SonicAnta: EYE DEARS

A lazy Sunday morning. Sky heavy with tattered clouds. Air thick with cicada drone vibrations. Snowbirds and students have fled the summer heat for the cooler climes of places they call home.

In other words, perfect conditions for playing the University of Arizona.

Sound, words and images at: www.glennweyant.com

More? Stay tuned....

It has been three years since The Anta Project was first released and already the notion of physical walls and fences on the border have begun to become quaint artifacts.

Sensors and motion detectors have begun to replace physical barriers.

The walls, fences and barriers of our future borders will be unseen, hidden, invisible and virtual.

To honor the dawn of this new age of global insecurity and to celebrate the third anniversary of The Anta Project's release, I give you:

~ Virtual Insecurity: A Borderland Deconstruction~

This immersive sound work is built from field recordings and assorted manipulations of Virtual Walls, Virtual Fences, Virtual Migrants, Virtual Border Patrol, Virtual Militias, Virtual Insects, Virtual Drug Smugglers, Virtual Cowboys, Virtual Indians, Virtual Homeland Security, Virtual Birds, Virtual Planes and Virtual Terrorists.

This recording was a year in the making and is culled from over 20 hours of sound files.

Of course playing some of the $ 6.7 billion virtual fence towers and their assorted support cables with a cello bow and mallets is illegal.

The areas surrounding them are clearly marked with signs warning against trespassing and playing them could certainly lead to all sorts of legal hassles if such were the case.

So caveat emptor :: This virtual work is what it is, nothing more or less.

And that’s the virtual truth.

Thank’s again for your support these past three years.

Stay tuned and listen well,

Glenn
 
The World Is Your Instrument
Play It Now
While You Still Can...

A hi-fi version of Virtual Insecurity: A Borderland Deconstruction  is also available as part of the SonicAnta D-Construction Sound Series.

FULL SUBTEXT AT GLENNWEYANT.COM

The Sonoran Desert is populated by antennas of all sorts radiating sound heard and unheard. This is the first in a series of antenna sound portraits which will explore their Aeolian properties.

For this work the antenna and support cables located off Swan Road in Tucson, Arizona were mic'ed using contact microphones fixed with c-clamps and recorded. The antenna featured was anchored to the desert floor with roughly twelve 100+ foot cables, each producing unique percussive and bowed tones when interacting with the wind in an Aeolian manner.

The sound on this recording is best experienced with a sub-woofer or headphones that support deep tones. A limited run cd-r of this work is being issued as part of the D-Construction Sound Series available at DISCS.

The full work can be heard here.

More details about The Antenna Project at www.glennweyant.com

Finally set up a Facebook account this week and discovered two other Glenn Weyants' had already arrived.

One from Florida dressed in a tank-top, the other retired and relaxing shirtless on a lounge chair in Ohio.

Who knew there were so many Glenn Weyants', but more importantly how many can dance upon the head of a pin?

A Google search for other Glenn Weyants' turned up a former mayor involved in political intrigue, an anti-choice blogger outraged by uppity women, a bed and breakfast proprietor ready to serve the tired and hungry, and even a Glenn Weyant who is passionate about wearing men's pantyhose.

Are we all ghosts of paths not taken?

A lost tribe of escaped clones?

And what must we make of each other?

Don't know.

But one thing is for sure, if you're looking for sonic explorations, sound thoughts and miscellaneous ramblings then here's all you need to know:

SonicAnta.com: Sonicanta.com is still the mothership, offering an extensive library of sounds, images, details and other goods.  Watch for site improvements and extras over the coming months.

Facebook: May 7 UPDATE: Something strange went down. Glenn Weyant of Tucson was expunged by the Facebook Gods. Sad but true. One rumor has it the other Glenn Weyant's rose up in protest. Sigh. You can still find Glenn Weyant of Tucson but you'll need to search around.

