https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pushing-the-envelopes--4732975enMusicCopyright firefly frequencieshttps://d3wo5wojvuv7l.cloudfront.net/t_rss_itunes_square_1400/images.spreaker.com/original/a96dc7cc7a8eef75a6ab78fea469aae6.jpghttps://www.spreaker.com/podcast/pushing-the-envelopes--4732975Wed, 20 Aug 2025 17:44:31 +0000firefly frequenciesfirefly frequenciesfeeds@spreaker.comPushing the Envelopes is an ongoing series featuring experiments in contemporary music by composers and improvisers from around the globe who offer Firefly Frequencies pieces and processes that insouciantly steal across borders between genres,...cleanepisodichttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e14-wander-steps-pascale-criton--54154464for two microtonal accordions played by the duo XAMP (Fanny Vicens and Jean-Etienne Sotty), 2018

“Wander Steps is based on the interaction of two quarter-tone accordions. The instrumental playing involves the production of tiny differences carefully modulated by ear in course of the live performance by the accordionists. The sought-after interferences (beats, resultant tones, difference tones) generate certain acoustic phenomena sensitive to the response of the space and controllable through modes of playing.”
Pascale Criton

http://www.pascalecriton.com/en/biography]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/54154464Fri, 09 Jun 2023 13:02:14 +0000firefly frequenciesWander Steps (Pascale Criton) for two microtonal accordions played by the duo XAMP (Fanny Vicens and Jean-Etienne Sotty), 2018 “Wander Steps is based on the interaction of two quarter-tone accordions. The instrumental playing involves the production...for two microtonal accordions played by the duo XAMP (Fanny Vicens and Jean-Etienne Sotty), 2018

“Wander Steps is based on the interaction of two quarter-tone accordions. The instrumental playing involves the production of tiny differences carefully modulated by ear in course of the live performance by the accordionists. The sought-after interferences (beats, resultant tones, difference tones) generate certain acoustic phenomena sensitive to the response of the space and controllable through modes of playing.”
Pascale Criton

http://www.pascalecriton.com/en/biography]]>722cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e13-horizontal-drift-chris-trapani--54062938
http://christophertrapani.com/wordpresssite/]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/54062938Thu, 01 Jun 2023 08:02:36 +0000firefly frequenciesLike the slowly shifting topography of the city of New Orleans, Horizontal Drift stretches in two dimensions. The first is in the domain of pitch, where an altered fretboard gives the possibility of quarter-tone gradations. Second, in the realm of...
http://christophertrapani.com/wordpresssite/]]>751cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e12-benjamin-thigpen--53947403∇ was recorded live in concert at the Concordia University Hexagram Black Box, in Montréal, on 1 March 2015. The ensemble of compressed air instruments, Plateforme, was invented and developed by Jean-François Laporte. Plateforme consists of 2 Pipes, 8 Telescopic Tu-Yos, 10 Vibrating Membranes and 18 Overtone Flutes. All the parameters of the acoustic instruments and the real-time processing were controlled via computer by the composer.
Benjamin Thigpen

Commissioned by Productions Totem Contemporain, 2015
Duration : 21’ 39''

https://electrocd.com/en/artiste/thigpen_be/benjamin-thigpen/biographie]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/53947403Sun, 21 May 2023 09:09:07 +0000firefly frequencies∇ (nabla) is a mathematical operator which describes certain global characteristics of a field or region. ∇ may denote the direction and magnitude of the greatest rate of increase (gradient); the tendency to converge toward or repel from a point...∇ was recorded live in concert at the Concordia University Hexagram Black Box, in Montréal, on 1 March 2015. The ensemble of compressed air instruments, Plateforme, was invented and developed by Jean-François Laporte. Plateforme consists of 2 Pipes, 8 Telescopic Tu-Yos, 10 Vibrating Membranes and 18 Overtone Flutes. All the parameters of the acoustic instruments and the real-time processing were controlled via computer by the composer.
Benjamin Thigpen

Commissioned by Productions Totem Contemporain, 2015
Duration : 21’ 39''

https://electrocd.com/en/artiste/thigpen_be/benjamin-thigpen/biographie]]>1305cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e11-raag-bhairav-keshav-mohta--45185740
Keshav Mohta inquires into the power of sound to influence the fabric of consciousness. He is interested in the re-construction of indian ragas (melodic structures) from an embodied state of meditative presence. His music on the veena, an ancient indian classical instrument, probes into the nuances of the micro notes (shruti) and on the subsequent creation of an aesthetic flavour.

