Weekend rain
Jan 17, 2022, 08:41 AM
"As a natural life cycle occurrence, death invites either solidarity or diplomacy. The death of Japan’s Emperor Hirohito in the first January weekend of 1989 brought an end to the so-called ‘62 year-long “Shōwa” (昭和) period of war and peace’. With imperial Japan’s atrocities during World War II long laid to rest, the whole world—including nations formerly made victims of invasion and colonization—has sent its deepest sympathies. This also ushered in the birth of the “Heisei” (平成) era under the succeeding emperor Akihito. Radio NHK’s English shortwave radio broadcast reported a global response to this significant and sad event, heard at 07:50 GMT in January 7th of 1989 at 15270kHz.
“Weekend Rain” reimagines the sounds of rain, contained within recurring cyclical structures that expand in duration over time. Recordings of musical instruments—namely the piano and Japanese koto—and found objects diffuse a canvas of raining sounds as the Radio NHK broadcast interweaves with excerpts of haiku poetry I wrote in 2020 that bore the same title. While context bears no relation to the historical event during its writing, the poetry creates a unique narrative as it now forcibly responds to the broadcast: ‘Someone drops a grain of salt; Massive ocean waves jolt crowds awake! Wide-eyed stray cats rejoice.’ A Spanish numbers station broadcast I randomly recorded (07:55 UTC, October 4th of 2021 at 9065kHz) joins this poetic garb of symbolism, alluding to encryption and secrecy of intelligence communications underneath public access of information with press and media broadcasts.
This work catches a small glimpse of worlds inhabiting shortwave radio, while reflecting on the impact of Japan’s past and continuing involvement in global affairs."
“Weekend Rain” reimagines the sounds of rain, contained within recurring cyclical structures that expand in duration over time. Recordings of musical instruments—namely the piano and Japanese koto—and found objects diffuse a canvas of raining sounds as the Radio NHK broadcast interweaves with excerpts of haiku poetry I wrote in 2020 that bore the same title. While context bears no relation to the historical event during its writing, the poetry creates a unique narrative as it now forcibly responds to the broadcast: ‘Someone drops a grain of salt; Massive ocean waves jolt crowds awake! Wide-eyed stray cats rejoice.’ A Spanish numbers station broadcast I randomly recorded (07:55 UTC, October 4th of 2021 at 9065kHz) joins this poetic garb of symbolism, alluding to encryption and secrecy of intelligence communications underneath public access of information with press and media broadcasts.
This work catches a small glimpse of worlds inhabiting shortwave radio, while reflecting on the impact of Japan’s past and continuing involvement in global affairs."
Composition by Juro Kim Feliz.
Part of the Shortwave Transmissions project, documenting and reimagining the sounds of shortwave radio - find out more and see the whole project at https://citiesandmemory.com/shortwave