Datscha Radio Logo

Six listening stations were set up around the gallery Lennätin: Six radios adorned with feathers transmitted the studio situation to the visiting or passing guests (tourists, children’s classes, nature lovers, artists, birds, and insects).

Rori Vallinharju

Harakka Island Radio received personal support from the immensely helpful assistance of Rori Vallinharju, who took care of helping with the set-up of the station and providing everything needed during the first two radio days.

Our broadcasting range was small, due to the rocky geography of the island and the rather low elevation of the transmitter being fixed to the wall of the house. Gallery Lennätin is a small house with a gallery space, a kitchen, an anti-chamber, and a small wooden terrace on which we installed the radio station. Our frequency was 92 MHz.

Harakka Island Radio started with Peter Cusack’s recordings of magpies (Harakka means ‘Magpie’ in Finnish), that now interweaved with the constant screeches and warning hisses of the seagulls and barnacle geese that were nesting all over the island. And while I Am This Radio was playing, Kari Yli-Annala, the organizer of the event of the “Week of the Impossible” made himself comfortable at the microphone.

As the founder of the island’s Nomad Academy of Experimental Arts, into which this former telegraph building still stemming from the Russian occupation has been converted, Kari jokes that who else than artists would be able to put up with the hundreds of angry birds populating the island. Kari works in Helsinki as a filmmaker, media artist, and art teacher, yet, the “Day of the Impossible” – according to Sun Ra, the 22nd of May – forms a central theme for his activities assembling ‘impossible’ artists to join him on the island for art exhibitions, lectures, performances, and… this time, even radio.

The main building hosts more than 20 studios rented out to different artists; for the “Week’s” events, the artworks are installed at the separate Gallery Lennätin, with an ancient farmhouse building of the “Kasematte IV” serving as a performance and multi-media space.

With this year’s focus on ‘the analogue’ it was clear that pre-digital recordings would be a favourite sound resource for the radio. Tiger Stangl’s short Rewind was a good example to play… a soft, as windy as melodic tape hiss. We examined some of the tapes Kari had been given for this event and played an excerpt from Lukatoyboy’s last-minute collage for Harakka. Anna Friz’ piece Radiotelegraph featured a sending of a radiotelegraph in spoken Morse code from the Skaftfell Center for Visual Art in the small town of Seyðisfjörður on the east coast of Iceland where she had undertaken a two-month residency. In only just introducing these works the bandwidth of the radio art spectrum became evident. 

The Taiwanese media artist and musician Wan Quian Lin aka Winona had arrived together with Kari already around noon. Originally based in Berlin, she too had undertaken the ‘impossible’ journey to Harakka Island. Her work, “The Whisperings of Mushrooms”, would be staged the following day at the Kasematte IV building, in cooperation with the Finnish dancer Sara Kovamäki.

We listened to an excerpt of her music, and we spoke about her fascination with the mycelium underworld. In her performances, she uses piezo and contact microphones which are intricately connected to objects in the room and to each other, creating a self-responsive web of communications.

Musically, the program of Day 1 continued with more tapes (and rewinds)  by potentiometer conductor Maximillian Glass, who spun through the frequency worlds of medium wave radio (AM) and uninterrupted waves (CW).

With Rori, who is active as a socio-cultural activist and artist we talked about the theme of psychogeography: What is it that makes the aura of a place special, even maybe eerie or tense, or relaxed? While we chatted on, alarming lightnings crisscrossed the sky and thunder could be heard from afar. Then, quite suddenly,  a gust of rain flooded the radio table and we decided to call it a day. The last piece played that day was Magz Hall and Peter Coyte’s collaborative piece Outside –  an auditory work that maps and makes audible sea and air pollution. A piece too, that brought us back to our location on an island that, just a stone’s throw from the city, is all the more vulnerable to all man-made environmental threats.

Kari Yli-Annala

Day 1 Radio Artists in loosely remembered order of appearance

  • Peter Cusack: Berlin Magpies
  • Gabi Schaffner: I Am This Radio
  • Tiger Stangl: Rewind
  • Lukatoyboy: Tape4Harakka
  • Anna Friz: Radio Telegraph
  • Maximillian Glass: The Conductor at the Potentiometer
  • Magz Hall and Peter Coyte: Don’t Listen Up

Read More

There are connections between the magic and the analog that maybe need not be spelled out. Who does not know the occurrence of the ghostly presence of an unknown voice in a room? Or, the aura of a geographically remote place unfolding in your very living room. There are other and less evident concepts of magic (which is – strangely – an extremely rational and analogue pursuit) in our world that we would like to examine further… yet, this would mean to overfreight for this very spontaneously conceived insular event.

