The Enigma Variations

Number stations are a strange type of unattributed shortwave radio broadcast found outside the 'fixed station' bands, which transmit strings of numbers that are registered in morse code or sequences of tones. For decades radio enthusiasts have documented these radio events. The refusal of governments and radio licensing agencies to acknowledge their existence, plus fragments of evidence found in autobiographies and the claims of cryptographers, seem to prove the theory that these are coded messages sent to espionage agents in foreign lands.. These broadcasts can be freely heard by anyone with the patience to listen, and identify themselves through patterns of voice-type, language type, frequency, time of broadcast and call signal. For the installation The Enigma Variations, artist Nick Thurston has collated ten archives of number station broadcasts heard over the last twelve months. Through a live system of over-laying and infinite re-sequencing the mechanisms of the installation make these instantiations of language formulae present in the museum as a refined audio work, reverberating unpredictably around the visually present images of the museum collection and written/performed language of the festival presentation.

Progress

Carolyn Thompson has created Progress, audio guides that describe buildings that no longer exist. The guides are informed by a period of research in the Bury Museum + Archives, where they will be available to visitors during the Festival. Using archive material and fictitious narrative to create a coherent and believable journey, the audience is taken on a tour of buildings in the central Bury area that have been destroyed or demolished, during which participants are only able to imagine in their mind's eye the sights described to them. Exploring themes of loss and memory, the guides exist in the space between reality and fiction and examine the ambiguity of authenticity. The guides hope to examine how written documentation can be misinterpreted, and these misconceptions can subsequently become history.

Language

The final commission is from Claus van Bebber, a German turntable-sampling artist with a big following on the continent. Bebber is strongly influenced by Fluxus and Dadaism and uses old vinyl records to blur vocal sounds and overlay in loops with additional layers of repetition to create a sound landscape. In his solo concerts he uses a number of antiquated turntables (usually five or six) to play prepared records bought in cheap second-hand stores. Van Bebber uses wah-wah and distortion pedals for electric guitarists to further modify the signals of his crystal pick-ups. This challenging new work will be premiered on Saturday 2 May at the Met Arts Centre in Bury.

German artist Claus van Bebber is an avant-garde sound artist. He is also co-founder of the artists group 'Heinrich Mucken' and has participated in many exhibitions and festivals including documenta 8. www.cvbebber.de