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Radiophrenia Redux: Ashanti Harris and Eothen Stearn (Audio)

Jun 21, 2021
Produced by Radiophrenia.

This monthly program features highlights and commissions from Glasgow art radio station Radiophrenia. Presented in today's episode are OHCE by Ashanti Harris and Sentient by Eothen Stearn .

Sylvia Wynter’s Maskarade (1973), uses the concept of “Reverse Time” as way of interpreting “carnival-time” and the performance of the world turned upside down. Up becomes down and forward becomes backward; the procession moving in opposing time. Using an autobiographical approach, OHCE is a sonic procession. Field recordings and choreographic directions situate the listener within the liminal position between two places, Guyana and Scotland; using sound, memory, composition and movement to meet an echo backwards.

Commissioned for Radiophrenia 2020 with the support of Creative Scotland. www.ashantiharris.com

A person is jogging around a burial mound, near to a standing stone circle. They run, using their phone to navigate over tombs and rocks passing inscriptions and woodland. 
They spot a naked woman floating in the river. Her body is creating an interference…. Sentient, a new work that ruminates on someone being on the same patch of land 12,000 years apart. It’s narrative is circular and the score possesses a state of slippage; from neolithic quasi-time travel, to AI and other fluid immaterial states.  Eo has written specific new drum rhythms for this piece and has produced sounds with her voice, limbs and musical apparatus. The drums, percussion, choral chanting and broken narrative represent the past. The synths, looped stems, field recordings and other instrumentation, present day. There is a spiritual dimension, which is a continuation of Eo’s research on musical lamentations and Gregorian Chants. Alongside this sober state, there is also a playfulness and strong emphasis on the power of an imagination.

Recorded by Eothen Stearn. Additional recording and mix by Chris White.  Commissioned for Radiophrenia 2020 with the support of Creative Scotland. www.eothenstearn.com

Presented on an annual basis, Radiophrenia is a temporary art radio station – a two-week exploration into current trends in sound and transmission arts. Broadcasting live from Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts, the station promoted radio as an art form, encouraging challenging and radical new approaches to the medium. Each year, the broadcast schedule includes a series of newly commissioned radio works, live shows, pre-recorded features and 12 Live-to-Air performances. The majority of the program is made up from selections submitted to an international open call for sound art and radio works. Radiophrenia is managed by Mark Vernon and Barry Burns and is funded through Creative Scotland’s Open Project Funding with additional support from CCA Glasgow.