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Langue Etude, Couch, and Ruby (Audio)

Nov 26, 2019
Created by Susan Stone (1985-1993). Introduced by Karen Werner.
American radio artist Susan Stone produced these three short pieces between 1985-1993. Stone had her start in radio at WBAI in NYC in 1979 producing a radio show called Radio Schizophonia with fellow radio artist Gregory Whitehead. Susan Stone was involved for many years with Pacifica Radio KPFA-FM in Berkley California. These days Susan works in restorative justice with youth offenders. The first of these three short pieces by Stone is a one I love called Langue Etude, which is two minutes long. Don’t be fooled by the short length of the piece; it is one that stays with you and has been influential in radio art circles. The piece conveys, among many things, the literal and metaphoric meanings of cutting tape. And the piece just makes me laugh! Susan Stone’s Couch is a stunning and spare radio drama and shows how much can be done in a radio art short in terms of bringing us into a new world. Stone explains that her pieces Langue Etude and Couch started as experimental “bits of ‘house furnishings’” in her longer 1985 work, House with a View. She adds, “Then in the following years I took the entire house apart to see what might be done differently with certain segments, especially for performance venues and broadcast.” Susan Stone’s Ruby is three minutes long and, as with Susan Stone’s other shorts, takes us far in a short time span. The piece showcases extraordinary writing, character development, acting, and editing. - Introduced by Wave Farm Radio Artist Fellow 2019/2020, Karen Werner.