The pop up radio station Radiophrenia has put out an open call for soundscapes, spoken word pieces, radio experiments, found sound and innovative drama or documentaries. Based in Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts, this year’s edition will be broadcasting between 9–22 November, and its programme will include live shows, pre-recorded features and in-studio performances, social distancing measures permitting.

“Radiophrenia aims to promote the medium of radio as an art form and encourage experimental approaches to making radio that are not catered for by mainstream stations,” reads its mission statement. “We want to hear from radio makers who are seeking a platform for their work to reach new audiences.”

As it doesn't have funding or fees for commissions, the open call is intended for existing works and should fall into one of four categories: pre-recorded radio programmes, shorter radio or sound works, experimental longform radio pieces of over two hours duration, and live presented shows or studio performances of 30–120 minutes duration. Unless particularly distinctive in concept, the station is unlikely to accept DJ mixes or music shows.

Deadline for submissions is 20 September. More information can be found on their website.

Beirut label Al Maslakh Records has released a new album by Alfred 23 Harth’s Gestalt Et Jive to raise money for victims of the Beirut explosion on 4 August. The album, called Neowise, is a collection of previously unreleased 1985 live recordings from his quartet featuring Steve Beresford, Ferdinand Richard and Peter Hollinger. All sales from the album will go to Lebanese organisations providing relief to victims of the blast.

Alfred 23 Harth’s donation follows fundraising efforts for Beirut victims launched last week by Rabih Beaini and Syrphe Records.

Gestalt Et Jive's Neowise is out now.

The Musicians' Movement has penned an open letter to the Department of Digital, Media, Culture and Sport (DCMS) and Arts Council England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Creative Scotland asking they do more to help local communities and freelance musicians during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Despite the much needed £1.57 billion support package for the arts sector, both local communities and freelance performers are being left behind,” the letter argues. "The announcement of Arts Council England's £500m Cultural Recovery Fund along with similar schemes across the UK is welcome news, but whilst the package will help to protect our national treasures and their employees over the next few months of turmoil, it will not reach the freelancers who form the core of our world-renowned music industry. As a result, the general public, who actively engage, learn and thrive through their interaction with the UK's live musical sector, are also being left behind. We will not accept a country without live music, particularly at this time of national crisis. Musicians need to get back to work.”

Proposed is a new grant scheme to enable live events to take place in line with the Covid-19 social distancing guidelines, covering the difference in income for tickets sales between 100 percent audience capacity and a reduced capacity, guaranteed minimum fee paid to each performer, fixed rate per ticket in line with a full pre-Covid venue capacity and more. Read the full letter online.

Founded by saxophonist Phil Meadows and tuba player Chris Barrett in March 2020 at the beginning of the Coronavirus lockdown measures in the UK, the Musicians’ Movement Facebook group has over 16,000 members. A fundraiser campaign is ongoing to keep the collective working.

Jenzia Burgos has announced the launch of new website The Black Music History Library. With over 1000 named resources including books, articles, documentaries, series, radio segments, and podcasts, some of which are linked to sites with free access, the site documents Black music and the Black origins of music across multiple genres from the 18th century to now.

“There are many notable archives doing similar work, yet it isn’t uncommon for some to have a limited view of Black music – one which fuels US-centrism and a preference for vernacular music traditions,” explains the library website. “This collection considers the term 'Black music' more widely, as it aims to address any instances in which Black participation led to the creation or innovation of music across the diaspora. Plainly speaking, that means just about every genre will be included here.

“Black artists have often been minimised or omitted entirely when it comes to the discussion, practice, and research of many forms of music. This library seeks to correct that”.

All materials featured are vetted by Burgos, with attempts to highlight Black authors as central to the process. Resources are sorted by genre or regional origin: spiritual, Caribbean roots, classical, punk, disco, and more. Find it online at blackmusiclibrary.com.

Geoff Gersh has compiled a collection of field recordings made during the Covid-19 quarantine period in the neighbourhoods of New York.

“A couple of days into NYC’s coronavirus quarantine, I realised the city was entering a period where it would be the quietest it's ever been in modern times,” Says Gersh. “It was amazing to consider that the sound of the city, where people, cars, trucks, buses, trains and planes are active all hours of the day and night, reached a near halt on 20 March.” Gersh compiled a list of 40 locations, and by the time he was halfway through, he decided to do every neighbourhood in all five boroughs of the city.

“I started doing some research, and while the exact number is a topic for debate, I came up with around 375 neighbourhoods that I would need to visit.” Between 23 March and 7 June, Gersh drove to each location and while remaining in his car, stuck a mic out the window and recorded for five minutes.

You can find each volume, Bronx, Queens, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Staten Island, on Bandcamp.

Elsewhere, Alan Licht examined the value of another recent NYC field recording release, this time by New York Public Library. Read about the anthology of nostalgic field recordings, Missing Sounds Of New York, in In Writing.

Bob Mould has announced the October release of Distortion Anthology, a 24 CD box set spanning his career from 1989–2019. Assembled by Mould himself, it includes 18 studio albums, four live albums and two albums of rarities and collaborations documenting music made under his own name and with Sugar, plus his electronica projects Loudbomb and Blowoff, and more.