For more information on his work:
www.dharmayog.co.in]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/45185740Sun, 06 Jun 2021 13:49:17 +0000firefly frequenciesRaag Bhairav (Saraswati Veena) Keshav Mohta inquires into the power of sound to influence the fabric of consciousness. He is interested in the re-construction of indian ragas (melodic structures) from an embodied state of meditative presence. His...
Keshav Mohta inquires into the power of sound to influence the fabric of consciousness. He is interested in the re-construction of indian ragas (melodic structures) from an embodied state of meditative presence. His music on the veena, an ancient indian classical instrument, probes into the nuances of the micro notes (shruti) and on the subsequent creation of an aesthetic flavour.

For more information on his work:
www.dharmayog.co.in]]>1045cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e10-the-pulsating-waves-haarvol-with-xoan-xil-lopez--44732895
Haarvöl’s three permanent members — Fernando José Pereira, João Faria, and Rui Manuel Vieira — collaborate with Xoán-Xil López, a Galician sound artistic working on field recording and experimental music. Haarvöl develops cinematic soundscapes, with analogue or digital sound sources weaved in complex and detailed compositions.

The Pulsating Waves (Reality)
Pulse tone waves are frequencies embodied in a pulsar that is at the same time decisive for all humans and, metaphorically, for the revolution. Feeling the pulse of events, of agitation, of breaking, is essential for the revolutionary moment. It is this kind of continuous auscultation that determines success or, rather, the inversion of the whole emancipatory movement in the process of pragmatic transfiguration which, by obvious ineffectiveness, becomes implosive. The pulsations of events thus assert themselves as a decisive engine, and yet, in the face of the weakening of the utopian drive in its inevitable collision with reality, everything changes. The passage from one moment to the other brings with it the presence of the now and the consequent structural modifications that the utopian impossibility needs to maintain itself as an emancipatory impulse. It will then be in the programmatic transfiguration of the revolutionary event that its pulsation is played, more or less strong, but never absent. The decisive clash also affirms the reality, stripped of all the romantic drive that forms the revolutionary utopia. The fracture induces realism, and this is never the dreamed face of emancipation. We are told in the last book of the Invisible Committee that “All the reasons for making a revolution are there. There is none missing. The wreck of politics, the arrogance of the powerful, the reign of the false, the vulgarity of the rich, the cataclysms of industry, rampant misery, naked exploitation, the ecological apocalypse ... do not deprive us of anything, not even being informed of this. ‘Climate: 2016 beats record of heat’ says Le Monde in its main title, now already like almost every year. All the reasons are met, but not the reasons that make revolutions; are the bodies. And the bodies are in front of the screens.” Right.

https://haarvol.bandcamp.com/
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/unwritten-rules-of-a-ceaseless-journey]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/44732895Mon, 10 May 2021 10:55:06 +0000firefly frequenciesHailing from Porto, Haarvöl are a group operating in the best tradition of ensembles such as Morphogenesis, Double Leopards, 3/4 Had been Eliminated and the Starving Weirdos between textured drones, noise, electro-acoustic experimentation and...
Haarvöl’s three permanent members — Fernando José Pereira, João Faria, and Rui Manuel Vieira — collaborate with Xoán-Xil López, a Galician sound artistic working on field recording and experimental music. Haarvöl develops cinematic soundscapes, with analogue or digital sound sources weaved in complex and detailed compositions.