Twitter:  Need more Sonic depth? Then SonicAnta Tweets are for you.  It's like opening up a big fuzzy cot somewhere between my Id and Ego and settling in.

Blog: THE PLACE for SonicAnta Subtext. If you ever wondered what the men's room drone at Trade Joe's #191 sounded like, then this blog is for you. Rambling sound, word and image adventures.

Video: SonicAnta has a dedicated YouTube Channel where everything is in motion.

Free TV : Ustream

A raw video feed of SonicBridge: 2. More event details below...

As some of you already know, Sonic Bridge : 2 a sound and image telematic performance linking musicians, poets and visual artists in Chicago, Tucson, Buenos Aires, Mexico City, and Veracruz will be broadcast live on Tuesday 3/24.

(See details and times below).

I hope you can join us.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Although people have many different opinions about what should be done
about the U.S.-Mexico border and U.S. immigration policy, it is probably more generally agreed that ideas, sound, and video should and can travel freely across borders.

Hundreds of miles of wall and fence the United States and Mexico, but performers in Chicago, Tucson, Mexico City, Veracruz, and Buenos Aires will be part of a long- distance, "telematic" performance event which will perpendicularly run through the U.S.-Mexico border wall.

Artists in all these remote locations will interact with each other in real time via the Internet on Tuesday, March 24, 2009.

(8 p.m. CDT / 7 p.m. MDT/6pm PDT / midnight Buenos Aires)

Listen to the full mix via internet audio stream from anywhere at
http://kamp.arizona.edu

Watch the video streams from various locations:
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sonicbridge
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sonicbridge-tucson
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sonic-bridge-2---buenos-aires
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sonic-bridge-mÉxico-df

At Elastic Sound & Vision Gallery (Chicago):
Amanda Gutierrez -- samples
Jayve Montgomery -- saxophones & electronics
Dan Godston -- trumpet & small instruments
Williwaw -- amplified ukulele
Ian Hatcher -- gockenspiel
Carlos Cumpian -- poetry
Noe Cuellar -- translations/text feed
($7 suggested donation, BYOB)

At KAMP studio in Tucson, Arizona -- 1570 AM:
Glenn Weyant -- Electric Ferris Box/ prepared guitar
Steev Hise -- laptop
streaming live at http://kamp.arizona.edu/

In Mexico City:
Kai Kraatz -- Nordlead
Daniel Lara -- FAT BOX
Antonio Dominguez -- video

In Veracruz:
Ernesto Romero -- laptop

In Buenos Aires:
Buenissimo Collective
Valeria Cammano Caamaño
Agustin Genoud
Leonello Zambon
Josefina Zuain
Azucena Losana -- video

MORE DETAILS:

http://www.elasticrevolution.com/
http://kamp.arizona.edu/
http://sonicbridge.blogspot.com/
http://www.sonicanta.com/home.html
http://www.myspace.com/buenisssimo
http://jayvejohnmontgomery.com/
http://www.donkeyscratch.com
http://www.futurevessel.com/noe/
http://www.kaikraatz.com
http://www.myspace.com/dangodstonmusic
http://www.joshuamanchester.com/
http://detritus.net/steev
http://telematicarts.blogspot.com/

Been adding some new features but as a result the site has had a number of glitches. Any problems let me know, should have things running smoothly this week...

Deep drone meditation from the Trader Joe's # 191 men's room at:

www.glennweyant.com

It's all in the listening....

Yep, SonicAnta has entered the newly evolving Twitter-verse.

For what it's worth: sound observations and other lurid stuff at:

http://twitter.com/sonicanta

Never heard the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show?

Now you can.

A new Sound Scouting installment posted at www.glennweyant.com

Rock on.

Tucson's last regular source for solid news about immigration and the border, The Arizona Daily Star, reported today that the border wall averaged $3.9 million per mile.

Now that is one expensive instrument folks.

I wonder what else could have been done with all that money...

