Radio jamming blocks unwanted transmissions from neighbouring countries or oppositional sources. During the Cold War, citizens behind the Iron Curtain tried to overcome jamming noise by listening through it, while the Soviet authorities further developed their jamming methods to create an iron curtain in the “Aether” space. This conflict resulted in creative sound producing techniques and curious recordings that blurred the boundaries between censorship, music, and sound art. The ambiguities between jamming, easy listening music, and bad reception extended the conflicted relationships between the state and its citizens into the aether.
Against this backdrop, Gal and Barakat transmit sound messages to each other, each creating a noise space that becomes their “region of influence.” What unfolds is a liminal feedback space in which intentions are distorted. Noise acts as the threshold that changes and defines the development of the composition, blurring the boundaries between unwanted noise and musical composition.
Commissioned as part of the CTM Radio Lab, led by CTM Festival and Deutschlandfunk Kultur – Radio Art / Klangkunst in collaboration with Goethe-Institut, ORF musikprotokoll im steirischen herbst, Ö1 Kunstradio, and The Wire magazine.