“It’s called Distortion because it describes the music and it fits the world we live in,” explains Mould. “In this new age, everybody shares their life in real time. But I’m not done yet. If I didn't have a constantly active career, this anthology might feel like the proverbial dirt landing on top of my coffin – though somehow I seem to be able to crawl my way out of the dirt every time!”

Remastered by Jeff Lipton, the box set features new artwork by Simon Marchner, unseen ephemera and sleevenotes from Keith Cameron, including an interview. Also forthcoming is a series of four vinyl box sets covering the same 30 year period.

Watch Mould performing “Could You Be The One?”, a song from Hüsker Dü’s sixth and final studio album Warehouse: Songs And Stories (1987), at Washington DC's 9:30 Club in October 2005, and included on the anthology’s Distortion Plus: 1989–2019 rarities and collaborations disc.

Distortion: 1989-2019 CD box set the 8 LP series Distortion: 1989-1995 is released on 2 October via Demon Music Group.

Marketed as the first ever history of drone music, Harry Sword’s Monolithic Undertow: In Search Of Sonic Oblivion documents its manifestations, from those generated on the first musical instruments created by our Neolithic ancestors through to Brian Eno, Nico, La Monte Young, Sunn O))), Jah Shaka and Hawkwind. “These experiences are akin to an audio portal – a sound Tardis to silence the hum and fizz of the unceasing inner voice. The drone exists outside of us, but also – paradoxically – within us all; an aural expression of a universal hum we can only hope to fleetingly channel,” reads the book's synopsis.

Harry Sword's Monolithic Undertow: In Search Of Sonic Oblivion will be published in February 2021.

Pianist and composer Sarah Nicolls' new project 12 Years will be performed over 12 nights between 8–25 October. Inspired by the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report declaring that there were just 12 years left to change behaviour in order to save the planet, the piece comprises of 12 movements composed for Nicolls’ Inside-Out Piano (a vertical grand designed to play the strings directly), combined with snippets of news headlines and conversations.

It was recorded during lockdown, with online performances now replacing some of the scheduled live dates. On selected nights Nicolls will be joined by climate scientists for post-show discussions.

“I wanted to make a recital to give an audience time and space to think about the climate and ecological emergency and to leave with a sense of what could be done,” says Nicolls. “The Inside-Out Piano perfectly resonates the organic and potentially cataclysmic nature of the emergency whilst also tenderly cradling tentative hope.”

Full 12 Years dates can be found on Sound UK's website. Listen to some excerpts on Soundcloud.

Morphine Records label founder Rabih Beaini has started a fundraising campaign for Beirut, donating all proceeds from both the 7 August Bandcamp Friday and a new compilation directly to NGOs Food Heritage Foundation, Matbakh Albalad and the Lebanese Red Cross, as well as to volunteers in the area.

Called The Sacred Rage, the new compilation features contributions from The Bug, Donato Dozzy, Jerusalem In My Heart, Monolake, Thomas Brinkmann and Rashad Becker, and is available to buy on Bandcamp.

Watch a video for Radwan Ghazi Moumneh’s “Qalouli (They Told Me)” from The Sacred Rage

Earlier this year Beaini contributed to the 56 track compilation fundraiser WorldWideWindow to raise money for the Red Cross in light of the Covid-19 pandemic. Also new on Morphine is Marta De Pascalis's album Sonus Ruinae, released on 7 September.

The Syrphe label specialising in electronica, noise and experimental music from Asia, Africa and elsewhere is also raising money for the Beirut disaster. It has put together the four volume benefit compilation Retrieving Beirut, featuring 97 artists and bands from over 40 countries.

This year hcmf// have replaced its usual ten-day festival with a three-day online concert series. “Whilst this is a huge disappointment to everyone involved with the festival, the safety and wellbeing of our staff, volunteers, artists and audiences – many of whom come to Huddersfield from across the UK and around the world – has been the primary consideration in reaching the decision,” states the festival’s Artistic Director, Graham McKenzie.

The festival has also announced that the Israeli-American composer Chaya Czernowin, who was to take the role of Composer in Residence for the 2020 edition, will now do so for 2021.

To date, the festival has awarded more than 20 commissions for its 2020 and 2021 editions, including for James Dillon, Laurence Osborn, John Butcher, Laura Bowler, Rebecca Saunders, Sam Hayden, Chaya Czernowin, Ailie Robertson, Una Monaghan, and Angharad Davies. They've also set up a specific Covid-19 fundraising project to help fund five UK based artists for a work to be presented at a future edition of the festival. Winners of that £1000 fund are Natalie Sharp, Timothy Cape, Nwando Ebizie, Luke Nickel and Cath Roberts.

Another award sees the festival team up with the Riot Ensemble on the solo instrument project Zeitgeist, with commissions given to Auclair, Heloise Tunstall-Behrens, Tonia Ko, Matthew Grouse, Anna Appleby and Hannah Kendall.

hcmf// takes place online from 20–22 November. Full information can be found on their website.