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WGXC Morning Show: L.M. Ramsey & Kalas Liebfried's "HYPERACID" for Radio Amnion; Rensselaer County Jail Protest (Audio)

May 05, 2023

In the 9 a.m. hour, we are pleased to present L.M. Ramsey & Kalas Liebfried's HYPERACID, the most recent composition for Radio Amnion: Sonic Transmissions of Care in Oceanic Space, which is a multi-year sound art project for the waters of Earth, organized by artist Jol Thoms. Plus, on Tuesday, May 2, there was a rally at the Rensselaer County Jail calling for "Dignity Not Detention," and calling attention to the poor and abusive conditions facing people held in the jail, and demanding that this facility end its program with ICE. Sina Basila Hickey reported for WOOC.

Write Ramsey and Liebfried, "In Tom Mustill’s novel How to Speak Whale, he points out ‘..it was Katy Payne who led the way in showing that the songs sung by whales are constantly changing – something that is unusual for singing animals.’ HYPERACID is an ancestral anthology of whale vocalisations assembled from archival hydrophone recordings collected between the years 1940-2000. The combined sounds are linear, with the recordings from the 1940s playing for the first minute, followed by the 1950s, and so on, until we reach the year 2000 at the six minute mark. These generational vocalisations are united to the backdrop of an orchestra tuning their instruments, until they are existing as many individuals not separated by time, but all at once, in tune.

Since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the concentration of carbon dioxide has risen significantly, causing a shift in the pH of the ocean, resulting in acidification. This shift has had an impact on many living organisms. Shell builders like oysters and corals for example, have had a hard time finding enough carbonate ions to maintain their calcium based structures. Recent scientific conversation amongst humans has hypothesised that ocean acidification has impacted how sound propagates through the water. The amplification of some sounds and the silencing of others may result in a significant human led shift away from the natural evolution of the cultural languages and sonifications of these individuals, placing them out of tune with one another.

This was our call to action, to assemble this historical data, and to share these songs with the only ones left able to listen. This work is for the whales.

Radio Amnion, Sonic Transmissions of Care in Oceanic Space is a multi-year sound art project for the waters of Earth, commissioning and relaying new compositions by contemporary artists more than 2kms deep with/in the Pacific Ocean. During each full moon, far beyond human perception, the abyssal waters of Cascadia Basin resonate with the deep frequencies and voices of invited artists. All transmissions are relayed in the sea through a submerged neutrino telescope experiment’s calibration system and available at radioamnion.net during the three days of each full moon. Wave Farm Radio and WGXC 90.7-FM: Radio for Open Ears will also broadcast each new composition.

 

The "WGXC Morning Show" is a radio magazine show featuring local news, interviews with community leaders and personalities, reports on cultural issues, a rundown of public meetings and local and regional events, with weather updates, and more about and for the community, made mostly through volunteers in the community through WGXC. The Catskill Makers Syndicate produce the "Better Weather" for the show. Rob Gelles produces the Columbia County history segment "Rob Around The County" and "This Month in History" for the show. Interview segments from Justin Maiman are often heard on this show, as our movie updates from Jenny Ghetti and Amanda Lees. Interviews by hosts of the "WGXC Afternoon Show" also get played back here occasionally. And Jack Sencabaugh contributes the "Backtracks in Time" segment about local history. Some reports come from our partner station, WOOC-LP in Troy, out of The Sanctuary for Independent Media. Tom Roe also cuts up local and national news with songs and sounds for the show. The show begins each day with local headlines, weather, and previews of community events. Also tune in for national headlines from the Public News Service on WGXC. Sometimes national, state, or local press conferences, meetings, or events are also broadcast live here. Saturdays the show features weekly episodes of the "I Have Seen Niagara" serial.

Playlist:
  • The Rubberband Man / Spinners
  • Augie's Great Municipal Band and End Credits / John Williams
  • Mystery Achievement / Pretenders
  • Watching The Clothes (2018 Remaster) / Pretenders
  • So Typically Now / U.S. Girls