Making Waves

Today’s episode focuses on the pioneering work of composer, author and educator Barry Truax, who recently received the Order of Canada. He will lead us through his personal artistic history linking his early work in computer and electroacoustic music with his role in soundscape studies and the World Soundscape Project. These strands came together in the 1990’s with his implementation of sampled sound in Granular Synthesis. They were later explored in his use of the convolution signal processing techniques that were developed by Tom Erbe for his program Soundhack. A good portion of host Darren Copeland’s discussion with Barry Truax will be reserved for the piece What the Waters Told Me. Truax will play samples of it and explain how he uses those techniques to transform the sounds of water into sounds that are latent with a sense of voice and emotional resonance.Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

Coming up on Earth Day (April 22) many campus and community radio stations around the world participate in The Wetland Project, a 24 hour broadcast of the soundscape from ṮEḴTEḴSEN or Saturna Island, British Columbia. Back in November 2024, Making Waves host Darren Copeland spoke to project organizers Mark Timmings and Brady Marks.  On today’s episode we will feature that conversation and end the show by lining up the local time of this broadcast with the recording from 2015 that will play on Earth Day. The soundscape recording featured in The Wetland Project was produced with the assistance of Eric Lamontagne. This monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

This edition of Making Waves begins with a performance of Sandpaper Hammock by Aliyah Aziz that was recorded February 21st, 2026 in South River, Ontario, Canada.In this performance Aliyah Aziz uses electromagnetic 'listening gloves' to probe various electronic devices on the table in front of her. At other times, she will activate with the help of audience members the sewing machine instrument from Anju Singh’s sound installation at NAISA which was featured in the previous episode of Making Waves. After the performance Aliyah Aziz joins host Darren Copeland in conversation about Sandpaper Hammock. The video of this performance will be posted on the NAISA Tube YouTube channel.  You can read more about Sandpaper Hammock at this link. Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art that is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

Part of last month’s show included Anju Singh playing her interactive electromagnetic sound sculpture Material Transmissions. On today’s show we will talk to Anju Singh more about the sound sculpture and intersperse that conversation with more performances on it.  Some of those are made by audience members who attended the exhibition opening back on January 8th.Through the sound sculpture visitors explore the sounds of a sewing machine through electromagnetic pickups and contact mics. A set of four tactile transducers playback whispered vocals in the exhibition space that are emitted through a series of four suspended hand-made dresses. Material Transmissions is part of her MECHANICAL HYMNS project, a series of works exploring the relationship between machines, industrial materials, and mechanical elements through sound, noise, and transmitted audio. Anju Singh is a Vancouver media artist and noise musician. Along with industrial materials she uses space, volume and texture as the main tools in her sound palette. She pushes extreme dynamics and unconventional sonic applications to build installations and compositions for immersive sonic experiences.To see the installation you can also experience this episode of Making Waves on the NAISATube YouTube channel.Making Waves is a one hour program about radio art and sound art produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

Today's episode plays pieces from the 2026 Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art. To begin, Anju Singh performs her new sound installation Material Transmissions, an electromagnetic sound instrument which the audience can also play.  The recording was made for the opening of the festival on January 8th, 2026. Following that the remainder of the show consists of pieces from the 20th Deep Wireless radio art compilation. The album includes sound art and radio art works that respond to the theme Sound Culture.  We will hear (in this order) Diviso in due by Cristian Gabriele Argento, Transcription: LoveLanguageLoss by Linda Rae Dornan,“¿Aún recuerdas mi voz?” by Marco Neri, The Loud Mechanical Hum that Seems to Be Getting More and More Frequent by Haley Sheppard, and finally, Liquid Polyphonies by Landforms (who are Lotte Nijsten and Gillis Van Der Wee).This monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

Guest Host Claude Schryer from the conscient podcast has invited three Canadian sound artists to have a discussion in response to the phrase, ‘death as a natural transformation of energy and consciousness, not an end’ All three artists have been on past episodes of the Conscient podcast which is about Art and the Ecological Crisis. They are Azul Carolina Duque (e211 art as medicine), Kenneth Newby (e207 living with grace) and Wendelin Bartley (e222 restoring our connection with nature). Initially Making Waves invited Claude Schryer to chair a discussion on climate change. This discussion touches on the climate crisis but through the subject of death. Death in the sense of how spirit and consciousness continues when the body goes back to the earth. What might this spirit and consciousness sound like? How might this heightened awareness relate to climate change?At the top of show we play the opening from Chasm by Kenneth Newby, off his album From Solitude: music for spectral orchestra. At the end we play Wendelin Bartley’s composition Stone Mysteries from her 2012 album Sound Dreaming. Mid-way through the program she sings part of The Keening of the Three Marys, which was taught to her by Mary McLaughlin. At another point, Azul improvises a vocalization that she may do as a Death Doula.  Her album Telurico features her work as a folk singer.Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

