24/7 crowdsourced soundscape by composer Lisa Bielawa
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BFH Radio - Broadcast from Here - was a continuous and evolving soundscape composed by Lisa Bielawa, incorporating words, voices and found audio from participants all over the world, launched one year after many of our communities went into pandemic lockdown. It addressed itself to the questions: What are the sounds of our world today? What thoughts preoccupy and guide us through this time?
This work, like Broadcast from Home, took its process from the exigencies of its time. BFH Radio morphed as contributions were made by the public, integrated and combined – spoken voices, sung phrases composed from testimonies, instrumental phrases, and field recordings. BFH Radio gathers the sounds of people’s first-hand experiences with daily life, wherever they are in the world, and weaves these together with musical materials. From the sounds of people in their own homes navigating their peculiar reality to the comfortingly timeless sounds of the natural world around us, people are sharing where they are at, and where they are going from here.
Featured correspondents from fifteen U.S. states and territories and nine countries connect us across vast distances: spoken text and field audio from Anthony Onugba (Abuja, Nigeria); sung and spoken text from Ami Yamasaki (Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan) and Naledi Sikhakhane (Hammersdale, KwaZulu-Natal South Africa); violinist Jimena Burga Lopera (Arequipa, Peru); birdwatcher and dulcimerist Andrew Purdam (Canberra, Australia); violinist Zagisha Kamil (Almaty, Kazakhstan); electric guitarist Moritz Sembritzki (Berlin, Germany); composer Zibuokle Martinaitye (Lithuania); sound artist and ICU nurses’ assistant Connor Freeman (London, UK); composer and organist Filippo Perocco (Treviso, Italy); cellists Rocío Díaz de Cossío (US, Iceland); Frances-Marie Uitti (Amsterdam, the Netherlands), Nicolas Prost (Paris, France), Vache Sharafyan (Yerevan, Armenia), Ana Sofia da Silva Teixeira (Porto, Portugal), Charleen Andújar (Dorado, Puerto Rico), Fumiko Miyamoto (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil) and Edith Knight Magak (Nairobi, Kenya). They join a growing list of musicians including pianist Sarah Cahill; keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Mick Rossi; violinist Colin Jacobsen; baritone Gregory Purnhagen; flutist and vocalist Alex Sopp; hornist Mike Atkinson; clarinetist Scott Chiu; violinist Rebecca Fischer; vocalist Elisa Peimer; bassist Zachary Baker; flutist Shannon Lewis; vocalist Federico Hewson; violinist Nastasja Vojinovic; electric guitarist Mark Sullivan; vocalist Leandra Ramm; flutist Seamus Hubbard Flynn; oboist Noah Durnell; 5-string violinist Lily Desmond; vocalist Ellen Stark; violinist Natalie Darst Xia; participants from the Fresh Inc Festival; and members of Fifth House Ensemble.
People participated in BFH Radio Telephone by calling the BFH Radio Hotline and leaving a voicemail message or by uploading contributions to the BFH Radio Portal, responding to these prompts:
Speak or sing your answers to either or both of these questions:
Where are you at?
Where will you go from here?Share "Where you are at" by contributing field audio - recordings of any sound or environment that gives an audio snapshot of your world and your community - from wherever you are.
Sing or play the musical phrases below.
These contributions were integrated into the soundscape on a rolling basis, resulting in a sound stream, available 24/7, that partnered us as we moved through the changes brought about by post-quarantine life.
The BFH Radio community thanks Jim Rosenfield and Joe and Nancy Walker for their generous support of BFH Radio. BFH Radio was supported by New Music USA’s Creator Development Fund with major support from Howard Gilman Foundation, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, The Amphion Foundation, Sony Music Group, Cheswatyr Foundation, The ASCAP Foundation, and BMI Foundation. Support for the New Music Creator Development Fund is also provided by contributions from the New Music USA endowment. Visit newmusicusa.org/2021-creator-development-fund for a complete list of donors.
The launch of BFH Radio - Broadcast from Here was a fiscally sponsored project of Kaufman Music Center.