Rain Motors: magnetic motion - remix for Radius is an alternate radio version of Absolute Value of Noise’s (Peter Courtemanche) new audio release that features ELF recordings of various motor systems - modified film projector, electric bicycle, transit bus, rain motors, and solar engines.

The album features recordings of magnetic radiation from various motor systems, and Courtemanche used his ELF preamp and a collection of different coils and antennae.

Some of the motors are recorded from afar with his large bicycle wheel antenna (this is an antenna system that he uses in performances); some are recorded up close using smaller wheel antennas (1 foot) while some have coils wrapped around the motors themselves.

(1) Eiki ELF (April 2015): a modified Eiki 16mm film projector updated with a DC brushless motor and a DC lamp. Courtemanche originally recorded the “Eiki RT-0 Modernized” for a piece for Musique Concrète goes to the Movies - a compilation released on June 20, 2015.

(2) Crystallite (April 2015): riding/driving around town on his electric bicycle with an old 500 Watt Crystallite hub motor. This was recorded while trucking up a steep hill from 8th Avenue to 11th on the Ontario Street bicycle route in Vancouver.

(3) Number 25 Bus (August 2008 / May 2015): sitting at the back of the bus recording acceleration and deceleration. This is a diesel bus that runs past his house. The engine is at the back under the floor-boards. He imagines that the antenna is picking up the firing of the spark-plugs and whatever other electronic signals are flying about when the bus pulls away from the stop.

(4) Rain Motors (October 2015 .. had to wait for the rainy season .. too much sun this summer!): the ELF sounds from his “rain-powered” pager motor + bamboo resonator installation piece - Rain Stick. He wrapped tiny coils around a set of pager motors, then wired them up to his “rain-powered” circuits and stuck them out the window. The ELF signal is so quiet that there’s a fair amount of white noise, which sounds a bit like rain.

(5) Solar Engines (January 2016 .. hanging out the window on a rare sunny day): a solar engine is a type of circuit that stores up little bits of energy until it has a large charge, then it releases all of its energy in a short burst - typically to spin a motor or drive some other power-hungry device. In this case, Courtemanche hooked up a few circuits to some DC motors and recorded the (mostly) short bursts of action. - Reprinted from http://theradius.us/