The Pulsating Waves (Reality)
Pulse tone waves are frequencies embodied in a pulsar that is at the same time decisive for all humans and, metaphorically, for the revolution. Feeling the pulse of events, of agitation, of breaking, is essential for the revolutionary moment. It is this kind of continuous auscultation that determines success or, rather, the inversion of the whole emancipatory movement in the process of pragmatic transfiguration which, by obvious ineffectiveness, becomes implosive. The pulsations of events thus assert themselves as a decisive engine, and yet, in the face of the weakening of the utopian drive in its inevitable collision with reality, everything changes. The passage from one moment to the other brings with it the presence of the now and the consequent structural modifications that the utopian impossibility needs to maintain itself as an emancipatory impulse. It will then be in the programmatic transfiguration of the revolutionary event that its pulsation is played, more or less strong, but never absent. The decisive clash also affirms the reality, stripped of all the romantic drive that forms the revolutionary utopia. The fracture induces realism, and this is never the dreamed face of emancipation. We are told in the last book of the Invisible Committee that “All the reasons for making a revolution are there. There is none missing. The wreck of politics, the arrogance of the powerful, the reign of the false, the vulgarity of the rich, the cataclysms of industry, rampant misery, naked exploitation, the ecological apocalypse ... do not deprive us of anything, not even being informed of this. ‘Climate: 2016 beats record of heat’ says Le Monde in its main title, now already like almost every year. All the reasons are met, but not the reasons that make revolutions; are the bodies. And the bodies are in front of the screens.” Right.

https://haarvol.bandcamp.com/
https://cronica.bandcamp.com/album/unwritten-rules-of-a-ceaseless-journey]]>907cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e09-antares-natacha-muslera--43790730
Voix improvisées : Christine Shaller et Natacha Muslera
Lecture & composition Natacha Mulsera
Texte: Le poids du ciel de Jean Giono]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/43790730Mon, 08 Mar 2021 15:35:53 +0000firefly frequenciesEnregistrement à partir du texte "Le poids du ciel" de Jean Giono dans la minuscule chapelle de Boussac Bourg, lors du deuxième confinement en Novembre 2020. Voix improvisées : Christine Shaller et Natacha Muslera Lecture & composition Natacha...
Voix improvisées : Christine Shaller et Natacha Muslera
Lecture & composition Natacha Mulsera
Texte: Le poids du ciel de Jean Giono]]>553cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e08-radio-schreber-richard-crow--43571334
"Radio Schreber, Soliloquies for Schizophonic voices" investigated the recurring theme of 'hearing voices' in sonic and literary works by paying homage to Daniel Paul Schreber's "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" (Denkwürdigkeiten einen Nervenkranken). Written at Sonnenstein Public asylum and published in 1903, the Memoirs detail and map an alternate delusional world.
For the centenary of Schreber's death, this sound performance gives voice to Schreber's visionary text through a specially created composition that premiered at the Freud Museum, London. As a continuation of his project "Imaginary Hospital Radio", Richard Crow explores a sonic tableaux of phantasmic and disembodied voices embedded in the text as well as in its physical and imaginary locations inhabited by Schreber.

A performance curated by Lucia Farinati with the assistance of Rita Correddu
Recorded and engineered by Colin Potter of Nurse with Wound

Live electronics, sound objects, tapes, live sound mix: Richard Crow
Phantasmic voices of Radio Schreber: Richard Crow, Gabriel Séverin, Anna Teresa Scheer, Nick Couldry, Adam Bohman, Douglas Park and others who remain obscure and unknown...

https://institution-of-rot.org/]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/43571334Sun, 21 Feb 2021 18:37:57 +0000firefly frequenciesRADIO SCHREBER, SOLILOQUIES FOR SCHIZOPHONIC VOICES "Radio Schreber, Soliloquies for Schizophonic voices" investigated the recurring theme of 'hearing voices' in sonic and literary works by paying homage to Daniel Paul Schreber's "Memoirs of My...
"Radio Schreber, Soliloquies for Schizophonic voices" investigated the recurring theme of 'hearing voices' in sonic and literary works by paying homage to Daniel Paul Schreber's "Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" (Denkwürdigkeiten einen Nervenkranken). Written at Sonnenstein Public asylum and published in 1903, the Memoirs detail and map an alternate delusional world.
For the centenary of Schreber's death, this sound performance gives voice to Schreber's visionary text through a specially created composition that premiered at the Freud Museum, London. As a continuation of his project "Imaginary Hospital Radio", Richard Crow explores a sonic tableaux of phantasmic and disembodied voices embedded in the text as well as in its physical and imaginary locations inhabited by Schreber.

