Aerial 1
Tod Dockstader is one of the all-time great figures in the world of musique concr‚te composition, with his "organized sound" works from the 1960s being amongst the most radical ever coneived -- in league with Schaeffer, Henry, Stockhausen, and Varese. Aerial is a rare new work in the realm of shortwave radio, from one of America's most experimental composers. This release is the first (Volume 1) in a three-part series. Volume 2 and Volume 3 will be released separately and packaged in individual standard jewel cases that will conveniently fit into the slip case provided with Volume1. "I've written before of my interest in shortwave radio. When I was very young, people got most of their entertainment from radio. They called it 'playing the radio,' as if it were a musical instrument. That's what I've tried to do in this piece. About this time, a few people encouraged me to look into using a computer for this work. I'd never used one, but I saw it would allow me to keep my mixes digital -- no more transfer losses. So, at the end of 2001, I got a computer and an editing program for it, and spent what seemed a long time learning it. I began selecting mixes and loading them into the computer in late March 2002. Out of the 580, I selected 90 'best' mixes -- eventually reduced to 59, the ones included on the CDs. Finally, in assembling the CDs, I followed David Myers' suggestion to allow each piece to flow into the next -- making a continuous journey to the end." --Tod Dockstader, 14 September 2003.