For the four days from the 25-28 of May, we have put together a program that can be roughly divided into four theme days:
1 Radio waves, Rain and Tapes. With Kari Yli-Annala
2 Grounding the Ear: Listening to the earth’ hum, talks about geology and the mysteries of minerals. Live Phone call with Jonathan Moss, UK
3 Analogue Birds and Plants. Island life. Guest: Erkki Makkonen
4 Word Magic: Poetry, Radioplays, Encantations. Guest: Róza Turunen. Open Studio.

Harakka Radio is prone to faults and flows, broadcasting on a narrow range that covers the island… just so. it may disrupt our habits of listening while at the same time opening up new ways to perceive. The program includes sonic artworks by more than 20 international sound and radio artists. that at times might be hard to distinguish from the wind and waves combing the leaves of trees and grass on the island.

The program will run from 1 or 2 – 5 pm, with the station situated at the Lännatin Gallery. The studio is open to visiting guests. Analog documentation in photography and writing is welcome.

Harakka Radio is also about listening culture on a social scale, people can come together to listen, a somewhat long-forgotten tradition of being and sharing together.
Prepare for the unexpected, maybe even the impossible! Harakka Radio and the Nomad Academy of Experimental Arts wish you a magic stay on the island.

Please bring your radio and tune to 92 MHz fm ! Or come and sit by one of the four listening stations we have etablished!

Read More

Dear contributing Open Call Artists,
dear Radio Enthusiasts, Analogue Islanders, and Visitors!

As always, I am surprised, touched, and at times quite overwhelmed by the bandwidth, and beauty of your contributions. This time even more, because (probably) none of you living far away from Finland can really listen to them… they are broadcast exclusively via FM on the small island of Harakka, which is a short boat ride away from the pier in Helsinki.

At this point in time, the list of participating sound and radio artists reads like this:

  • Anna Friz
  • Cecilie Fang
  • Franco Falistoco
  • Ian Joyce
  • Joan Schuman
  • Jonathan Moss
  • Julia Drouhin – with Pip Stafford and Biddy_Connor
  • Kate Donovan – with Catherine Evans, Ally Bisshop)
  • Lukatoyboy
  • Magz Hall – with Peter Coyte
  • Maximillian Glass
  • Franco Falistoco
  • Petra Kapš aka OR poiesis
  • Roberto D’Ugo
  • Sarah Washington
  • Sebastian Pafundo
  • Sebastiane Hegarty
  • Tiger Stangl
  • Tom Miller

Due information about the pieces played and on which days will be given (latest) by Thursday morning. Harakka Radio is welcoming local artists and scientists to its program, as invited by the event’s organizer, artist and founder of the Nomad Academy of Experimental Art, Kari Yli-Annala:

Antti Salla, geologist. Day 2, 2 pm
Erkki Makkonen, plant specialist Day 3
Róza Turunen, poet. Day 4, 3 pm
Minou Norouzi, film maker. Day 3

The dates and times given are subject to changes! Additional guests are expected!

As the final schedule is not yet decided on, new info will also be shared a bit later on. Our frequency is 92.0 MHz. The program starts each day at 2 pm and ends at 5 pm… unless decided otherwise.  Broadcast assistant is Rori Vallinharju.

For all of you who want to visit the Island, this is the schedule for the ferry:

https://www.merenkavijat.fi/yhteysveneen-aikataulut.html

Please bring your radio! There are some specimens on the island to listen to/borrow but isn’t it much nicer to walk around and catch the radio waves by your own device?

Read More

Open Call
The Magic of the Analogue: ‘Magpie’ Radio on Harakka Island

Celebrating the Magic of the Analogue, Harakka Radio invites you to contribute and shape a live radio program on the occasion of the Week of the Impossible, organized by the Nomadic Academy of Experimental Art, Helsinki, Finland.

For a whole week from the 22nd on, Finnish media artist and performer Kari Yli-Annala invites the world to join the artistic activities at Nomad Academy on Harakka Island. This year’s theme is “The Magic and the Analogue” – and what can be more magic and analogue than a W-Lan-free radio station on an island?

Harakka Radio is an off-shoot of the nomadic and ecologic radio art project Datscha Radio, and is maintained by Gabi Schaffner. We will broadcast for 4 days between the 25 and 28 of May on Harakka Island, reviving the tradition of micro-broadcasting. Each day for 3-4 hours, we will probe into the psychogeography of the island. The live broadcasts will present talks and readings, concerts, and experimental music.

