After years of foot-dragging, I’ve finally returned to my radio / podcasting efforts, which came sputtering to a halt in 2010 with the last of my “Belsona Academy” electronic music showcases on London’s Resonance FM.
“Anechoic Chamber” is the phoenix rising from that particular set of ashes. Rather than focusing primarily on sonic arts, this show will be dedicated to all forms and genres of creative / artistic activity, with special emphasis on the genuinely “experimental” and risk-taking. As with everything I document, the show will focus on the malleable nature of perception and reality, and the ever-proliferating number of means by which we can push the limits thereof. Each episode will attempt to illuminate either novel or long-forgotten methods of communication, expression, and information exchange.
To that end, my guests on the show will not be introduced via the traditional interview format. I want to place the emphasis squarely on the uniqueness or potency of those guests’ concepts and works, rather than on my status as a would-be “personality”, and as such I am removing myself from the equation as much as possible. In place of expected conversational exchange, only the audio of guests’ answers to questions will be broadcast, and you can expect other forms of audio to fill the conversation gap: audio collages, illustrative interludes, and perhaps silence. I find this slightly disorienting effect will work to highlight the truly essential aspects of my guests’ thought, and make good on my original inspiration: my hope that, just once before I die, I might overhear a one-sided mobile phone conversation that I actually want to hear more of.
The show title is a refutation of the concept of the “echo chamber”: a virtual space in which one can go to hear exclusively what they want to hear, in conformity with preset and static ideals. This is the great misfortune of the present digitized "culture war" era, and I hope that this show will provide some sustenance to that outnumbered segment of the population which has no “safe” space in the binary of violent ideological polarization (nor which has ever, in fact, sought out such a space). This show will feature many sentiments that deviate from even what I personally believe, a selection of guests who probably won't like one another, etc. It's foolish for me to think that commitment to a program of perpetual mutation and hybridization will always result in forms wholly appealing to me, and it's my hope that both my listeners and myself will come away from this with a greater appreciation for the vitality and exploratory potential of creators who they might not have otherwise considered.
Those familiar with my work will notice some guests, among the early contributors, who have figured prominently in that work already. However, true to the mission outlined above, I'm going to rapidly pilot this ship towards what is ‘terra incognita’ for me. As such, I encourage anyone interested in participating to get in touch with me via the “contact” page on this site. Stay tuned…