Today we are featuring two interviews from the Conscient podcast series. Conscient is produced by Claude Schryer in Ottawa. It revolves around conversations with artists about the climate emergency. The show includes an extensive collection of interviews and discussions with a diverse range of artists that are all tackling the climate emergency in their own unique and distinctive ways. The majority of the show will feature a longer interview that Claude did with Joan Sullivan for episode 96 of Conscient. Joan is a photo artist in Rimouski Québec who has devoted her work to confronting the realities of climate change. In her view nobody is exempt from having a role to play in the energy transition. In terms of energy and consumption, the world is currently in a liminal space between what was and what lies ahead. Making Waves concludes with a conversation between Claude Schryer and Tina Pearson. It was recorded for episode 220 of Conscient in September 2024. Tina Pearson asks, "what is art anyway?" How can artists use their talents to allow people to listen more deeply - and also to leave time and space to breathe and consider. In between the interviews we will listen to the soundwalk composition Intertidal Room by Jaceck Smolicki. Recorded at slack tide in the Vancouver harbour at Stanley Park, Smolicki’s composition contrasts the linear rhythms of industrial sea cargo with the cyclical rhythms of the water lapping at shore.  Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s show we feature sound art works by two Indonesian sound artists. The hour will conclude with selections from Gardika Gigih’s Mikrokosmos series of works, but the majority of the show will feature a recording of a recent performance by Rani Jambak that was recorded on September 20, 2025 at NAISA in South River.In last month’s episode we heard an interview with Rani JambakKincia Aia. She talked to apè alliermo from the VenusFest about the Kincia Aia, which is an electronic music controller adapted from a traditional North Sumatran water wheel. In the performance she uses the Kincia Aia to control her electronic and soundscape recordings which are complemented by Jambak's vocal and flute performances. Part of the adaptation of the Kincia Aia for indoor performance contexts requires running the water wheel on a motor and you will hear some of that in the recording.Gardika Gigih is an Indonesian composer, pianist, and soundscape researcher. He composed the Mikrokosmos series while in residence at the Abbaye de Noirlac in France during the autumn of 2023.  The pieces are a reflection of humanity's relation to nature during the current climate crisis. Gardika Gigih composed the music in collaboration with natural soundscape recordings made by the French audio-naturalist, Fernand Deroussen and recordings of Hye-Ohn Park playing the Daegum, a Korean flute. Mikrokosmos in this way explores sonic dialogues across different cultures, to find common ground in a fragmented world.This monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

apè aliermo from VenusFest in Toronto interviews sound artist Rani Jambak. Jambak’s music is influenced by the many traditions and musical cultures that can be found in Minangkabau and her birthplace in Medan, Indonesia.  In the last 5 years her main focus has been to re-interpret in musical form Minangkabau philosophy and ancestral knowledge which includes creating her instrument based on a traditional water wheel with a series of wooden pestles, the Kincia Aia.The beginning and end of the episode includes excerpts from Jambak's 2022 performance Malenong (M)ASO. In the performance the sound samples are being manipulated and controlled by the Kincia Aia. In the conversation we will learn more about that instrument and the cultural roots and environmental concerns that drive Jembak’s work.Jambak’s music is influenced by the many traditions and musical cultures that can be found in Minangkabau and her birthplace in Medan, Indonesia. Medan is a unique city as it has 8 original ethnic groups which makes it very rich in sound diversity. In the last 5 years her main focus has been to re-interpret in musical form Minangkabau philosophy and ancestral knowledge. Starting from learning the culture and history through its sounds, to creating instruments like the Kincia Aia, and from understanding history through Tambo Alam Minangkabau, a manuscript about the origin of Minangkabau from the early 19th century.The interview was recorded prior to a tour to various Ontario and Québec venues taking place in the last two weeks of September, 2025. In the middle of this episode the track Joget Sumatera is heard from Rani Jambak's album Vibra Genetika on the Yes No Wave label.Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