We are curious about:

  • Local knowledge about the fauna & flora, the ecology and the history of Harakka Island
  • Poetry/conversations relating to rocks, stones, islands, birds, sea, air, radio
  • Magnetic tape recordings and your experimental tape music
  • Non-digitally produced/recorded sound art
  • Morse music, Magpies
  • Time: Deceleration tactics, deep listening
  • When interested to perform live, please send 100 words about your idea J
  • You must own the (copy)rights of your production!

Deadline and Formats

Deadline is May, 20th. Please:

  • Please send your magic radio contribution as mp3 ONLY (preferably 320 mbits)
  • label your tracks: firstname_lastname_title
  • include a pdf with <100 words about your piece (how it relates to the theme) and your person
  • put Harakka Radio as the subject line
  • send the link to info@datscharadio.de via wetransfer et al

How to listen

The station’s range of FM radio waves will cover the island… and only the island.

In order to listen visitors must take the ferry and bring a radio with them (yes, one of those boxes with an antenna and a scale pointer­). Harakka Radio will be situated at Gallery Lennätin.

We are fond of an open studio situation: performers, spontaneous live guests and visitors are welcome.

Sustainability

You are heartily invited to take out your old cassette recorders and analogue cameras from their closets and experiment with analogue documentation. We would love it, and include the results on the Datscha Radio site.

Fees
Harakka Radio works on a non-commercial basis, therefore we cannot reimburse you for your valuable time and work. What we have to offer is a radio station and art platform for discovery, exchange and networking. In the off-line world. Nähdään pian!

All copyrights stay with the artists. For more information about the project, please see datscharadio.de

Read More

Harakka Island Radio

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is gs-harakka-title-only-1600x1200.jpg

Harakka Island Radio

In case you didn’t know, 22 May is ‘Impossible Day’.
Day of the Impossible’. Finnish media artist and founder of the ‘nomadic academy of experimental art’, Kari Yli-Annala, invites you to artistic activities on the island of Harakka off Helsinki for a week from 22 May. This year’s theme is “The Magic of the Analogue”.

Datscha Radio is pleased to announce its sudden and surprising ‘mission impossible’ for 25-28 May 2023 in the guise of an experimental micro-FM station, Harakka Radio.

Together with the islanders, artists and guests, and under the roof of a former telegraph station, Harakka Radio will create a 3-hour live radio programme on FM for four days. Detailed information on this will be published in the next posts.

The Island

The island of Harakka (=”magpie”) is a 30-minute ferry ride from the centre of Helsinki, a predominantly flat and rocky plate of basalt and mica gneiss, criss-crossed with shimmering veins of a wide variety of minerals: magnetite, hornblende and the tourmaline-like, yellow-green epidote. The island of Harakka does not stand still: it continues to rise above sea level at a rate of 3-4 mm (30-40 cm per century). It is uninhabited today, but houses a nature conservation and education centre as well as various buildings and barracks from the time of the Russian occupation. The main venue for the event, the Nomad Academy, used to be the telecommunications centre. Unfortunately, nothing remains of the technical facilities today.

The Radio

The radio is set up in a former telegraph station with a kitchen.

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is Bildschirmfoto-2023-05-08-um-11.10.15-350x236.png

Harakka Radio will only be listenable on the island and only via short wave (FM) radio. The live program focusing on the psychogeography and ecologies of the island will therefore take place partly in secret; visitors are asked to bring their own receivers.

Inter/national and Helsinki-based sound, tape and radio artists: You are cordially invited to present your works to the island audience.

Curious about:

  • Magnetic tape recordings and experimental tape music
  • Non-digitally produced/recorded sound art
  • Decelerations
  • If you are interested in performing live, send 100 words info to info@datscharadio.de

The deadline for submissions is 20 May. Detailed information is described in the Open Call.

Read More

„I grew up in a mining city. And so, I found the air in Ii… very fresh, very clean. You notice this quickly when you know so well, how the mining dust is just everywhere and covering everything.”

The air this morning was indeed clear and fresh, sheep clouds were sailing across the blue, and our first guest, arriving speedily on a bicycle was Joana Cortez from Vitória, Brazil, a philosopher, curator, and artist.

