Andrea Langlois et al - Islands of Resistance - Pirate Radio in Canada

190 • islands of resistance
radio, he sculpts recordings of conversations using reel-to-reel audio
tape, to create what he called Contrapuntal Radio. Gould’s sonic techniques
were mistaken for a mistuned dial by listeners, as there were
often two or three voices collaged together simultaneously. This technique
was groundbreaking at the time, and has become commonplace
in today’s world of sound art.
It’s important to note that the work of Schaeffer and Gould was
created within the confinements of licensed radio, at a time when
experimental studios were funded alongside large radio stations. Such
funding does not exist today, and the need for unlicensed pirate radio
art on the airwaves is even more relevant in today’s world of oversaturated
airwaves catering to the Top 40 and classic rock. A prime
example of the motives of publicly funded national radio is the decision
to cut CBC radio’s program Outfront in 2009. This was the only
CBC-funded program that often helped furnish the tools for the creation
of Canadian radio art and showcased the stories of “everyday
Canadians.”
As a reference to some of the early audio techniques I have mentioned,
I composed a piece that was performed at the sound and media
festival Signal and Noise in Vancouver in 2007. I had field recordings
cut to lacquer records and recorded on audiotape, and mixed these
sounds with the micro-pirate broadcast of field recordings from my
laptop and USB transmitter capable of broadcasting 150 feet. In effect,
I was able to use three different generations of sound recording technology
in one performance. The composition recreates several journeys
I had taken repeatedly while living on a northern Gulf Island,
off the coast of British Columbia, and orchestrates these journeys
through mixing field recordings. From a winter ferry crossing, to an
ocean with American widgeons floating around, to a roadside with
frogs chirping in the ditch and cars passing by, to a train ride down
Vancouver Island — these are the sounds that are part of a rich rural
soundscape, in which every sound has its own place. Inspiration for
this work came from artists such as Hildegard Westerkamp, and from
the history of soundscape study, electroacoustic music, acoustic ecology
and soundwalks that are prevalent on the west coast of Canada.
The techniques that I am exploring in my work (collecting recordings
from different environments and using them as material for
sound collage on the airwaves) were established as early as the forties,
and continued their use through the fifties and sixties. The 1960s