"The 140 miles of pedestrian fencing put up under the Secure Border Initiative prior to Oct. 31 of last year cost an average of $3.9 million per mile with costs ranging from $400,000 to $15.1 million a mile, a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday found."

"That per-mile average is more than the $3 million estimated by the Congressional Budget Office in August 2006 and much more than the $2.2 million estimated by the Senate used during the immigration reform debate that same year."

"Even the highest estimate at the time, $3.2 million per mile from U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., ended up being too low. " --- Arizona Daily Star, Brady McCombs 1/30/09

Gung Hei Fat Choy.

Gentle winter rains have returned to the desert, laying the groundwork for the coming season of wildflowers.

As a New Year's gift to you, I've posted a track of rain falling upon a tin porch roof and interacts with other random objects"HERE"

This track allows the patterns of the rain to dictate the tempo and tones.

As clouds arrive and pass the tones alter accordingly.

This track will also appear in an extended work later this year.

More can be found at: www.glennweyant.com

If an airduct drones in the heart of Tucson's semi-abandoned El Con Mall and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

Wonder no more.

Sound answers to the questions that vex one's soul in the tawdry hours of dawn await at: www.glennweyant.com

Be. Hear. Now.

SonicAnta launched a subtext site today at:www.glennweyant.com

More a flog of the mental slog than a traditional blog,www.glennweyant.com will be a repository of unique content and further more ranging beyond the scope of SonicAnta.

Plus you will get a chance to weigh-in and help drive this beast forward.

Will this lead the way down some new twisty, windy paths?

Dunno.

But not to worry.

SonicAnta will still be the home of the sonically depraved, offering all the usual aural goodies and doodads you've come to expect and deserve.

So stay tuned and hope to see you there.

And here.

New sounds"HERE."

On Thursday December 11, (fourty-five years to the day that I was first slapped into this existence in Hackensack, New Jersey), I’ll be celebrating my seminal birth milestone by bowing steel in Tucson, Arizona at The Loft Cinema.

The 20-minute set will be part of The 6th Annual All Souls International Film Festival which is a two day event exploring death and rebirth via cinema.

For this event I'll be working with some new instruments, a short circuiting shortwave radio, and prepared sound samples.

Video artist, event coordinator and psychograper extraordinaire Adam Cooper-Teran will be adding his unique vision to the live soundscape with a wall of images and visual delights.

If you are not familiar with Adam’s work, I’ll let his images speak for themselves rather than clutter it up with words: "ANTRAL.NET"

I’m looking forward to finding out where our visual soundscape collaboration morphs to.

Working with Adam is an honor and perhaps best of all for those who will be attending, the audience will be able to take this all in on The Loft’s sprawling vintage movie screen.

More details about event can be found at: "THE LOFT"

The Gearwire Tapes

Recently I was turned on to www.gearwire.com and the work of reporter Gretchen Hasse who I had the pleasure to speak with about The Anta Project last month.

Gearwire.com is a fantastic repository of mostly video gear tips, techniques and interviews.

The four-part series Gretchen produced on The Anta Project takes a look at the hardware I used to create the work so now there’s really no reason for you not to can get out there and play the world.

But perhaps best of all the interview was done via the phone, so I sound a bit like The Central Scrutinizer which is wonderfully appropriate for this new age of Homeland Security.

The White Zone is for loading and unloading only indeed.

The full series links:
1. http://www.gearwire.com/sony-icdp520-review.html
2. http://www.gearwire.com/dod-fx80b-review.html
3. http://www.gearwire.com/korg-cm100l-review.html
4. http://www.gearwire.com/schaller-oysterpickup-review.html

Chicago bound whirlwind has abated.

A wonderful time and much to pass on.

Geologically The Chicago Calling Arts Festival was the bedrock.

In a burst of three degrees of separation, it appeared everyone has a connection to Dan Godston, the event's key coordinator and meteor trumpeter.

Via Dan a gig was put together on the evening of October 8 at The Peter Jones Gallery, a dynamic creative space with random stadium seating.