Composer Annea Lockwood talks about her work with river sounds throughout her 50 plus years of composing. Her sound map installations of the Housatonic, Danube and Hudson Rivers (and others she has made recently) underscore the value of water in shaping life on earth. Rivers not only bring energy, but Lockwood points out that rivers also have an agency of their own. That agency pushes back against the western inclination to want to control and dominate the course of water flow. In the second half of the show we will listen to an excerpt of her piece A Sound Map of the Housatonic River.  Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

Does water have a voice? On today’s show we explore that question through listening to underwater sounds and Darren Copeland’s conversation with sound artist Eric Powell. In his sound installation la Voix de la riviere Powell modified a rotary telephone and connected it to a live transmission of the Haute Yamaska River in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. He is currently working on a new iteration Voice of the Water that also uses the rotary phone, but this time to playback sounds of rivers, creaks and lakes located near South River Ontario. To learn more about Eric Powell’s work visit his Wordpress site and Bandcamp page.Making Waves is a one hour program about radio art and sound art and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective. https://naisa.ca/

This is the first of two episodes about vibro-tactile artworks. These are artworks that are centred in sound, but the sound medium bypasses the cochlea and transmits to listeners directly through their bodies. The first half of the show is a conversation that host Darren Copeland had with Satoshi Morita. Morita is a Japanese sculptor and sound artist based in Germany. He created a number of vibro-tactile works in the mid to late 00's including Sound Capsule, Sonic Helmut and Sonic Suit.  He is currently making wooden organ pipes for his piece Primal Response that have some overlaps with vibro-tactile audio.  Visit this link to view pictures of Satoshi Morita's sculptures. The second half of the show includes a radio documentary made by Dutch sound and media artist Ricardo Huisman that he calls a tactile sound portrait of Toronto. The work was made from a visit to Toronto in 2008 when he presented his installation Super Sonic Sound Scape Shoes at the Deep Wireless Festival. The installation had visitors place their feet inside very large Dutch wooden shoes which had speakers built inside them. Soundscape recordings he made in Toronto would play through the shoes and transmit through the body of the installation visitor. In the documentary Huisman captures the sonic environment of the symposium host site and the conversations he had with other festival participants. Visit this link to learn more.Lastly, WGXC's pledge drive for donations is coming up later in June.  Please consider making a donation at This Link Here.

In this edition of Making Waves we pay tribute to the work of the late Andra McCartney who died in 2019. She was a composer, radio artist, educator, biographer and musicologist active in Canada in the fields of electroacoustic music and soundscape studies.  Her colleagues and close friends Hildegard Westerkamp, Wendalyn Bartley and Gayle Young join us in this episode to share their experiences of working with her and spending time with her.The show includes excerpts of her radio piece “Waiting Games And Widespread Smoke (feat. Narcy)” which is featured on the Deep Wireless 19 album.   That piece describes a train trip Andra McCartney took across Canada during the 2018 wild fires in British Columbia. It was also the last piece she made.   The show ends with her radio piece "Learning to Walk" which can be heard on the Andrasound soundcloud page.Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s show we are going to listen to the long form sound art composition Zand by Dutch sound artist Marieke Van de ven. And after listening that host Darren Copeland will have a conversation with her to learn more about the piece.Zand explores sand grains as material, concept and sound. Viewed from different perspectives, the sand grains become a place to explore and wander. A composition of subtle grains to colossal layers of sound and back again. A movement, a duration, a route.As a composer and sound artist, Marieke Vande vin likes to zoom in on environmental sounds. The sound of sand is a sonic adventure where texture and associations with the material guides her process. Van de van searches for the meaning of the ordinary in the mundane details of life - and she connects the listener to the origins of the materials she explores.The show closes with an excerpt from Black Poplar 86.3 Mhz by American transdisciplinary artist Dann Disciglio.Explore the Deep Wireless 19 compilation album for more information about the works on today's show and for further listening.

On today’s show we listen to two works that capture animals and environments in interesting and unique ways. Both works come from the 19th edition of the Deep Wireless Radio Art Compilation, which is now available on soundcloud.  We are going to spend the majority of the show listening to and talking about the multi-species project Pigeon Band, which began with the question: “Do pigeons like music?” Two toy synth keyboards were installed on Emmie Tsumara's kitchen window sill, awaiting the daily pigeon visitors. Over several months of practice, the pigeons learned to play the keyboard as they snacked on sunflower seeds. Though each pigeon can be hard to tell apart visually, they each have their own personalities and movements. With those differences they each play a different song.The Pigeon Band benefited from the collaboration of many artists, including Blunderspublik, D Badua, Julia Fenn, Charlie Glasspool, Sarah DeCarlo, Polly-Jean Vernon, Veronica Ing, The Burning Hell, Jas Nasty, Chris International, Babe Chorus, Anomalia and Charlie Petch.The album was produced by artist, designer and pigeonfluencer Emmie Tsumura and it is mastered by Julia Fenn. I had a conversation with both of them to tell us about Pigeon Band and how it came to be.At the end of the show we will go on an electromagnetic hike up Ensign Peak in Salt Lake City with sound artist Matthew Driggs McMurray in his piece Meta-Frequency Field Recording: Salt Lake City // Ensign Peak.  