A performance curated by Lucia Farinati with the assistance of Rita Correddu
Recorded and engineered by Colin Potter of Nurse with Wound

Live electronics, sound objects, tapes, live sound mix: Richard Crow
Phantasmic voices of Radio Schreber: Richard Crow, Gabriel Séverin, Anna Teresa Scheer, Nick Couldry, Adam Bohman, Douglas Park and others who remain obscure and unknown...

https://institution-of-rot.org/]]>2469cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e07-ghost-seijiro-murayama--42933440
The parenthetic givens of "Ghost" are somewhat of a provocation. How exactly can one stay "alone" in a room given also that one has a whole drum kit for company? Questions of co-existence (of musician and instrument, sound and its absence, rhythm and interval, action, event and process, sounding, playing and listening) abound in Seijiro Murayama's improvisations, where each sonic gesture or statement engages in the construction of a problem that unfolds along multiple timescales. Not only how to be alone (together) in the room but how to make room for each other (a problem that extends to the individual components of the kit and the sounds they make) in terms of the potential of each for expression or its withdrawal, provocation, conversation, connection certainly but interleaved with moments of mute cohabitation in which what is felt is neither one nor the other but the making room itself.

https://urojiise.wixsite.com/seijiromurayama]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/42933440Thu, 14 Jan 2021 15:24:15 +0000firefly frequenciesGhost (Given: 1, a drum kit, 2. a room for staying alone) The parenthetic givens of "Ghost" are somewhat of a provocation. How exactly can one stay "alone" in a room given also that one has a whole drum kit for company? Questions of co-existence (of...
The parenthetic givens of "Ghost" are somewhat of a provocation. How exactly can one stay "alone" in a room given also that one has a whole drum kit for company? Questions of co-existence (of musician and instrument, sound and its absence, rhythm and interval, action, event and process, sounding, playing and listening) abound in Seijiro Murayama's improvisations, where each sonic gesture or statement engages in the construction of a problem that unfolds along multiple timescales. Not only how to be alone (together) in the room but how to make room for each other (a problem that extends to the individual components of the kit and the sounds they make) in terms of the potential of each for expression or its withdrawal, provocation, conversation, connection certainly but interleaved with moments of mute cohabitation in which what is felt is neither one nor the other but the making room itself.

https://urojiise.wixsite.com/seijiromurayama]]>1256cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e06-chaos-in-order-nonpluss--42913657https://api.spreaker.com/episode/42913657Wed, 13 Jan 2021 09:53:07 +0000firefly frequenciesChaos in Order is a piece that documents the results of a chance encounter between a guitar, a recently vacated fishbowl, a padded envelope, various kitchen utensils and a laptop.1206cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e05-the-milky-way-phil-kline--42707133
"Unsilent Night" is a free, mobile outdoor sound sculpture in which the audience members are also the performers, carrying the music played on boomboxes or smart phones. Phil Kline created it in 1992 as a sort of Christmas Caroling party for his friends. Since then it has become an international event with 40 or more cities participating each year.

http://unsilentnight.com/index.html]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/42707133Tue, 29 Dec 2020 16:45:40 +0000firefly frequenciesIn what has become a cult tradition, Phil Kline goes "electronic caroling" through the streets of Greenwich Village with a parade of boomboxes. Kline creates a euphoric blend of other-worldly voices and bells. For Firefly Frequencies Phil has proposed...
"Unsilent Night" is a free, mobile outdoor sound sculpture in which the audience members are also the performers, carrying the music played on boomboxes or smart phones. Phil Kline created it in 1992 as a sort of Christmas Caroling party for his friends. Since then it has become an international event with 40 or more cities participating each year.

