this week’s edition of framework:afield was produced as a collaboration between japanese sound artist rie nakajima, london-based piano tuner ken bodden, and yours truly.  it is based on an installation nakajima made using recordings of bodden at work – she followed him to several jobs, made close up recordings of the tuning process, and played the recordings back, one per speaker, simultaneously in a single room.  the ensuing collage, far from cacophonous as one would expect, follows a beautiful progression of harmonics and crescendos, and creates surprising tonal patterns as bodden makes his way through the scale.  when i heard the piece, i knew it needed to be broadcast.  for the radio we took the project one step further, conducting a series of interviews with bodden in which he describes in detail the tuning process (much of which, to the uninitiated, is difficultly understood, but fascinating in its complexity), his history as a tuner, and his interest in nakajima’s project, while nakajima herself describes her conception of the piece, and her initial fascination when she was made aware of the commonality of blind piano tuners in the uk.  this is really a fascinating piece – if you don’t listen to the show regularly, here’s a good place to start.

patrick 2008, framework:afield

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