Today's episode is from a live performance of Tree Frog Radio by Ben Donoghue that took place on February 1, 2025. Tree Frog Radio in the Northern Gulf Islands is an unique underground FM radio initiative in British Columbia that uses trees as antenna masts for localized radio broadcasts – expanding a rural island community’s boundaries of the possible. In this radio art performance interviews and field recordings about Tree Frog Radio were mixed together using loopers and feedback systems in order to blur the space between audio documentary, drone and noise.  Online listeners experienced a special video feed of the performance while in-person audiences got to wander the NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River and both listen to the audio on a localized radio broadcast and visit Ben Donoghue in a small studio performing on a modular synthesizer.  Following the performance the two audiences joined together in a discussion about the performance and to learn more about Tree Frog Radio from its founders and members who were in attendance. Visit NAISATube channel for a video version of this radio episode.

On today’s episode of Making Waves we will be listening to “Non-predictable” by Omar Reyna. Afterwards we will talk to Omar about his piece which is included in the soon to be released 19th compilation album from The Deep Wireless Festival. Over the next four episodes of Making Waves we will be featuring artists from Deep Wireless.Reyna’s work “Non-predictable” is an exploration of the sounds of turbulence in nature. Do the sounds of wind hitting trees or the tonal colours of moving water have emotions that fluctuate over time? This 45 minute long form piece is arranged in three sections that are approximately 15 minutes each and there is a radiophonic quality stemming from the associative qualities of the sounds of wind, rapids, ravens and breaking glass.Omar Reyna is a Mexican-Canadian interdisciplinary artist. He focuses on the intersection of research and the activity of making. And believes that the process of making art while experimenting serves as a form of physical thinking. Much of his artistic practice takes place in the Boreal Forest near Whitehorse, Yukon, where he now lives and works.

On today’s show we will be listening to Lake Composition by Ben McCarthy and April Martin and we will also be talking to them about the piece after we listen to it.Lake Composition is a work made for video installation but is also appropriate in a radio context. If you are interested in getting an idea of the images in the video work there is a trailer for the piece here:Lake Composition TrailerLake Composition includes poetic journal-like text fragments written by Ben McCarthy. His texts reflect on the nature of love in the age of AI and the mystifying beauty of the Georgian Bay shoreline. He asks, “how is AI teaching us about who we are as desiring animals.”  The sounds in the piece include field recordings from Georgian Bay, interview fragments, and synthesized and AI generated sounds. There are sounds that derive from April Martin’s ceramic sculptures. You will hear the sculptures clanging together in the water as she casts them out to float along the shore.  In the final 12 minutes of the show we going to turn our attention back to the Sonic Hugs project. Back in September we had an interview on Making Waves with curator Colin Black of This Sonic Life. Today we will listen to Berjalan by Claire Pannell and EMBOSOMED by Colin Black.

Mark Timmings and Brady Marks from The Wetland Project in British Columbia speak to Host and NAISA Artistic Director Darren Copeland. The Wetland Project is an exploration of a 24-hour field recording of a marsh on Saturna Island (ṮEḴTEḴSEN) made with the assistance of recordist Eric Lamontagne. The reverberant soundscape, featuring birds, frogs and airplanes, has been shared with international audiences since 2015 in the form of slow radio broadcasts, new-media installations and musical performances. An audio-visual version of The Wetland Project will be included in the Water themed edition of the livestream event on Dec 12 called You and I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death.Making Waves is one hour program about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

How can video games be a tool for exploring machine hums and drones? That is one of the subjects we are exploring today on Making Waves with host Darren Copeland. Colin Frank is a percussionist, composer and media artist from Ottawa and based currently in Huddersfield UK. In his installation Soundmap of Sherbrooke’s Machine Songs the gallery visitor uses a joystick and track ball to remix field recordings of back alley machine drones from Sherbrooke Quebec in order to uncover the hidden sonic beauty of industrial urban environments. Watch NAISATube for the video version of this episode and to see the installation. Visit Colin Frank's YouTube channel to watch performances of Noise Fields by Colin Frank and a sound world for small things by Colin Frank and Sam Gillies. Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

