Essay
Deep in the dial: Lawrence English on the enduring appeal of shortwave radio
June 2021
To mark The Wire's Radio Activity special issue, the Room40 label head examines the uncanny sonic properties of high frequency transmission
To mark The Wire's Radio Activity special issue, the Room40 label head examines the uncanny sonic properties of high frequency transmission
Jez riley French remembers the musician, artist, recordist and researcher known as Embla Quickbeam
As 1999's We Are DMX gains an expanded reissue, the UK electro producer revisits vintage visions of tomorrow with Joe Muggs
The French composer and computer scientist discusses his new role as an engineer developing compositional tools for GRM, and how he wants to create music that makes “life emerge from an inert thing”. Plus, stream Puech's brand new album A Geography Of Absence in full
Writer, curator and performer David Ellis pays tribute to the rebellious Romanian tape loop experimentalist, who died on 27 March 2021, aged 67
Tony Herrington researches the sources of the saxophonist’s recent outspoken pronouncements on the pandemic and Brexit.
When the Nigerian saxophonist Chris Ajilo died in February he was hailed at home as a legend of Nigerian music. Here Val Wilmer fills in the details of his formative experiences in the UK’s 1950s jazz clubs and dance halls
As Feed Me Weird Things is released in a 25th anniversary edition, Tom Jenkinson recalls the gadgets that made it tick
The US composer recalls his pivotal meeting with the pioneering dancer and choreographer who has died aged 100
Teresa Winter talks to Spenser Tomson about her new seaside themed album and presents an exclusive soggysleazysublimeseasidemix
As a complement to the cover story of The Wire 448, a two-part special on Van Der Graaf Generator, Edwin Pouncey surveys the surreal designs that adorned the covers of the early albums by the UK art rock outliers and their singer Peter Hammill
As the first guitar group on Warp receive a deluxe edition of their mid-1990s recordings their vocalist reflects on their work with Chal Ravens
Tom Tidnam talks to the long-lost cult Brazilian musician about the reappearance of his little-heard second album
As Freedom To Spend reissue The Same’s 1981 album Sync Or Swim, multi-instrumentalist Robert Cox talks to Dave Mandl about his minimalist DIY recordings and his signature group Rimarimba
Their new book aims to broaden and destabilise the common perception of the meaning of sound arts
Jazz historian and biographer Marc Chaloin pays tribute to the US saxophonist, who died on 6 April 2021 at the age of 87
More than 40 artists and associates of the soprano saxophonist contribute to a trilingual book published by Éditions Lenka Lente
Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart talks to The Wire’s Claire Biddles about the band’s new album of duets.
Ilia Rogatchevski speaks with historian Juliane Fürst about her new history of Soviet hippies and the counterculture of the former USSR
Percussionist Ben Hall reflects on his time under the tuition of the kaleidoscopic drummer, professor, martial artist and communicator