The "Anechoic Chamber" Podcast: (not quite) revisited

prospective cover art for Anechoic Chamber compilation release

As some of you may know, I ran an “audio documentary” podcast from 2020-2022 entitled Anechoic Chamber. This show was a collective search for essentiality that I felt was an appropriate response to confrontation with mortality - both during the COVID nightmare, and the period preceding and following my brother’s death. I never assumed there would be much of an audience for this show, and so I proceeded mainly with the hope that this exercise would help me to personally develop as an artist and critic of culture. In that sense, at least, it succeeded.

This show had some historical precedents in “info-taining” audio releases such as Achim Wollscheid’s “Ambivalenz & Askese” and Throbbing Gristle’s “Grief”. Like those documents, I constructed each A.C. episode as an ambient sonic collage over which each guest’s insights would float freely. Though what they said was elicited by my questioning, I did my best to minimize my own presence and to let their statements stand on their own merits. At this time I had also sickened of the Joe Rogan-style “celebrity interviewer” format, and felt this would be an interesting inversion of the wretched “influencer” culture.

This did, I suppose, at least have some commonality with what the major conversational podcasts marketed themselves as: a desire to step across the demarcation lines of my own culture, and thereby promote peace at a time when ideological absolutism had reached an apparent point of no return.

I ended this project in 2022 because of the limited prospects for it to continue living up to its name. I could have built the show completely on guest appearances by colleagues within the sound arts world, but at that point, I’d be working against the explicitly stated purpose of the show. I had hopes of being granted an audience with at least a couple prospective guests who had a "high profile" within alternative media, but I severely overestimated the degree to which they were willing to make time for small-scale guerrilla operations such as my own. Some other potential guests outside of my milieu didn’t want the association being made between them and what they perceived as “experimental” art.

Along the same lines, I didn’t want to become a promotional house organ even for people and organizations that I respected. We could maybe assign partial blame to the "art world's" acceptance of, and even expectation of, a culture in which interviewers double as the promoters / public relations men of artists, in exchange for celebrity cachet of their own (see e.g. Hans Ulrich Obrist). This is not something I want to pursue any further than I already did. I apologize to those who misinterpreted my intentions, and who wrote me wondering why I hadn't inserted more explicit advertisement for their latest work in 'x' or 'y' episode - but they've long since "ghosted" me upon realizing that I've outlived my usefulness. Such people shouldn't be surprised to find me too busy to heed the howlings of ghosts, if ever they need any additional favors.

So all of this means the following: while I’m still planning on releasing an anthology of all 24 hours’ of material at some point (and I even completed “cover art” that you see above), this is becoming less and less of a priority with each passing day. I have another book nearing completion, a fledgling record label to run, and some writing anthologies to translate into other languages. To say nothing of the duties associated with non-"creative" life. This situation can change with a significant enough level of demand for this, but at the moment, requests for re-posts of the “Anechoic…” episodes have been pretty isolated. If there *is* an episode of this that you missed and wanted to hear, you’re always welcome to send inquiries to me personally.