For the Country Entirely is a sonic re-staging of the Gertrude Stein short story of the same name. The piece is voiced by Anna Benavides, Brian Taylor and John Wanzel. Sounds and text were arranged and edited by John Wanzel.

The piece was created for Erik Belgum’s softpalate in celebration of the roughly 100th anniversary of Gertrude Stein’s Geography and Plays. This piece and five others were released in around 2002 on ubu web.

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The beach, bombs, parachutes, gunfire and a song. The 24 hours of the D-Day invasion has been compressed into one.

The second in the ad hoc War Trilogy- DDAY60 first aired on The 60th anniversary of the D-Day invasion (June 2004) as part of the Blind Spot radio program. Featuring the voices of John Wanzel and Brian Taylor with Peter Rosenbloom on cello and Jacob Christopher on computer, engineered by Philip von Zweck, written, composed and produced by John Wanzel. Continue reading →

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In the future… Charlton Heston’s unfrozen head is the last banker in a communists dystopia; a story about studdering, language and new years; interviews about the United States; a song about jetpacks.

The Omega Banker first aired in July of 2000 on the Something Else ( WLUW 88.7 Chicago 1995 – 2010), hosted by Philip von Zweck . It is the first of the ad hoc War Trilogy. I am repackaging a few radio works from the 2000’s and re-releasing them on the podcast.

The piece features the voice talents of Jen Crouse, Carrie Harold, Doug McHoney, and John Wanzel. It was written by James Zika and John Wanzel and produced by John Wanzel. About 50 minutes.

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A story about love and the 16th president of the United States. Cardiac Lincoln is the second work in the ad hoc Young Love Trilogy, a repackaging some of my older work as part of this podcast.

It was originally written and preformed in 2003. This recording is from a slightly revised version that was produced in 2005 for the Blind Spot Radio Program, wluw 88.7 Chicago. Featuring the talents of Brian Taylor, Eric Humphreys, Jake Quickel, Lisa Miller and Jenny Walters. Composed, written and produced by John Wanzel.

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The first work in the ad hoc Young Love Trilogy, a repackaging of old work for the stopGOstop podcast.

Pear is an experimental sound piece for radio that consists of a series of narrative and sonic vignettes. The piece is concerned in general with how despair and desire effect the creation of a self that is mediated by personal and cultural experience. The text material for the project was produced by answers to fill-in-the-blank workbooks, as well as writings influenced by sections of St. Augustine’s Confession, Soren Kierkegaard’s A Sickness unto Death, and Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex, in light of genetic engineering, a psychobiography, along with language and computer systems. Written and directed by John Wanzel featuring the voices of Anna Benavides, Brian Taylor, and John Wanzel, Produced by John Wanzel. It was engineered by Pete Wenger at Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago, IL) This piece was made possible through the 2001 Experimental Sound Studio Residency Program, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. This project was supported by a Community Arts Assistant Program grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Illinois Arts Council Access Program (2002). Pear was also selected to participate in the 2002 Outer Ear Festival of Sound, Chicago, IL.

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A rebroadcast of the Blind Spot radio program from December 11, 2005, and evening of landscapes, some real, some imagined. Microlandscapes features the talents of Richard Holland, Anna Clark, Peter Rosenbloom, Eric Humpherys, Brian Taylor, Philip von Zweck, and John Wanzel.

I am re-releasing some old sound work from the 2000’s on this podcast along side new field recordings and sound art.

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