BBC Radio 3 – Late Junction: Enter the Dream Machine … anhören! …
The dream world has long provided a rich source of inspiration to artists, from the ‘dream music’ of La Monte Young to Delia Derbyshire’s radio inventions and Aphex Twin’s music for lucid dreaming.
This month, as the UK wakes up from a year of hibernation, a time when many have experienced vivid dreams, Late Junction explores the music of dreams and the different ways they have inspired artists. In collaboration with the artist Sam Potter, we try to imagine what a communal dream, generated by the Late Junction audience, might sound like.
Last year Potter trained an artificial intelligence programme on pages from his dream diary until it could generate texts that convincingly mimicked his dreams. Over the last month, Sam has been feeding the machine dreams sent in by Late Junction listeners, and the result is a series of AI-generated, collective dream texts. We then invited a selection of composers to set these texts to music, starting with the French composer Felicia Atkinson. Verity is joined by Sam Potter to talk us through how the machine works and introduce our first commission.
Also on the show, we have a mixtape from the Kenyan sound artist and ambient musician KMRU. His work incorporates field recordings, machine learning, radio art and improvisation. For his mixtape, he dives headfirst into the dream world, crafting a kaleidoscopic, 30-minute, fever dream. Elsewhere we play devotional music from Gujarat and music by Jon Hassell inspired by Malaysian dream theory.
Produced by Alannah Chance
A Reduced Listening Production for BBC Radio 3
1 Delia Derbyshire & Barry Bermange – Running
2 Aphex Twin – Ageispolis
3 The Eccentronic Research Council – Maxine’s Dream
4 Jon Hassell – Chor Moiré
5 Shirley Collins & Dolly Collins – A Dream – Lowlands
6 Brion Gysin – I Am That I Am
7 Molly Lewis – The Forgotten Edge
8 Lady Vendredi – I Seduce
9 Brij Joshi – Aavi Chhy Sevane Kaj
10 Félicia Atkinson – We don’t have to be here to be in such a state
11 Okkyung Lee – Burning
12 Dion McGregor – Mr. Crench
13 Neil Luck – Severed Heads
14 John Holt – Ali Baba
15 KMRU – I L M C
16 Ahmoudou Madassane – Zerzura Reprise
17 DJ Raph – Chant Of The Umuhara
18 Perera Elsewhere – Drive
19 Sudan Archives – Come Meh Way
20 Nuno Canavarro – Bruma
21 Sven Kacirek – Arsenal Aluny Village
22 Charles Curtis – Unfinished Song
23 Katya Yonder – Navernyaka
24 Mary Lattimore – Sometimes He’s In My Dreams
25 Nabalayo – Domo Domo
26 Ngapa – Rain Dreaming Ceremony
27 Karan Casey – The Labouring Man’s Daughter
28 Laurie Anderson & Kronos Quartet – Dreams
29 Adrian Freedman – Nightingale Soul Call (feat. Sam Lee)
30 Mouchoir Étanche – Le rêveur illimité
31 John Zorn – The Dream Machine
32 Langston Hughes – Dreams
