Harakka Radio 2: Grounding the Ear

The very analogue sign for the small ferry boat to stop at the Merisataman Mattolaituri pier and take passengers to Harakka Island is a white wooden arrow that needs to be lifted and fixed (for darker circumstances a lamp can be switched on). Kari, Rori and the boat arrived at almost the same time, and the sign was lowered again.

Together with Rori the six listening stations around the gallery were quickly set up. Our broadcast started with cloudy weather and a pensive piece by the Irish artist Ian Joyce, “Wind Flute” from the series Mountain Trio Study. For this series – about nomadic song, sound, and experiences of invisibility – a set of haikus was written and translated into Finnish, the words surfacing from time to time in the compositions.

Rori had also invited a silent yet very interested guest, an amateur ham radio activist who, alas, declared he was too shy to speak on the radio. For quite some time he sat down close to the first listening station and seemingly enjoyed the show.

With our focus on the earth and geology, we instead turned to an excerpt of Kate Donovan’s ‘Elements’ show, which she had created in 2020. With the artist guests Catherine Evans and Ally Bisshop their scope of conversations reached from Polish crystal mines to the unpredictable rock landscapes in Iceland.

Guest of the day was geologist Antti Salla who arrived at 2 pm. Antti is a Senior Specialist at the Geological Survey of Finland (GTK) and he is renowned for his knowledge of the rock formations in and around the city of Helsinki.

Our conversation drew on the geological features of Harakka Island, some of them bearing extraordinary witness to the movements of the earth during the ice age. And even now, as Antti stated, the island is in movement, raising each year 3-5 mm above sea level. Certainly, a very small, hardly noticeable movement, yet one that brings the immense differences in human and geological time to mind.

On being asked about his personal feelings of being-with ‘geologic entities’, he stated that indeed his work teaches him a good measure of humbleness but also, in its very ‘down to earthness’ brings happiness to him.  The talk closed with a piece by Joan Schumann about “time, deceleration tactics, deep listening and the collective symbology of end-times and freedom”: Generative Engine.

While listening, the sky darkened by the minute and ­ ­– after yesterday’s experience – made us decide to move the table into the anti-chambre. We were all a bit excited about the upcoming phone call to England and the prospect of a live telephone earth hum concert.

The UK radio and sound artist Jonathan Moss uses “recordings of the 50Hz harmonic interference in the earth. The harmonics are adjusted with an LFO. Frequencies about 10KHz are realised using hetrodyning, so they become audible for humans.”

During our chat, two of his pieces were played, but the main part was Jonathan improvising a saxophone tune in response to a recent hum recorded in his garden. On my asking, he says yes, indeed: The frequencies and rhythm of the soil do change according to the seasons of the year. A hum in spring is different from a hum recorded in autumn. Of course, location, co-habiting species (mushrooms, earthworms, ants…), and the weather also play into the tunes.
From the UK we then turn to Ireland, with a short piano impromptu from Ian Joyce’ series Trio Mountain Studies: #5.

The last piece of the day was a composition by the sound and intermedia artist Petra Kapš (alias OR poiesis): KISETSU Quarry. Based on 10 years of revisiting and recording in the quarry of Kisetsu in the Karst region close to the Adriatic Sea. Using fragments from a sonic archive of recorded material, – field recordings, traces of performances, and poetry – she finds beautiful words to describe the credo of this piece:

The prophecy for the future is hidden in the substance – we need to listen, to dwell deep inside in order to understand and to predict. Seemingly deaf darkness of the stone substance is potent with knowing.

Contributing Radio Artists in loosely remembered order of appearance

• Ian Joyce: Mountain Trio Studies #5 and #2
• Kate Donovan with Catherine Evans and Ally Bisshop: Elements Show Minerals and Chrystals
• Joan Schuman: Generative Engine
• Jonathan Moss: Human Hum Humble, Tuning into Easter Garten + Live Talk and impro via phone
• Petra Kapš aka OR poiesis: Kisetsu Quarry

This post is also available in: Englisch