Today’s episode highlights the Sonic Hugs collection curated by Colin Black. Sonic Hugs features nine Australian composers and sound artists that were invited to create original radio art pieces that try to connect the ideas of "Sonic" and "Hug".  I discussed with Colin Black his motives and interests in starting the project and his impressions of the outcomes and responses that emerged. He also elaborated on his experiences making and producing radio art in Australia and the impact programs like The Listening Room had on the direction of his work. All of the pieces in the Sonic Hugs collection can be heard on the Bandcamp site for the project. In this program we will listen to Eve Klein’s Mantra of Enfolding, Ros Bandt’s Sonic Hugs, Cat Hope’s 7 Options and Jim Denley’s Mixmaster Troposphere.This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s show we feature multi-disciplinary artist Christine Charette and her performance Roots that Braid Themselves. Christine Charette lives in the Almaguin Highlands region of Ontario. Her performance took place outdoors on July 18 at Warbler’s Roost in South River during World Listening Day. In her performance she had masks, paper sculptures and lines of text displayed on tree branches and stumps. On an elevated platform there was a weathering upright piano that she played along with various effects pedals. In the conversation she reflected on the branching and roots themes in her performance as well as about other points of inspiration for her work.Christine Charette wrote the following about Roots that Braid Themselves:"From the world of Electroacoustic Music and Musique Concrète, I explore the profound influence of forest biomes and the symbiotic enchanted world it hides underground. I use recorded sounds from life, distilled through a sampler, and weave them with the sounds of piano, synth. Drawing my sounds intuitively, I allow the forest and its underground networks to inhale and exhale through me, resonating in their vibration, and translating their Affect. I create a space that transports the listener to where worlds of microbial seed banks exist, stardust and roots that braid themselves into stories, where the belly of the Earth speaks."Click Here to See a Video of the performance featured on today's show.Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

This episode of Making Waves reflects on the life and work of Susan Frykberg (1954-2023). It begins with a radiophonic series of pieces she made called The Audio Birth Project and features an interview with two of Susan's closest Canadian colleagues Jim Montgomery and Tina Pearson. They reflect on Susan's life in Canada, the barriers she overcame and the impact she had on experimental sound art in Canada. The pieces heard on the show are from her Astonishing Sense CD released on the Earsay label in Vancouver.Making Waves is a monthly one hour program about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today's show we listen to spring soundscapes from the region of Canada where "Making Waves" is produced. This year and last year, residents of the Almaguin Highlands region in Northern Ontario had the opportunity to place sound recorders out overnight in order to share the soundscape that is familiar to them. The Almaguin Highlands is a collection of rural villages with populations under 2,000 people that are locating North of Huntsville and South of North Bay in what is often referred to as the Near North. Last year in May on "Making Waves," we featured some of these recordings, and on today's show, we will listen to a new collection recorded these past two months. Featured today are recordings made at the following locations: Old Highway Road in Magnetawan on April 9 at 7:20 a.m.; the village of South River on April 14 at 6:30 a.m.; Bray Lake in Machar on May 19 at 4:15 a.m.; Chapman Strong Road in Strong on May 20 at 1:10 a.m.; and Highway 534 in Powassan on May 31 at 5:00 a.m.This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

This episode features pieces by Martin Rodriguez, Kat Estacio, Dale Bazar, and AJ Cornell that convey emotions and meaning through the ethereal world of electronic sound and electromagnetic energy. Together we will listen and talk about their pieces -responding to what resonates and stirs the imagination. And we will learn about the context in which the pieces were made. This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s show we listen to three radio art pieces: Neurotransmits by Cláudio De Pina, String Pulse by Bekah Simms, and London Punch by Keith de Mendonca. All three artists join host Darren Copeland to talk about their pieces and offer comments about each other’s work. Thematically the pieces explore sounds associated with radio and electromagnetic waves and reflect approaches to evoking images and associations without necessarily using words. This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes, and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

