Contact

Contact

Contact is a 55:00 radio art narrative focusing on the proclivity throughout human history to seek connection and communication with the spirit spectrum, parallel dimensions, or alien worlds beyond our own universe. Radio waves, with their ability to traverse atmosphere and space may be one medium that can make such connection. Using acousmatic compositions, phonography, field recordings, and sampling, Contact imagines such a radio broadcast and what might be heard.

Timeline and Content

00:00 Sample, HBO video production opening
00:00 Sample, "Dream Drone" (freesound.org)
00:04 SFX electrical switch
00:04 SFX electrical surge
00:04 SFX white noise
01:32 Sample, "Kepler: Star KIC12268220C Light Curve Waves to Sound," NASA recording, Connect and Collaborate with NASA > NASA Sounds (http://www.nasa.gov/connect/sounds/)
01:32 Sample, "Shortwave radio"
01:50 Sample, "Bruckerby," track #41, The Ghost Orchid—An Introduction of EVP
02:00 Sample, Contact (1997), opening scene audio, reversed
03:10 Sample, "Radio Luxembourg," track #17, The Ghost Orchid—An Introduction of EVP
03:57 Production including SFX; field recording of the opening lines of Beowulf spoken in middle English; samples from the Max Headroom television show, 1960s Radio Luxembourg station identification, Orsen Welles and The Mercury Theatre of the Air production of "The War of the Worlds," opening countdown of X-Minus 1 radio show, and "Is Everybody In?" from The Stoned Immaculate, voice by William S. Burroughs over a soundtrack recorded by Jim Morrison and The Doors
6:08 SFX/field recording busy station
6:09 Sample, "Alien Voices" (freesound.org)
6:43 Sample, "Where's Mable?", track #5, The Ghost Orchid—An Introduction of EVP
7:06 Field recording, rail station announcement
7:25 SFX, footsteps
7:37 SFX, door opening
7:37 SFX/field recording, traffic
8:22 SFX, sports car passing
8:26 Field recording, Bay Street crosswalk, Savannah, Georgia
8:42 SFX, sports car racing
9:06 SFX, footsteps
9:23 Field recording, railroad overpass rumble
9:23 SFX, vault door closing
9:24 Sample, "Tunnel ambience" (freesound.org)
9:26 SFX, tunnel footsteps (freesound.org)
9:34 SFX, cave water drops
10:02 Sample, "Welcome to my world" (freesound.org)
10:43 Sample, "Listen" (freesound.org)
11:16 SFX, ocean surf
11:41 SFX, sail boat
11:54 SFX, scuba breathing
11:54 SFX, seagulls
12:47 SFX, canoe paddle
12:55 Production using various animal and nature sounds to create a soundscape
14:22 SFX/field recording, Boulder River, normal and reversed
14:44 Sample, "Chatankia River Auroral Chorus," CD #2, track #3, Electric Enigma by Stephen P. McGreevy
15:18 Sample, "Sputtering" (freesound.org)
15:48 Sample, "Retarded robot" (freesound.org)
16:00 Sample, "Announcement," CD#4, track #8, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
16:07 Sample, "Sputnik satellite signal," 1951, NASA recording, Connect and Collaborate with NASA > NASA Sounds (http://www.nasa.gov/connect/sounds/)
16:07 Sample, tweeks, VLF radio telescope recording
16:07 Sample, whistles, VLF radio telescope recording
16:52 Sample, "Stereotyping" by Rick Moody
16:52 Field recording, "Symphony for Antique Tractors," Clark County Fair, 7 August 2008
17:46 Sample, "Horror Ambience" (freesound.org)
18:33 Sample, "Scaryscape" (freesound.org)
22:19 Field recording, water down the street drain
22:43 Production, samples and field recordings, Stalacpipe, pipe organ in Luray Caverns, Luray, Virginia, USA. "Voices and Spaces" by Ethan Rose, live performance recorded April 2010, "Dream Drone" (see above)
31:08 Sample, "Layers of Space" (freesound.org)
31:32 Sample, "So Strange I Remember You," track #40, The Ghost Orchid—An Introduction of EVP
31:34 Sample, "Letter rk," CD#1, track #23, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
34:33 Production, "Singing Bowls"
35:26 Production, "Alien Operating Room"
36:14 Production, "Granular Ambience"
37:48 Field recording, railroad overpass rumble
38:22 Sample, "Clapping Music" by Steve Reich, reversed and echo
38:23 Sample, whistles, VLF radio telescope recording
38:40 Sample, "Vocal cut up" by Brion Gysin (Mektoub)
39:15 Sample, "Iran, Iraq jamming efficacy testing," CD#3, track #2, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
40:14 Sample, "Okno, okno, okno," CD#3, track #35, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
40:19 Sample, tweeks, VLF radio telescope recording
40:39 Sample, "Cherta," CD#2, track #35, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
41:05 Sample, "Cut ups," Brion Gysin and William S. Burroughs, reversed
41:06 Sample, "The crackle," CD#4, track #27, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
41:41 Sample, "yt," CD#2, track #14, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
43:34 Sample, "Crepitatorie (the crackler)," from a recreated intonarumori originally designed by Luigi Russolo and used in performances by him prior to World War II
43:54 Sample, "Bugging the hb0175, the ad90040g and the mw650gs with some minor success," track #3, To Make Things Happen in the Bunker via the Micro Way by Carl Michael von Hausswolff (1997)
44:10 Sample, "Ululatore (the hooter)," from a recreated intonarumori originally designed by Luigi Russolo and used in performances by him prior to World War II
44:47 Sample, "A quite faster spirit with some low cyclic interference," track #4, To Make Things Happen in the Bunker via the Micro Way by Carl Michael von Hausswolff (1997)
44:47 Sample, "Chatankia River Auroral Chorus," CD #2, track #3, Electric Enigma by Stephen P. McGreevy
45:59 Sample, "5 dashes," CD#2, track #15, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
47:37 Sample, "The backwards music station," CD#4, track #28, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations
48:58 Sample, "Tunnel footsteps" (freesound.org)
48:58 Field recording, water down the street drain
49:02 Sample, "Tunnel ambience" (freesound.org)
50:05 Sample, "Katajjaq," Inuit throat singing," from Inuit Games and Songs, reversed (available UbuWeb ethnopoetics: ubu.com/ethno/soundings/inuit.html)
51:01 Sample, "Dream Drone" (freesound.org)
52:04 SFX, barn door closing
52:04 Sample, from Lost selection menu 52:04 SFX, star drive rumble
52:09 Sample, "Light curve wave to sound," radio telescope recording of electromagnetic signals from outer space
52:24 Sample, "Can you keep my secret" (freesound.org)
52:47 SFX, radio tuning
52:49 SFX, radio static
52:51 SFX, "space log" music bed
52:52 Sample, Contact (1997), opening scene audio
55:00 end

Metadata

Object: Audio
Format: MPEG audio
Bit Rate: 320 kbs
Sample Rate: 44,100 kHz
Duration: 55:00
Created: 2012
Creator: John F. Barber
Original/Edited Files Available: Yes
Rights and Status: All rights reserved. Available for broadcast, installation, exhibition, and/or publication with permission.
Image: ***