Resonance FM
London based Resonance FM, ‘the world’s first radio art station’ came to Void during the 2013 City of Culture celebrations; the station built mobile performance space, trained individuals within communities and broadcast live from Derry to Derry and from Derry to the station’s half a million listeners in London. Resonance FM and Void will collaborate with international artists and the people of Derry to deliver a programme of radio broadcasts, workshops and performances that showcase the creativity, history and concerns of the city.
“We wanted to provide an alternative to the universal formula of mainstream broadcasting”, says Ed Baxter, one of Resonance’s founders, “a laboratory for wild experimentation that’s available to the widest possible range of practitioners, no matter who they are. Our policy is hospitality, inviting differing perspectives that really reflect the complexity of Derry as the crossroads of ideology, opinion and society.” Many of the Derry shows will be ‘uncategorisable’ forays into the unknown that stretch listeners’ boundaries, summon unexpected genius and occasionally confuse the hell out of you.
“If you don’t like what you hear, send us an email and do it better,’ Baxter says. ‘Everyone should do a radio programme at least once in their life. It’s like punk rock.”
The Resonance FM @ Void project was co-curated by Ed Baxter, founder of Resonance FM, and Declan Sheehan of Void. The vehicle for this project is a mobile studio, built to specification in London by Resonance FM. Contained within the studio was everything needed to facilitate the creative aspirations of a combined Resonance and Derry production team and the people of Derry. It served as a portal between the different parts of the city of Derry, between Derry and London, between London and the rest of the world. As well as negotiating the physical space between London and Derry and within, the mobile studio will create the context in which participants can explore conceptual spaces, bridging gaps and building networks in their thinking through discussions, performances and workshops.
At various locations throughout the Derry area, Resonance FM held live performances, accounts of local histories, live scratch orchestra performances by the Resonance Radio Orchestra composed of new members from Derry, broadcasts that imagined the world without the people of Derry, broadcasts that include its workers, children, citizens, artists, musicians, thinkers, and writers. A series of commissions, all specific to Derry, of radiophonic art, oral history, experimental music, and those political and artistic voices who are under the radar of the mainstream airwaves, were premiered during Resonance FM’s residency at Void Gallery as part of Derry-Londonderry City of Culture 2013.
A blog was created specifically for the project.
The mobile studio was used for live broadcasts from Derry for four hours a day (from 10am – 1 and from 8 – 9pm, Monday – Friday).
Commissioned projects included:
- Saturday 19 October at 7.30pm In The Dark Nina Garthwaite’s acclaimed radio salon comes to Northern Ireland for the first time, presenting audio treats and radio features, curated by Belfast-based producers Conor Garrett and Rachel Hooper in conversation with ITD Director Nina Garthwaite. Cottage in the Craft Village
- Friday 25 October 8pm TBC Keith Rowe and John Tilbury Unique Northern Ireland concert by two of the world’s leading sonic experimentalists. Nerve Centre, 7-8 Magazine Street BT48 6HJ
- Saturday 26 October noon Bob and Roberta Smith Make Your Own Damn Flag: an all day workshop in art and empowerment by the prolific and prodigious Art Party founder, broadcaster and painter. Void, Patrick Street BT48 7EL
- Saturday 2 November 8pm Oscillatorial Binnage London’s most radical noise quartet in concert, comprising Fari Bradley (Sound & Music “Embedded” artist in residence), Toby Clarkson (Show Flat), Chris Weaver (Howlround, Resonance Radio Orchestra) and Dan Wilson (Meadow House, Arts Foundation Electro-Acoustic Composition Award winner).
- Saturday 9 November 7.30pm Liliane Lijn: Crossing Map live As part of Women of the World Festival, Resonance FM presents the live premiere of a radiophonic realisation of Liliane Lijn’s gravity defying song cycle “Crossing Map,” in collaboration with Sharon Gal. Commission supported by The Jerwood Charitable Foundation. The Playhouse Theatre, 5-7 Artillery Street BT48 6RG