That gig paired myself with legendary Springboard designer Eric Leonardson and concussion percussion extrapolation experimenter Matt Weston.

Lumped into that group was a creature called the Artbot run by Michael Erzen which painted images based on our improvised sounds.

You can download that set in three parts HERE.

Be sure to note the occasional passings of the EL racing by.

October 9 brought me to The School of the Art Institute of Chicago for a presentation about The Anta Project with Eric’s class.

Afterwards I had a chance to sit in on a session by Eric teaching the finer points of building contact mics.

Great stuff and a whole new generation being set free with sounds and instruments of their own design.

Over the next two days gears were shifted as The Anta Project took root at Chicago Public Radio’s Third Coast International Audio Festival as an installation.

Many conversations and connections via The Anta Project with radio producers from around the globe, informative sessions, free beer and a bit a radio celebrity gawking.

Riding the elevator with Noah Adams talking about Stan Freberg, being asked by the Kitchen Sister’s 'So how exactly do you play the border?' and meeting with Jane Feltes of This American Life (Hey, isn't that Ira Glass?) were all highlights.

But so too was the open bar on the first night.

A great selection of cold beer and appetizers.

And just in case you might wonder what a couple hundred radio people in an acoustically twisted room with an open bar sound like: LISTEN HERE.

With so many talking, I was only too happy to listen.

Now you can too.

Stay tuned,
Glenn

A fun article about "THE RAIL" appears in the fall edition of Signal-to-Noise ~ The Quarterly Journal of Improvised, Experimental and Unusual Music.

There are also some wonderful articles about Thee Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra and Tra-La-La Memorial Band, the various summer festivals and the D.C. scene unseen in the same issue.

So if you get a chance pick up a copy.

STN is always an enjoyable read.

Seven Black Angles is a feedback collaboration between myself, Barry Chabala, Matt Sekel and Mike Yarrish, three musicians and sonic experimenters whose work I admire greatly.

For this work all participants utilized feedback generated through unique methods to create four separate "seed" tracks which were then remixed, manipulated and edited by each musician to create four separate sonic outcomes.

Barry's original track was created with laptop, mic and speakers.

Matt's original track was created with processed guitar and effects.

Mike's original track was created with no-input feedback and electronic effects amplified.

My contribution was generated by an instrument of original design (FeedForward aka: Spokes and Sound) and pump organ.

The parameters for this project were as follows:

1. Each musician recorded a feedback "seed" track then made it available to the other participants.

2. Each participant then collected the tracks, manipulated and responded to them.

Seven Black Angles is my vision of the final mix.

Matt's piece titled: "Feedback4Quartet" and Mike's piece titled: "New Machines Not Safe" can be found HERE.

Barry's piece titled: "new, improved lowfat eric" can be found HERE.

Thank you, as always, for listening. I hope you enjoy the show.

Hope you enjoy these visuals for Sonoran Sound Work #18, created with bowed saguaro bones, insects, planes and wind.

This segment was recorded on 08-08-08.

Stay tuned for further more.

Some of the search terms that drive people to SonicAnta rise from the depths of obtuse connections.

Not sure why these connections are made.

Imagine winding up here while looking for research on oyster drones.

Navras indeed...

Goose Mystic Mocking Birds
Written by: Electronic Searchers
Compiled by: Glenn Weyant


crowd station
goose mystic
lacking
thunderlight vegetation

metal boundary
wall designs
nail pedal organ
pigeons

wall harp
mystics mocking
bird squid head
howling

free porn
high massed walls
austrian redbug
oyster drones

divine wisdom
electric dears
scrap designs
downloaded

sex dungarees
desperation
pink gorilla
masturbation

sounds grow
india decays
in lava
summer's heat

vintage radios
water towers
a desert tree
unearthed

wind harps
woodgrain bikes
who invited
this navras
electric fan

I can't help but wonder if Senator Obama heard King David's Wall calling.
~See the video below for more.~

Now how about a similar speech on the U.S./ Mexico border...

