed early works using a bank of turntables arrayed across the stage.
10 Peanut Butter Wolf: The Chronicles (i will always love h.e.r.) (1990) 05:01
Bold California flavor from a DJ, producer, and record label owner who had worldwide success amidst tragic circumstances and continues to spin to this day embracing the style that has become known as “house.”
11 Marina Rosenfeld: Live at P.S.1 (2007) 04:58
Here in a gamelan tinged duo with Zeena Parkins (electric harp) Rosenfeld gets exacting timbres in part from her own custom vinyl pressings.
12 DJ Spooky: Synaptic Dissonance (1998) 06:09
Spooky aka Paul D. Miller is a successful recording artist who embraces both the experimental music scene and DJ culture affirming the dynamic (and centuries old) flow between high and low, insider and outsider, uptown and downtown, club and concert hall, empowered and marginalized, underwritten and underfed, and on and on…
13 Martin Tétreault & Otomo Yoshihide: Lyon No. 3/Café Myzyk (2003) 03:26
A Canadian/Japanese turntable duo in a remarkable display of tactile, dense, and detailed improvisation that merges all of the traditions and techniques of the instrument.
14 John Cage: Imaginary Landscape No. 1 (1939) 08:29
In creating this landmark piece for piano, percussion, and two variable speed turntables, Cage was perhaps the first to see this affordable household device as an instrument of great potential. And yet he uses it with restraint and profound musicality.
15 Christian Marclay: Black Stucco (1988) 03:03
Possessing some of the finest ears and most fertile musical imagination of our era, Marclay chose the phonograph as his instrument. This track was recorded live in concert at The Kitchen in New York.
16 Invisibl Skratch Piklz: Woo Hah! Come On Hit. Yeah/Whaddyawant? (1996) 04:12
An orchestrated turntablist session by the collective live in Oakland, California featuring DJs Shortkut, Q-Bert, Disk, Flare, and Shiggar Fraggar. Perhaps the most compelling example of a link between Schaeffer, Bambaataa, and Marclay.
17 Otomo Yoshihide: Handmade Generator (2007) 01:33
A master on the contemporary avant garde scene, Otomo can be brutal. Here he displays his pinpoint delicacy.
18 Massimo Simonini: Salta Angelina 3 (2005) 02:05
An Italian composer/performer who now uses a theremin as his primary instrument, Simonini discovered that a neighbor’s turntable, perched on a precarious shelf, bounced when you walked nearby causing a tremolo effect. This is one of a series of audio documents he made onsite.
19 Edison Vaudeville Company: Three Rubes Seeing New York (1907) 02:06
Early recordings were duplicated on cylinders made of various composites using a wax base. This one appeared on an Edison Gold Moulded cylinder.
20 Pierre Henry & Pierre Schaeffer: Souffle 1 (1962) 07:12
A flawless construction and a perfect conclusion to soothe and stimulate
Christopher Lew interviews Pamela Auchincloss, director of Artist Pension Trust and the editor of Artkrush, Paul Auster, at Art Basel Miami Beach 2007.
One of the principal members of Assume Vivid Astro Focus and Ian Vanek of Japanther sit down with David Weinstein and Tony Guerrero during Art Basel Miami Beach 2007.
Tim Goossens interviews Bianca and Sierra, the two sisters that make up Cocorosie at Art Basel Miami Beach 2007. Bianca also speaks about opening a gallery in Paris.
Christopher Lew speaks with the creators of the intervention/installation called Boxtown Miami, co-founders of Secret Project Robot Gallery Rachel Nelson and Eric Zajaceskowski.
Christopher Lew interviews Stuart Comer, film curator at the Tate Modern, and video collector and guru Christopher Hughes at Art Basel Miami Beach 2007.
Tony Guerrero interviews Brett Littman and Joao Ribas of The Drawing Center and Carter Foster, the Whitney's drawings curator, at Art Basel Miami Beach 2007.
Art Radio's Andrea Heiss rounded up Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard whose Silent Sound installation was one of the delights found in the containers at Art Positions during Art Basel Miami Beach 2007.
Christopher Lew interviews two artist/skateboarders, Chris Johanson and Steve Powers, alongside the P.S.1 mini-ramp installation at Art Basel Miami Beach 2007.
