“The mountain sleeps; dreams stone. Festooned with power lines and communications towers, striated by long-ago meltwater and creeks that have since evaporated, blown bald by the prevailing winds. Some day, come earthrise or landfall, the mountain will walk out into the sea. Until then, micro-movements in the sediment and rock are its uneasy speech, while the antennae atop its massive breathing shoulders continue to call and respond.”

Anna Friz / Absolute Value of Noise‘s ‘Morse Mountain‘ overnight generative piece is inspired by coastal mountains that have been implicated in human long distance communications and listening, whether occupied by overland telephone and telegraph cables, military monitoring stations, radio and acoustic beacons for ships and airplanes, or 5G cell towers.

‘Morse Mountain‘ considers the ephemeral human occupations of signal space as they overlay mineral durations; fireflies buzzing around ancient beings that have merely paused to rest.

Consider it an official unofficial kick-off to next Tuesday’s 24 Hours of Radio Art 2023 programming!  (Program guide forthcoming!)

Starting at 2 AM Pacific on CITR FM 101.9, streaming at PLAYER.CITR.CA

(Photo Credit: Anna Friz / Absolute Value of Noise)