Easy Listening Sound Division

For Episode 13 I spoke with Twig Harper. Twig came to noise via punk in 90s Anne Arbor, Michigan. There, he formed longstanding collaborations with the likes of Nate Young of Wolf Eyes and Carly Ptak (with whom he’d form Nautical Almanac). Eventually he and Ptak would buy a house in Baltimore, named Tarantula Hill. There they’d host a number of noise shows, performances, and house a litany of musicians and artists. Twig and Tarantula Hill both make a cameo in the new Sean Price Williams directed film, The Sweet East. His most recent release is Music for Lathecuts: HAHA (Laughing Record). Support the show on Patreon.com/easypod.

For Episode 12, we look at the work of electronic musician Pauline Oliveros. Throughout much of her career, she was intent on exploring attention and awareness as it relates to sound. Many of her pieces were exercises in listening - whether through drones or group exercises in sonic creation. I am joined by Barbara Nerness - a Phd candidate researching music and neuroscience at Stanford University. Support the show on Patreon.com/easypod.

Deep-fried philosophy with Alex Bienstock. Alex's musical output resists simple genre classifications - moving from noise, to indie rock, to trap. A flexi of his project DIY Surgery is now available on Pleasure Principle. Intro clips courtesy the label. Outro clip from ESCBAS Best of 3 (courtesy Alex Bienstock). Recorded May 2022.

Will August Park is a composer based in New York. My conversation with Will was recorded in early February shortly after he had finished a residency in Tokyo. Prior to releasing his recordings made during the pandemic, Will August Park worked in beat reproduction. The electronics incorporated into his work now may be much more meditative. His most recent music, released under his own name, blends piano with textural electronic music to create something unique. Support the show on Patreon.com/easypod.

For Episode 9, I spoke with Andy Schiaffino - the LA-based artist behind body / negative. The work produced is at once experimental and melodically minded, recalling Grouper as much as Kevin Shields. Andy spoke to me ahead of a studio residency with Madeline Johnston of Midwife. Intro and outro music courtesy the artist. Support the show on Patreon.com/easypod.

John Duncan is an artist and noise musician perhaps best known for Blind Date (1980) in which he left his "last potent seed in a dead body." The audio recording of this event was then played for an audience in downtown Los Angeles. The fallout from the performance caused him to leave the country for Tokyo - where he would experiment with shortwave, pirate television/radio broadcasts and direct pornography. This is the second part of our 3+ hour conversation recorded in Fall of 2021. Listen to the full episode on Patreon.com/easypod.