Joana Cortez works with ferments. Her project in Ii involves among other research and its (re)presentation, the extraction of specifically ‚Iian‘ fermentation microbes from the immediate surroundings. Three mixtures evolved, and three loaves of bread were baked from the dough that was generated.
In her talk with Tina, Joana tells us about the beginnings of her career, when the act of creating bread dough formed a parallel expression of her urge to ‚ferment‘ her diversified approaches into something artistically whole(some).
Working with the tiniest beings, such as microbes, she says, can teach us many things. „Diversity is a natural thing, it is not something that is forced on us. Only by environments that provide a ground for numerous species of microbes, interaction and fermentation are enabled.“ In the course of her research with biologists, and chemists and in cooperation with numerous international scientific institutions Joana has formed a body of work that focuses on those processes which are just as minuscule as determinative for our life on earth.

Joana Cortes: Ferment: from the air around you (selection)
https://www.joanaquiroga.com/

Our second set of guests arrived shortly after. Turku-based sound artists Simo Alitalo & Tuike Alitalo work together as a couple ever since… meaning, since they first met in their teens. They sit close, in unison, they listen to each other, exchange glances, gestures, knitting an airy net of stories they have both shared in their work as advocates for a culture of listening. Their project for Ii involved just that: Listening. Without recorders, without distractions, without Vorbehalt. Together they staged three to four audio walk through Ii. Along the river, around the town, through gardens, and across roads. A white ear made from porcelain marks the location where the walkers would be asked to stand still and listen. After those walks, the two of them invited their listening guests to share their experiences with the group.

In the course of the talk, many stories were told. Tuike and Simo are widely traveled… and one of their favorite cities seems to be Cologne in Germany… for many reasons and as many stories. As for listening, I think, my favorite story was about Tuike telling us about their stay in NY City, when they were stuck in some hotel, and she said that after days and days, she could not only tell, which direction ambulance cars were coming from but also the hospital they were heading to. Of course, Ii is less dramatic, yet…

Simo Alitalo & Tuike Alitalo: Ecouterias / Ekouteriat
https://alitalo.wordpress.com/author/alitalo/

Our final guest – before the break and the ‚narrow cast experience‘ as Jetta Huttunen labeled it – was Hanna Kaisa Vainio. Together with Saara-Maria Kariranta, Riikka Keränen she is part of the Suomaalaiset-working group.
While most artists’ works were only meant to be accessible during the Biennial, her’s is to stay. It is Installed in the nearby „Sculpture Park“, we all had visited the Environmental Art Park of Ii before our trip to „Merihelmi“ where Kotoaki Asano had created his artwork „Frame & Thread“. We found Hanna Kaisa extremely knowledgeable about birds. She knows many of their calls, helping us to identify a recording made earlier. Her sculpture „The Fisher“ is made from wood and bark and threads, a bird with a wing span of perhaps 1,5 meters hanging suspended between two trees. At the belly, a weight is fixed to a string, and when this is pulled, „The Fisher“ flaps its wings.

Hanna-Kaisa Vainio: „Osprey – The Fisher“.
https://hannakaisavainio.tumblr.com/

The Picknick

The FM-transmitter was transmitting, the music was playing. We looked out onto the lawn which was still and empty: Did our guests forget to come? Will they bring radios to listen? Will they bring food… because, we were really hungry!

But they arrived and also brought a radio. Next to the curators, Jetta, Mark and Minna, and their daughter, there came also the biennial producer, Heli Paaso-Rantala and Joana too made herself comfortable on the grass. A bike-riding couple stopped and was offered refreshments and a small radio to listen to. Baskets were unpacked, bottles (non-alcoholic of course) were opened.
Radiowise we had hoped to meet some more of the actual inhabitants of Ii. Heli, who turned out to be one of them, had tipped us of on the beautiful bar in town, the Baari, as a place to meet the locals. Alas, when we visited, we found this Kaurismäkian movie-like refuge deserted from people except for its most charming bartender.
Our radio talk with her dwelled mainly on the theme of climate change and how it influences the daily life of the people in the region. The summers got colder and the winters warmer, she stated. And instead of snow, she said, there is more often black ice around Finnish Independence Day (6th Dec.). „We had either to walk like little babies or to use the kick-sled to have something to hold on to. We only had to cross the road over to my grandma’s house. But without the sled, you make tiny steps, but you still fall down…“

Read More

Dear radio friends, please bear with us: We need a bit more time to fill you in on this eventful Friday morning/midday midsommer show.

Tomorrow will be our last day in Ii, so of course we’d be happy to share it with you!

Datscha Radio’s program is also broadcast by [open radio] on https://openradio.in. Many thanks to Sophea Lerner.
[open radio] supports independly produced open-content audio streams.

From 0:00 (Berlin time) radio artist Marold Langer-Philippsen will resume Datscha Radio’s stream and you can listen to his show Hörmaschine, live from Berlin.

