Anton Kats

Radio Amateur Ensemble
music ensemble / music scores / listening space
Artist Residency with Goethe Pop Up Minneapolis
Skyway System, Minneapolis, USA
Curated by Sandra Teitge

Radio Amateur Ensemble explores Minneapolis’s ham radio enthusiast community, taking the sonic, social and technological aspects of ham radio communication as a starting point for music scores, notations, improvisation and the sharing of new sound compositions. Considering listening as a generative act, Radio Amateur Ensemble transforms the Goethe Pop Up space in Minneapolis’s skyways into an open studio and a walkable audio-visual score featuring musical performances, recording sessions, set design, and an accompanying podcast.

First version of the Radio Amateur Ensemble, arising anew in different contexts and locations, is a collaboration with musicians Cole Pulice, Noah Ophoven-Baldwin, and Patrick Marschke. Developed in conversation with ham radio operators Dan Fish (call sign KB0XC) and Scott Woelm (call sign WX0V). R.A.E. invites the wider audience to take part in the ongoing dialogue exploring amateur radio as a sonic strategy and a tool manifesting new social constellations, networks and organisms.

Translating research findings sonically and rhythmically during the duration of the project, the compositions developed by the Radio Amateur Ensemble are performed and recorded live during several public events in an open studio working environment.

Releasing the recordings on a limited edition 7-inch vinyl marks a dynamic reference point for the Radio Amateur Ensemble allowing for it to be taken up and carried out in other contexts and beyond the specificity of the Minneapolises Skyway System.

Photo credits: Anton Kats, Wiley Hoard. Photo retouching: Igor Kritskiy