Stream or download this weeks edition here: Framework Radio: Edition #408

The music of L’Avenir is rooted in the tradition of the minimal, analog, synthesizer music of the late 70′s and early 80′s ala Fad Gadget, Solid Space, Depeche, D.A.F. etc. In the mid 2000′s this genre of music, which has since been coined “Minimal Wave” by Veronica Vasicka, has seen a revival in the underground music scenes in the States and abroad. Having grown up in the 70′s and 80′s as a huge fan of synthpop and darker 80′s electronic music myself, a diversion down this path makes sense to me within the context of where my music has been headed over the past few years. Also, by channeling the exploration of structure into the L’Avenir project, I’m equally as excited to begin experimenting with pure electronic space again through future releases under my own name.

At the moment I’m seeking a good home to release L’Avenir’s completed debut album In Collapsing Silence. More information about the release will be made available soon. In the meantime, check out the micro site I’ve built for this new side project which also features a couple cuts from the upcoming debut:

L’Avenir Micro Site: http://l-avenir.us

Watch Art: Star’s End and Space Music on PBS. See more from Friday Arts.

Produced by Michael O’Reilly for WHYY-TV Philadelphia.
Check out the link below for more videos and out-takes from the documentary.

• WHYY Friday Arts

Project Statement:

I was about twelve when I first became aware of how beautiful radio noise could be. I recall laying in bed and listening to my portable shortwave radio, slowly turning the dial, but allowing for long pauses on the dead spaces, as I moved from one distant broadcast to another. At times, I think I was more interested in the sounds produced by the odd interference and signal modulation than the broadcasts themselves. I would often drift to sleep listening to the ghost like voices buried beneath layers of slow and undulating static. At that age, I didn’t think much about what attracted me to the noise. I just enjoyed its sometimes violent yet mysterious and relaxing qualities. Looking back on those late night listening sessions in the early 80′s, I’ve come to realize the impact they had on my own development as a sound artist and electronic musician. The seeds for my awareness of the radio as an expressive medium were probably planted during this years. Of course, I was totally unaware that artists like Neuhaus, Stockhausen, Vostell, Cage and others had already begun exploring the possibilities of the radio as an art form decades earlier.

With this in mind, two years ago I began to include live scanner feeds in my concerts and performances. Unlike shortwave radio, scanners pull from air traffic, police, ham and other types of local broadcasts within just a few miles of the listener. The idea of incorporating live, local transmissions into the performance as a sonic fingerprint of the local geography was appealing to me. I saw it as an aural snapshot of that very moment or even an invisible, stringed instrument of sorts.

Recently, I was in my car listening to the SPK debut album Information Overload Unit from 1981. About halfway through the albums opening track Emanation Machine R. Gie 1916, I became aware of how much it sounded like some of the textures and modulating frequencies I would listen on the shortwave for hours as a kid. I began to wonder if a musical performance of pure analog electronic “noise” was broadcast on the radio, how would a listener moving through the dial know what they were hearing was an actual broadcast? And if they did, how where they able to discern synthetic, controlled noise from pure generative noise? It is my hope that the whiteout series of performances brings the very essence of noise, music and even our own environmental sonic awareness into question.

Updated november 14, 2012:

Above are images from whiteout.3 – Pittsburgh, PA. Live June 17, 2012 on 102.9FM
Below are two complete performances.
photos: beth brown

whiteout.5 – Acra, New York- 96’03″ performed live at the Wave Farm October 27, 2012 on 90.7 FM
whiteout_five_acra.mp3

whiteout.1 – Washington DC – 21’26″ performed live June 2, 2012 on 105.3FM
whiteOut_one_dc.mp3

- SATURDAY AFTERNOON SHOW: WHITEOUT
I was at The Wave Farm Saturday October 27, 2012 to perform and discuss my current Whiteout transmission art series. The broadcast is archived here: http://tinyurl.com/aaeeczv

- PNEM FESTIVAL
I’m pleased to announce that I’m  one of three artists representing the U.S. at this years Platform New Experimental Music Sound Art Festival. The two-day event will be held on November 17-18, 2012. The festival is located in the south of The Netherlands, close to the borders of Belgium (Eindhoven) and Germany (Nijmegen).

- AN EVENING OF AMBIENT ELECTRONIC MUSIC
The beautiful 2640 Space [St. John's] will provide a perfect backdrop for an evening of experimental and electronic ambient soundscapes. Solo performances by Jason.Sloan, Liz Meredith, Carver Audain and Erik Spangler. $5 donation. Doors at 7:00pm. Show begins promptly at 7:30pm. More information and directions.

You can access my Bandcamp page at: http://jasonsloan.bandcamp.com

I’m excited to announce two new solo releases:
The Sine E.P. is now available as a digital only release. This E.P. contains the lead “single” and title track from the upcoming Fall of the Fifth Sun album plus two exclusive tracks from those recording sessions. The E.P.s closing 13 minute track The Final Hour turned out to be one of my personal favorites from these sessions.

