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 Resonance104.4fmActivity report, 2005-2007
Edited version of a report to the European Cultural Foundation, Spring 2007
RADIO ART
In the area of “radio art’ which Resonance has made its own, there was progress
in the realisation of projects by the Resonance Radio Orchestra, which had beensupported in the previous year by the Gulbenkian and Moose foundations. TheOrchestral pool now numbers fifty performers, comprising musicians, soundengineers and actors. The instrumentation includes laptop, tinnitus analyser,vibraphone and harmonium, as well as more predictable instruments. Workswere commissioned from a dozen composers including Veryan Weston, BenDrew, James Dunn, Alfredo Genovesi, Andy Keep and Lewis Gibson. Theregular performers, in typical Resonance fashion, ranged from a 15 year oldbass-recorder playing schoolboy to a 75 year old actress. The actor AlastairMcGowan joined the Orchestra for a performance at the London WetlandsCentre as part of the First International Pestival, a science and arts conventiondedicated to insects. Elsewhere, actors Nabil Shaban (Doctor Who) Tam DeanBurn (River City, Tutti Frutti), Helena Stevens (Inspector Morse) and Lembit OpikMP offered their services for free. Concerts were presented at the Roundhouse,Dragon Hall, Conway Hall, the ICA and the Wetlands Centre. International
interest was indicated by the fact that one piece, “The Arthur Cravan MemorialBoxing Match” (a group composition by eight of the core players), was awarded a
Special Nomination by Mexi
co’s Radio Educacion prestigious international radio
-art competition.
 
Station manager Knut Aufermann had left the station in February 2005 to travel
on the continent with his epic “Mobile Radio” project. He had helped establish the“Radia” network and now
took the Resonance aesthetic to radio broadcasters allover Western Europe. He was also instrumental in securing EU funding for a
“Radia” intervention by Resonance FM, which featured the Resonance Radio
Orchestra under the direction of James Dunn alongside artists Loris Gréaud(commissioned to make a new work by Anna Colin), Willem de Ridder, JimWhelton and Xper.Xr, in a live radio event at the ICA.
Through such interventions, we feel that we have partially located “radio art” as a
phenomenon that will gain currency in the near future. Already we find that withinthe lifetime of Resonance FM, such institutions as the Frieze Art Fair and TateModern are prepared to commission radio works alongside visual, sculptural andinstallation pieces; while through se
ries such as “Radio Gallery” (realised by the
young curator Anna Colin for Resonance in 2006), we have also expanded thenotion of what visual artists can achieve with radio as a medium.
SHOWS OF NOTE
Various shows reported significant developments symptomatic of the entireschedule, which featured 150 diverse programmes: here are some of theirreports.
 
“The Bike Show” was featured in an article in Momentum Magazine. The show’s
podcast is highly ranked and downloaded by listeners worldwide a couple ofthousand times each week. The Bike Show continues to be syndicated by CKDU,a radio station in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The show has continued to air diverseepisodes featuring writers, poets, artists, musicians, sportsmen andphilosophers.For the past year
the “Nostalgie Ya Mboka” show promoted a series of free live
shows at the prestigious Momo's club in Central London. This included the debutperformance of Konono 1er (winners of 2006 BBC World Muzak awards - bestnew band), Kanda Bongo Man, Odemba OK, Dominic Kakolobango and LokuaKanza plus a host of others. It also created a badly needed live space for African
music in Central London. The “Londres Na Biso” show significantly ran the
Telephone Trottoire project which fused cutting edge modern technology withtraditional methods of communication to create a badly needed forum fordialogue on refugee life and experience of living in London.Programme maker Alex Fitch did a show in the series "I'm ready for my close-up"on The Cinema Museum in Lambeth, holding a community event encouragingpeople to share their old films and project treasures from the attic. Plus a show inJanuary about an American charity that protects freedom of speech and anothershow last August about local film clubs in London boroughs that provide a place
for people to see rare films not shown at the cinema. The show’s podcasts eachget between 50 and 100 downloads a week and Alex’s blog with information
about "I'm ready for my close-up" gets around 40 hits a day. The show featuredinterviews with Terry Pratchett, Nigel Planer, David Jason, Alan Moore, BryanTalbot, Pat Mills and Kim Newman. The series featured programmes on theLesbian & Gay Film Festival and also covered a community's backlash to theclosing of their local video shop (which got the show mentioned on their GreenParty councillor's blog: greenladywell.blogspot.com).
Six other community radio stations in the UK rebroadcast “The Two DegreesShow.” Twelve other community radio stations in the UK are rebroadcasting “The
Low
Carbon Show.” The shows’ climateradio.co.uk archive gets 1000 downloads
per month .The programme is picked up internationally through the Radio4Allportal (by stations in Berkley and Alaska, amongst others). Guests have includedEnvironment Secretary David Milliband, Caroline Lucas MEP, George Monbiot,Professor John Schellnhuber (Chief Advisor on Climate Change to the GermanGovernment) and David Griggs (director, Hadley Centre).
The “Pestival” in May 2006 was a major community event produced by Bridget
N
ichols (the “Creature Curious” show) and Mark Pilkington (the ”StrangeAttractor” series) with assistant manager Max O’Brien. Devoted to insects and
art, it brought in over 10,000 people and arose as a direct result of Resonancebringing like minds together and facilitating creative development. Bridget Nicholsalso made her first archive documentary for BBC Radio 4 in September 2006 as
a direct result of being seen doing a Resonance live show; and Max O’Brienassisted her on a trip to Jersey with the BBC’s
Ariane Koek.
The programme “Fikarummet” was featured on the Swedish Radio P4 in October 
2006. P4 is the biggest and most popular public service station (part of SR) in
of 00

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