This episode features a conversation with Dan Tapper about his interest in VLF. VLF is Very low Frequency Radio or what is often referred to as Natural radio because it makes audible to human ears the electromagnetic waves that encircle the earth. Dan Tapper is a British sound artist based in Toronto and in the second half of the show we will play his radio piece about VLF called "Some Call it Noise". In the interview Dan referenced a documentary about VLF called "Sun Song" that was made by Patrick Sykes. Click Here to listen to "Sun Song." This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On today’s episode of "Making Waves," Montreal acousmatic composer Robert Normandeau talks about his late mentor Francis Dhomont. Dhomont came to Montreal from France in the late 1970’s where he composed the radiophonic piece “Sous le regard d’un soleil noir,” a piece so important to Dhomont that he counted this as his first-ever work even though he was already in his fifties. Acousmatic art has had a special relationship with radio, not only because state radio stations supported the first acousmatic studios, such as GRM at Radio France, but because radio provided a creative medium through which artists could bring together musical ideas and the written word. The show will be book-ended by movements from "Sous le regard d’un soleil noir." In between, Robert Normandeau will relate his first and last meetings with Dhomont, noting the influence and significance Dhomont had on the Montréal acousmatic scene and where acousmatic music is headed today. This monthly one hour program is about radio art and sound art, and is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art's Artistic Director Darren Copeland in South River, Ontario, Canada. The show features Canadian, US, and international artists creating sound-based media art. It focuses on the techniques, processes and motivations of the artists it features as well as individuals supporting the field through dissemination and curatorial activities. The show is a snapshot of what is happening in sound-based media art in the here and now from a northern perspective.

On the 17th of January one million and 61 years ago someone dropped a dry sponge into a bucket of water and Art was born. Making Waves starts off the New Year of 2024 looking back at the history of celebrating the birthday of Art. We will begin with the artist Hank Bull who has participated in many Art's Birthday celebrations since its origins in Fluxus and Mail Art. After that, we will listen to Elisabeth Zimmermann from Kunstradio at the ORF radio in Austria followed by Ward Weiss (also known as Planktone), a former radio engineer and independent radio artist. They will tell us about the unique ways in which Art’s Birthday has been celebrated on the radio in Europe since 1999. For the celebration this year in 2024, Planktone produced a piece of sound art drawing reference to the 50th anniversary of John Cage’s piano work Etudes Australes. We will listen to different parts of the piece in between the conversations. To listen to that piece in its entirety go to the Planktone website.

On this edition of Making Waves, host Darren Copeland has a conversation with Christof Migone about his unique series of curated broadcasts organized around a 12 word sentence - "You and I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death." They discuss how the event started, what motivated him and how his approach to curation is different for this event than for exhibitions and performances that he has curated previously. You and I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death will be aired on Wave Farm's Standing Wave Radio channel on December 12 from noon to midnight and is hosted by Avatar in Quebec City.

Today’s show features Kelly Ruth from Edmonton who has adapted her skills as a weaver, visual artist and musician to make live sound art performances on the digital multimedia platform of Second Life. The loom is used both as a visual centrepiece in her performances and is used as a musical instrument amplified with contact mics and modified with live electronics. In her conversation with Host Darren Copeland she talks about bringing her interests together, particularly during the pandemic, and creating a hybrid performance practice that can be experienced both in-person and in the 3-D virtual environment of Second Life. In the latter part of the show we will listen to a Second Life performance recorded by Kelly Ruth in March 2022 that can also be viewed on Kelly Ruth’s YouTube page. Kelly Ruth will also be performing in the upcoming December 12 broadcast on WGXC of You And I Are Water Earth Fire Air Of Life And Death.

Host Darren Copeland talks with Canadian interactive media artist Don Ritter for this episode of Making Waves, which is also available as a video podcast on the NAISATube YouTube channel. Don Ritter's sound installation "O telephone" is currently being shown at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River Canada. Ritter and Copeland discuss the use of sound in Ritter's interactive media works since the 1990's and how "O telephone" is a much different piece than his other works. The installation was originally made in 2007 for six telephones and eight speakers. The version at NAISA uses just one telephone along with the 8 speakers.

Jessica Thompson is a Canadian media artist working in sound, performance and mobile technologies. NAISA is presenting an adapted version of her project Borderline which maps sound data onto economic and social data. Borderline is an app downloadable for mobile iOS devices and it can be used in any city, town or village - wherever you happen to be. Borderline is also the basis for an exhibition at the NAISA North Media Arts Centre which includes an analog style of map-making that those living in the Almaguin Highlands region of Northeastern Ontario can explore. The conversation between host Darren Copeland and Jessica Thompson also touches on how sound and noise data help to reveal the character and dynamics of different communities.

This episode of Making Waves features an interview with Kristine Diekman and Ben Pagac about the sound making and sound reception of insects along with recordings of their installation Secret Reception. Later in the show we play Creatures of the Ice by Eldad Tsabary from the Deep Wireless 5 double CD produced in 2008. The show ends with a short interview with Mitchell Akiyama and Brady Peters on their installation Sensation of Distribution, which uses resonant plumbing tubes to create confusion between what is building infrastructure and what is artistic creation.