http://unsilentnight.com/index.html]]>582cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e04-radioamateurensemble-a01-anton-kats--42257769
First version of the Radio Amateur Ensemble, arising anew in different contexts and locations, is a collaboration with musicians Cole Pulice, Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, and Patrick Marschke. Developed in conversation with ham radio operators Dan Fish (call sign KB0XC) and Scott Woelm (call sign WX0V). R.A.E. invites the wider audience to take part in the ongoing dialogue exploring amateur radio as a sonic strategy and a tool manifesting new social constellations, networks and organisms.
Translating research findings sonically and rhythmically during the duration of the project, the compositions developed by the Radio Amateur Ensemble are performed and recorded live during several public events in an open studio working environment.

Releasing the recordings on a limited edition 7-inch vinyl marks a dynamic reference point for the Radio Amateur Ensemble allowing for it to be taken up and carried out in other contexts and beyond the specificity of the Minneapolises Skyway System]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/42257769Tue, 01 Dec 2020 13:22:55 +0000firefly frequenciesRadio Amateur Ensemble is a process-based work initiated by an artist Anton Kats in 2019. The project explores Minneapolis’s ham radio enthusiast community, taking the sonic, social, and technological aspects of ham radio communication as a starting...
First version of the Radio Amateur Ensemble, arising anew in different contexts and locations, is a collaboration with musicians Cole Pulice, Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, and Patrick Marschke. Developed in conversation with ham radio operators Dan Fish (call sign KB0XC) and Scott Woelm (call sign WX0V). R.A.E. invites the wider audience to take part in the ongoing dialogue exploring amateur radio as a sonic strategy and a tool manifesting new social constellations, networks and organisms.
Translating research findings sonically and rhythmically during the duration of the project, the compositions developed by the Radio Amateur Ensemble are performed and recorded live during several public events in an open studio working environment.

Releasing the recordings on a limited edition 7-inch vinyl marks a dynamic reference point for the Radio Amateur Ensemble allowing for it to be taken up and carried out in other contexts and beyond the specificity of the Minneapolises Skyway System]]>302cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e03-six-liters-algi-mast-ilyich--42257550Embracing cosmism as a sonic strategy capable of recapturing collective urban imagination, the sculpture creates a ritualistic space reacting to the gradually unfolding changes in light and motion, and can be activated by the visitors. Emphasizing music as a momentary experience lived through interventions and social interactions the performance introduces a series of compositions developed specifically for the event and responding to the question: How can live electronic music transport a complex and dynamic content that can be simply accessed and shared by others?]]>https://api.spreaker.com/episode/42257550Tue, 01 Dec 2020 13:11:48 +0000firefly frequenciesILYICH is a semi-fictional alter ego of an artist Anton Kats and his electronic music project. Drawing on the correlation between neon street signs and night club electronic music the sculpture refers to a sign-language gesture "and" prioritising it...Embracing cosmism as a sonic strategy capable of recapturing collective urban imagination, the sculpture creates a ritualistic space reacting to the gradually unfolding changes in light and motion, and can be activated by the visitors. Emphasizing music as a momentary experience lived through interventions and social interactions the performance introduces a series of compositions developed specifically for the event and responding to the question: How can live electronic music transport a complex and dynamic content that can be simply accessed and shared by others?]]>281cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e02-variazioni-su-musica-da-camera-di-a-caprioli-marco-bertoni--42111748https://api.spreaker.com/episode/42111748Mon, 23 Nov 2020 12:17:06 +0000firefly frequenciesMARCO BERTONI is the keyboard player from the Italian band Confusional Quartet.1485cleanfullhttps://www.spreaker.com/episode/e01-solo-at-matthauskirche-anton-ponomarev--42111732https://api.spreaker.com/episode/42111732Mon, 23 Nov 2020 12:14:03 +0000firefly frequenciesBlaupiksu is a solo piece by Anton Ponomarev, a moscow-based experimental jazz musician. Blaupiksu was written for flugelhorn and recorded in Matthäuskirche in Basel (Switzerland) on January 7th, 2019. Anton says: I had several concerts in Switzerland...1458cleanfull