From ABC News, July 25:

Senator Obama challenged a new generation of Americans and Europeans to tear down walls between estranged allies, races, and faiths in a soaring call for global unity at an unprecedented mass campaign rally overnight.

The Democratic White House candidate told tens of thousands of people near the footprint of the old Berlin Wall that humanity faced a perilous turning point, and it was time to build "a world that stands as one."

Senator Obama's speech was a clear echo of former US president Ronald Reagan's call to then Soviet leader Mikhael Gorbachev in Berlin in 1987 to "tear down this wall," before the fall of Communism.

"People of the world -- look at Berlin, where a wall came down, a continent came together, and history proved that there is no challenge too great for a world that stands as one," he said.

Jon Rose and Hollis Taylor were in town this week from Australia as part of a three day trip along the US/Mexico border.

From California through Arizona they've been checking out and playing some of the newly built walls and fences that separate the two countries.

If you have not had a chance to check out their workyou should.

From Hollis' spot-on transcriptions of bird song and fence music, to Jon's passion for violins and pretty much all things bowed, it is worth the trip and time.

On the second day they were here, Jon and I set out for Sasabe, a sleepy port of entry town in Southern Arizona, to explore the sonic possibilities.


Two years ago I'd played some of the barbed wire fences, migrant water jugs, shrines and other ephemera in the area as part of The Anta Project.

Returning two years later, it was odd to see how much has changed in that period of time (See the photos Jon took of the old fencing that still stands in Mexcio and the new wall).

Where ocotillo posts, mattress coils, hundred year old train rails and barbed wire once delineated the border, a sprawling wall of steel columns and so-called "virtual fences" have sprung up.

While it's questionable how long those structures will last or how effective they will be at keeping people out, it was clear the new wall can make some elegant music.

Tunneling, ladders, hack saws, or simply walking around the locations where the wall terminates seem to be some kinks they still need to work out.

Personally, I can think of no better way to celebrate freedom as an American on this Fourth of July weekend than traveling the Arizona outback, conversing with Homeland Security checkpoint guards armed with Geiger counters, getting pointers on the fine art of fence bowing, meeting the people who are walling in the country, banging on some imported steel, improvising with hovering Border Patrol helicopters and basking in the beauty that is the Sonoran Desert.

Till again, stay tuned and let freedom ring.

Glenn

~~ And yes, I now know traveling is spelled with only one L. Everyone's an editor these days. Yeesch! ~~

Tired of baking in the summer heat?

Then SonicAnta's got just the cooling relief your fevered mind is craving.

Thanks to an unprecedented and historic joint collaboration between SonicAnta and The Two Sun Sin Phony Orgestra, for a limited time you are now invited to join The Tucson Electric Fan Appreciation Society (T.E.F.A.S.)

Membership includes a T.E.F.A.S. Certificate of Membership suitable for framing, and a copy of Electric Fan Sound Works, a thirty minute odyssey into white noise and beyond.

This recording was created by mic-ing and recording an oscillating Honeywell electric fan with a variety of microphones strategically placed to "play-up" the fan's assorted tones, drones and nuances.

Those tracks were then processed and mixed into a single work which best represents an immersive electric fan event.
It is the hope of The Tucson Electric Fan Appreciation Society (T.E.F.A.S.) that this recording will open the door to your own personal discoveries, observations and enjoyment of the fans swirling around you everyday.

So what are you waiting for?

JOIN T.E.F.A.S. TODAY!

And as an added incentive, if you order today, an additional mystery disc will be included at no additional charge.

So dim the lights, find a cool comfortable place, ideally between two speakers, breathe deep and enjoy the fan.

(Note: This recording is also being issued as part of the SonicAnta D-Construction Series. Subscribers to the series receive the disc and automatic acceptance into the T.E.F.A.S. at no extra charge.)