Sound from the natural world and the urban environment are not background sounds for film and other experiences but rather they are sounds rich in associations and meaning. They are deserving of foreground attention. Filmmakers Mike Hoolboom and Heather Frise along with sound artist Alëna Korolëva join Host Darren Copeland to discuss the importance of environmental sound in their thinking and work. Hoolboom and Frise's film "Listening (with Hildegard Westerkamp)" and Korolëva's soundscape piece "Accidental Wilderness" will be presented in an upcoming online World Listening Day event on July 15 at 7 pm that is hosted by NAISA. Selections from those pieces are shared in this episode.

On today’s episode of Making Waves you will hear soundscape recordings made in the Eastern part of Parry Sound District of Ontario or what is locally known as the Almaguin Highlands. NAISA invited local residents in the area to place a bird feeder on their home property. Inside that bird feeder was an audio recorder that captured the overnight soundscapes of spring. Over the course of this hour we will sample highlights from the recordings that were made between April 18th and May 27th of 2023. You will hear many of the key voices of the local soundscape in our region - peepers, woodpeckers, Canada geese, and other more surprising sounds. Visit the aporee sound map to experience more recordings from Almaguin Highlands Community Soundscapes.

For today's edition of Making Waves we celebrate the 10th anniversary of Reveil - the 24 hour dawn chorus broadcast that took place Saturday May 6, 2023 - by mixing sounds from the broadcast with a discussion between host Darren Copeland and Reveil founders Dawn Scarfe, Maria Papadomanolaki and Grant Smith.

Today's episode of Making Waves focuses on two artists from the Deep Wireless 17 Radio Art Album. Darren Copeland talks to Nicole Goodwin in New York who under the name GOODW.Y.N. and with the help of her collaborator Michael Carr (aka Face Mason), wrote and recorded Inner Spaces: Live From Quarantine. In their words, "Inner Spaces is born of a parallel world to ours. It is the voice of revolution in a society gone mad, the voice of hope for the hopeless." In the second half of the show Copeland talks to Prachi Khandekar in Montréal whose piece "The Tracker" is part of an online media piece called “Circuits of Sand and Water.” The binaural audio production, as Khandekar explains in her notes, "is a story about a woman battling isolation in the pandemic. She starts watching her neighbours from her window. Soon, she is compelled to get closer and hacks into their devices... It explores what it feels like to balance an animal urge for connection with the mechanical logic of progress." This monthly program is produced by New Adventures in Sound Art (NAISA). The program features selections from the NAISA archives and is produced by Darren Copeland, NAISA Artistic Director. NAISA is a South River-based Canadian organization that presents performances and installations spanning the entire spectrum of electroacoustic and experimental sound art. The objectives of NAISA are to foster awareness and understanding locally, as well as nationally and internationally, in the cultural vitality of experimental sound art in its myriad forms of expression.

On today’s episode of Making Waves we will share broadcasts from the Northern Virtual Broadcast Service led by Geronimo Inutiq as part of his project "I am Calling Home". Inutiq will be visiting NAISA in the coming week for the Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art. That gave Darren Copeland the opportunity to talk with Geronimo about the topic of home and the special resonance it has for him. Geronimo Inutiq is an urban Inuit and a multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary artist from Iqaluit on Baffin Island.

The 17th edition of the Deep Wireless Radio Art Album will be released in February and we will listen to "Fuori è dentro" by Giuseppe E. Rapisarda to begin this episode. After that we will play a documentary produced by Michelle Wilson about her installation Forced Migration which will be on exhibit at the newly renovated NAISA North Media Arts Centre in South River from February 6 to March 27, 2023.

In today’s show Hector Centeno discusses his piece Space_03 which was commissioned by NAISA. Space_03 is derived directly from an attentive and phenomenological exploration of a specific geographical/physical location using spatial audio and photogrammetry.

Vancouver-based artists Julie Andreyev and Simon Lysander Overstall are featured in this episode of Making Waves. They have been collaborating on a variety of ecologically focused new media and sound works, since 2004. They co-lead research-creation projects, recently Wild Empathy—immersive art exploring old-growth trees and ancient forests—and currently Branching Songs, sound art that listens to trees for the forest. Their installations The Sound of Tree Rings and Tree Earth Sky will be featured in an upcoming exhibit presented by New Adventures in Sound Art.