You can purchase the Sine E.P. directly from the store section of this website in addition to all good digital stores.

BUY THE SINE E.P.[jason.sloan.com] [iTunes] [eMusic] [Amazon]

My 15th solo album Fall of the Fifth Sun, is now officially available. The album will be available to purchase in hard copy CD format by mid September or now as a download at all the major digital outlets and through the store section of my site.

The majority of material on these recordings was conceived during the multiple live concerts I gave throughout 2011 and early 2012. These song sketches were reworked and then recorded in the studio over the past year.

While still sonically similar to my last few albums, FOTFS & the Sine E.P. were created with only hardware. Going into these sessions, I wanted to create works that had an edge and felt fresh, but also an essence of nostalgia for the classic electronic music of the 70′s and 80′s, so hardware was the only way to go. Equipment used to create this album: Roland SH-101, Korg Poly-800, DSI Mopho, Juno-60, Yamaha DX7, Korg Monotribes, Roland TR-606, Alesis Wedge, Boss CE-3, Steinberger GL and Fender Stratocaster guitars.

Fall of the Fifth Sun has a 56 minute running time and will be packaged in a gatefold wallet style sleeve.

BUY FALL OF THE FIFTH SUN [jasonsloan.com] [iTunes] [eMusic] [amazon.com]

Track Listing:

Black Corona / Fall of the Fifth Sun / Ash and Snow / Pulsar / View from a Hill / Blue Kachina

16 minute album preview:
FALL_OF_THE_FIFTH_SUN_ALBUM_PREVIEW.mp3

Broadcast live on 97.1MHz FM Amsterdam.
I. Rembrandtplein
II. Utrechtsestraat Shining
III. Black Light (for Peter Christopherson)

Rembrandtplein_Utrechtsestraat_Shining_Black_Light.mp3

About signal.toNoise:

I first became interested in minimalism as an undergraduate while studying painting. I recall reading Sol LeWitt’s “Sentences on Conceptual Art” and being taken by his statement: “Successful art changes our understanding of the conventions by altering our perceptions.” This radically changed how I viewed many minimalist works moving forward. Monochromatic pieces like Rauschenberg’s white canvases, which influenced John Cage’s 4’33″, took on a whole new meaning for me. It became apparent that environment, lighting, sound and smell, etc. could alter the viewers perception of an artwork. Over the years, the essence of these ideas have always resonated with me. Whether in my performance work, videos, net.works, sound or music, the idea of challenging perception has always been key.

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about the general understanding of noise. Most people would consider it a distrubance to an otherwise desired experience. Static during a weak radio or television transmission or a child crying during a church sermon could be seen as anomalies that “ruin” the expected outcome of an otherwise desired event. Over the years we’ve attempted to purify these experiences with technologies that attempt to filter the noise from our lives. Dolby Laboratories, during the heyday of cassettes tapes, developed a noise reduction system that was built into most stereo compontents. This filter emphasized the audible frequency range and diminished tape hiss, an artifact of the recording process similar to white noise. Wet cleaning vinyl records became a popular method for audiophiles to reduce the crackle and pops from LP playback. And more recently, digital or internet radio has all but eliminated weak signal noise or static common with old antenna tuners.

In a system similar to composting, the works in the Signal To Noise series recycle a particular medium’s inherent, undesirable sonic traits (cassettes hiss, radio static, digital music compression etc.) and presents them for consideration as the final work of art.

signal.toNoise Series:

Clicks and Cuts:
20 minutes of equalized record clicks and pops pressed back onto 10″ clear vinyl records.
Edition of 5 albums.

IEC Type II:
C-90 Type II. cassette tape.
45 minutes of equalized tape hiss per side.
Edition of 9 cassettes.

128kbps:
40 minutes of isolated mp3 compression.
Edition of 4 iPods containing the mp3 file.
Presented on Apple mini’s for the exhibition.

whiteOut:
FM broadcast.
Live FM tuner static being rebroadcast in full stereo on 93.5 MHz FM over an approximate
distance of 4-5 miles.

The_Signal.mp3
- jason.sloan discussing the signalTo.noise series on Baltimore’s NPR affiliate WYPR. Original air date 1/27/12 -1/28/12

- Review of Signal To Noise at Disquiet

The signal.toNoise exhibition will be on view Friday, Jan. 27 through Sunday, March 11 at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Pinkard Gallery (1401 W. Mount Royal Ave.). A reception will be held on Friday, Jan. 27, 5-7 p.m.

Track listing:
warmAndfading.light – 13’03″
withNo_return – 8′ 14″
piercedAether – 1′ 03″
asFragile.as – 5′ 39″
(s)END – 8′ 35″
(a)SEND – 16′ 16″

<< BUY FROM OUR STORE >>

Previews
- warmAndfading.light [2 minute excerpt]
1_edit.mp3
- (s)END [full track]
5_full.mp3

Set list:
- Blue Star – 19’38″
- ElevenEleven – 24’07″
- The Fifth World – 15’19″Sadayatana_Live.mp3 << Free Download 133mb .zip >>