Read More

Since 2012, the Open Call is a constituent part of Datscha Radio’s programs. More than 200 artists have been since enriching and expanding our different radioscapes in different countries and for different themes.

Being on location and in communication with the locals of Ii provided us with the luxury to introduce sound and radio art to some people to whom this field was entirely new. Many of the listeners we spoke to were surprised, enchanted, bewildered. Some of them said: ‘I did not know, this was music‘. :) We confirmed it was… and more than that!

Relating to the recent “Air on Air” at the Art Ii Biennial, we are delighted to announce a rebroadcast of the artist’s ‘airy’ works. It will run from July 6 to July 9, 2022.

Here come four days to inhale the sound-filled breezes of “Air on Air”. The sequence of tracks is regular/irregular; chapters are kept together. Broadcasting time is 0:00 to 0:00 CET.

6th July:

  • Jussi Alaraasakka: Airborne Layers (played once at the beginning) 20:40
  • Miia Hiltunen (extra guest): Little Star: 1:12
  • Kazuya Ishigami: Gods rhyzm of Kehi-Jingu Shrine and Wakesa bay 5:50
  • Tzu Huan Lin & Campbell Watson: How’s the Weather ep1-4:
    Bad Weather in Puerto Rico 25:40
    Human Social Interaction 25:40
    Evolution 14:22
    Utopia 25:40
  • Elisabeth Shores: On The Inhale 0:33
  • Martin Virgili: Campana – Acantilado (10 Chapters) 1:20:00
  • Stuart Mellor: Turbine 4:44

7th July:

  • Castelló_Domínguez Rangel_Moreno Vera Somón Medina: Of Breath and Sound 1:28
  • Charlotte Law: hAir 2:30
  • Ian Joyce: Blow Out for Air on Air
  • Isto_Rahkila: Diffuser 5:34
  • Joan Schuman: Shimmer & Loop 12:46
  • Juho Rahikka: Soundscape (for Datscha Radio) 4:45
  • La Claud: Ondes 6:20
  • Lukas Noren: Orgelwind 3:41
  • Richard Zeiss: It’s a beautiful rain 7:36 
  • Sol Rezza, Franco Falistoco: Yeast DNA 30:00
  • Stephen Shiell: Vojak 16:54
  • The Square Root of Negative Two: Vapor I 15:24
  • Tiger Stangl: Oxygene / Sauerstoff 15:52

8th July:

  • Chelidon Frame: Flatline Voyages 1:02:52
  • Dirk Hülstrunk: Chennai Air Condition 4:42
  • Gabriele_de Seta: Air, Membranes 11:25
  • Joana Jardim & Filipe Miranda: WRP 2:28
  • Jaakko Autio: _Love_Is_In_The_Air 7:00
  • Eva Sjuve: MetopiaDeepSignal 4:38
  • Roberto D’Ugo: FICA COMOVIDO | SI COMMOUVE | BE MOVED BY 45:41
  • George Ridgway: pedagogy of the knot 50:41

9th July:

  • Lauren Wong: (Don’t) take my breath away 4:03
  • Wilfried Hanrath: Something in the Air (and in-between)
  • NKvdK (Nieuwe Klanken van de Keizer – The Emperor’s New Sounds): Planktone (once played only, from 0:00) 5:00
  • Paint the Sky: Conceptual Artists 1:51
  • Hagai Itzenberg:  Involuntarily 7:10
  • Kate Donovan: The Dream will watch over it 10:29
  • Dirk Huelstrunk:  Chennai Aircondition Traffic Jam 6:07
  • Sebastian Pafundo: Gûlgaltâ = Calvariae = Calvario 8:00
  • Dirk Huelstrunk: Poem for Air 1:56
  • Peter Courtemanche + Anna Friz: Mechanical Velocities 37:06

Last but not least: Last but not least: on our request for this rebroadcast Datscha Radio received many positive echoes. We allow us to quote from two and insist: The honour is on you .  Thank you all!!!

Hello dear Gabi and Tina!
The idea of rebroadcasting the nightlopps is really cool! I would love to hear my play and the work of other colleagues! No objection.
Once again, congratulations for the beautiful project "Air on Air", in Ii -- I followed the posts during the Bienal with great interest (photos and texts). Long live Datscha Radio, a blue flower in the radiophonic garden. 

Many greetings! How's the Weather? Thank you for getting us back! We are thrilled to receive such feedback from your community. These are the best gifts for us to move forward on our creative path. It is our honor to be part of the program and looking forward to listen it on the air! 

Further: The actual shows and missing blog entries will be edited within the next weeks, please stay tuned.

Read More