This month on Making Waves we continue listening to more in the Soundportraits series by Jørgen Teller from Denmark. Soundportraits are impromptu pieces made through one-on-one chance encounters. Jorgen Teller was stationed inside a tent at a different location each day. He would record sounds made by the visitors and then create spontaneous electronic compositions from the sounds he recorded creating a musical portrait of his encounter. Included are portraits made at Mikisew Park, The Crystal Cave and NAISA in August 2022.

Today’s show is about sound portraits. A sound portrait is like a caricature made from a brief encounter in a public place - only that instead of creating a visual likeness of a person, a musical and sonic one is made. Jørgen Telller from Copenhagen was in residence recently at NAISA and over three days he produced about two dozen "Soundportraits" of persons living in or touring the South River area. Making Waves will share a selection of these portraits and they will be introduced by Jørgen Teller and Host Darren Copeland.

This month on Making Waves includes sound art created in public outdoor spaces and focus on two projects that open up access to the music making process. In the first half host Darren Copeland talks to Jesse Stewart and Matt Edwards of Mixed Metaphors about their approach to interactive art in public settings. They will share their experiences making their latest works Orbits and The Gong Show. In the second half of Making Waves pieces in the NORDIC SoUNDPORTRAITS series of 2012 by Jorgen Teller are presented. These pieces were made in a public setting by Teller through one-on-one interactions with the audience member. Much like a sketch artist may create an impromptu portrait of a person, these pieces do the same using sound and music.

On last month’s show we featured flute improvisations recorded by Ellen Waterman outdoors in a rural waterfront location. The improvisations were guided by her physical response to the natural surroundings and were an interpretation of her instructional score Bodily Listening in Place. In today’s show Ellen Waterman will explain that score and the background and research behind it. The score draws on her research and thinking on Improvisation, Deep Listening, Signed Music and music making across all abilities.

Two weeks ago Wave Farm's WGXC and New Adventures in Sound Art both participated as broadcast partners for Reveil, a 24-hour broadcast of dawn chorus open microphone livestreams that follows the emergence of daylight from time zone to time zone across the entire planet. Reveil coincides with NAISA programming that focuses on the local soundscape in South River Ontario. On today’s show we are going to feature a selection of spring soundscapes from Warbler’s Roost in South River plus we will feature music made outdoors by Ellen Waterman that responds to that soundscape. Ellen Waterman's performances are interpretations of her instructional score "Bodily Listening in Place." NAISA welcomes more interpretations of that score by listeners of all sensory abilities, which will be presented on World Listening Day in July. To find out more go to https://youtu.be/b618vzqIsVI

On today’s show we have a conversation with Michelle Macklem and Jess Shane. They are the producers of Constellations, a sound art and experimental narrative podcast program that unravels the distinctions between documentary, sound art, fiction and music. This episode includes "Pointing At Canopus" by Arif Mirbaghi and a Mystery box mix by Nicole Pingon which were both created for Constellations.

Winter Diary Revisited, a new work by Claude Schryer, was the first presentation of the 2022 Deep Wireless Festival of Radio and Transmission Art which took place on Sunday February 6th at the new NAISA North Media Arts Centre, a building recently purchased by New Adventures in Sound Art. This radio documentary is a tribute to R. Murray Schafer who passed away in August 2021. Schafer’s writing and the research undertaken with the World Soundscape Project were foundational to the development of the field of acoustic ecology. Schryer goes back to Schafer’s diaries that he was keeping in the late 1990’s when the two worked together on the production of A Winter Diary which was created for WDR Köln. Schryer's documentary also forms episode 99 of his Conscient podcast series and includes the voice of Canadian poet Robin Mathews reading Schafer’s words.

This episode of Making Waves features pieces from the upcoming Deep Wireless 16 album that will be released online later this month at www.naisa.ca. Deep Wireless is a festival of radio and transmission art presented annually by New Adventures in Sound Art. The pieces you will hear in this sequence mix poetry, electromagnetic sounds and music. Thematically they conjure various notions of place. A place in the cosmos, a place in the electromagnetic spectrum, a place on the land, a place to look out into the sky, and a place to listen for what might exist ahead in the future. Included in the broadcast is: Stereo Ribbons and tsi takaronhya ke - in the sky by Janet Rogers Electromagnetic Nature by Anton Pickard speak(er) to the land by John Hill EMF turntable by Shaughn Martel Colonial Conversation by Elizabeth Hill Music for Incadescent Events (Barry Point) by Sarah Peebles Sirens Dawn by Cecilia Tyrrell