Research

In PROBES #35 Chris Cutler examines the quiet electronic revolution ushered in by the Hammond organ and excavate traces of the visionary but short-lived Novachord - a polyphonic synthesiser born a quarter-century ahead of its time, which briefly flared - and then disappeared.  

Undead Matter is an unfolding conversation about where life lies in the ever-turning matter of our universe, as it rhythmically resurfaces over millennia. In this new episode, artist, Oreet Ashery speaks with paleontologist Tori Herridge about discoveries in the permafrost, genetic legacies, cloning from the deep past, fertility and the unborn.

In this episode, artist Bo Choy speaks with Sayana Namsaraeva, an anthropologist from Buryatia, south-eastern Siberia, exploring the traditional traditions and stories that have emerged from the landscapes surrounding Lake Baikal, the deepest and oldest freshwater lake on the planet, and how these influence worldviews and possibilities for the future.

The PROBES AUXILIARIES dig deeper into the main programme topic but are also programmed for your ecstatic listening pleasure; so examples here are edited and sequenced and cut together on the wheels of steal; there’s no talking either (at least not by me), so you need to download the playlist to get the details, backstory and relevance of each of the pieces featured. In this new episode, Chris Cutler explores otherworldly cruises through the many and wildly various applications of Maurice Martenot’s glorious instrument, with a side bar on the Trautonium.

In this new instalment of Undead Matter, Cultural theorist, Astrida Neimanis speaks with permafrost hydrologist, Nikita Tananaev, discussing the cultural, philosophical and ecological implications of permafrost degradation as it disrupts ancient ecosystems suspended in the ice.

In PROBES #34 a sequence of new, purely electronic, instruments appear – amongst them (the) electrophon, kurbelspharophon, ondes Martenot, dynophone, croix sonore, pianorad, trautonium and mixtur trautonium – none having any obvious place in the existing vocabulary of musics. In parallel an alien aesthetic begins to redefine the parameters of ‘musical’ sound.

Undead Matter, a new series by Sophie J Williamson, is an unfolding conversation about where life lies in the ever-turning matter of our universe, as it rhythmically resurfaces over millennia. In this third episode, writer, Daisy Hildyard speaks with marine microbiologist, Karen Lloyd about 100-million-year-old microbes, that breathe and excrete minerals: bridging the organic and the non-organic, the living and the non-living. 

Undead Matter, a new series by Sophie J Williamson, is an unfolding conversation about where life lies in the ever-turning matter of our universe, as it rhythmically resurfaces over millennia. In this second episode, poet Myung Mi Kim speaks with geographer, Kathryn Yusoff about the lives and histories demarcated in the silence between words and amongst rock strata.

Undead Matter, a new series by Sophie J Williamson, is an unfolding conversation about where life lies in the ever-turning matter of our universe, as it rhythmically resurfaces over millennia. In the first episode, artist and poet, Himali Singh Soin and astrobiologist, Prof Chandra Wickramasinghe discuss signs of life from the cosmos, the theory of panspermia and the biosphere of the galaxy.

In this new Auxiliary by Chris Cutler, we’ll find the Theremin at work in art ensembles, symphony orchestras, a jazz group, rock bands and on film and television scores – both alone and in quantity –, and there’s a rare sighting of Nikolai Obukhov’s Croix Sonore from his extraordinary Third and Last Testament.