System Failure: Sounds, scenes and histories of women and queer folks in electronic experimental music. at Kiosk Radio

System Failure is a monthly radio show/documentary, currently holding a residency at the independent community radio Kiosk Radio (https://kioskradio.com), and previously airing for two years on the independent online radio Internet Public Radio. The show is focusing on histories of women and queer folks in electronic experimental music, mostly outside the dominant Anglo-American contexts (but including US and Canadian marginalized and indigenous artists in its scope), seeking different trajectories in the use of music technologies, histories of scenes and places as well as community and belonging. The show’s format ranges from interviews/discussions and audio documentaries, to story-telling along with music, field recordings and archival material. System Failure showcases music from a variety of genres (with attention to electronic and experimental music) that is made primarily by individuals who identify as women, queer folks but also marginalized communities along with histories of their local scenes and influences/roots, surrounding and interrelated works of sound-art, film, writing, spoken word including, interviews with artists, DJs, producers, collectors, labels, cultural critics, collectives etc. The show aims to emphasize scenes and genres where the above artists’ contribution remains obscured, exploring local scenes that don’t get exposure to mainstream or even alternative media, as well as the work of labels, DJs and collectors that discover, preserve and give public access to those works. Some of System Failure’s previous guests include KP Transmission, Jordi Serano (Domestica Records), the Greek feminist artists' collective Critical Music Histories; Mark Gergis and Yamen Mekdad of the Syrian Cassette Archives; music historiographer/artist Johann Merrich; several documentary-style tributes on artists/scenes such as Pamela Z and Ultra Red Some of the broader themes the show engages with are decolonizing electronic music histories, the role of institutions in the current cultural production, diasporic scenes, transnational artists’ solidarity and more political aspects of music making along the lines of gender, race and class.

System Failure follows the amazing KP Transmission (Karina Kazaryan) on her sonic memory trip through Armenia, Georgia and Russia, showcasing her works from the days of the band Fans Kaplan to the emergence of KP Transmission and her other artistic projects. Karina talks about her influences, process of creating music and various inspirations, from sounds to literature as well as the role of mysticism, ancestry and the occult in her more recent work.

System Failure follows the journey of Vietnamese composer and sound artist Lý Trang, through both her own work and her influences of Vietnamese traditional and electronic experimental sounds, touching on creative processes, ideas of community and belonging as well as transnational experiences of migration. Trang creates sounds by taking advantage of technology – in tandem with instruments and field recordings of traditional music and nature, which are rich in textures, progress and singularity. Trang has worked extensively with sound/visual artists and independent filmmakers in Vietnam and internationally.

System Failure explores the work of Pamela Z, San Francisco-based composer, performer and new media artist. Pamela Z works are based on voice and live electronic processing, gesture controlled and censor-based instruments, and range from live performances and improvisations to sound installations and compositions. Our tribute features tracks from the albums Echolocation (1988), Adelay is better (2004), A secret code (2021) as well as collaborations with Gianni Gebbia, Moe!Staiano and Thomas Dimuzio.

In the second part of our tribute to the Greek experimental and electronic music scene and its histories, System Failure welcomes the Critical Music Histories Collective. We discuss with CMH members Alexandra Karamoutsiou, Miltos Tsigaridas, Evdoxia Ragkou and Danae Stefanou, not only why it is so difficult to trace the work of women and queer folks particularly in the electronic and experimental music historiographies. We also discuss decolonization in music institutions, ideas of "greekness", and ethics of care in teaching and artistic work, through collective and personal music histories.

System Failure explores the early 80s Spanish electronic, experimental and industrial underground with Jordi Serrano, founder of Domestica Records (Barcelona, 2010-2020) through the label’s catalogue, including artists such as Interacción, Linea Vienesa, TodoTodo, Modern Art, S.M. Nurse just to name a few. Founded in 2011, the label’s focus has been to rescue, preserve and bring new life to material from demo tapes and cassettes, from Spain but also other countries around the world, while presenting a unique visual and design direction to accompany the releases.

System Failure's fifth episode explores the Syrian Cassette Archives, a project and collective that aims to preserve, share and research sounds and stories from Syria’s cassette era (1970s-2000s). In the context of decolonizing music histories and music technologies beyond the Anglo-American West, System failure welcomes today Mark Gergis and Yamen Mekdad of Syrian Cassette Archives, discussing their work with the project, cassette as a cultural practice, the local histories and networks of innovation, the electrification of folk music and the politics and ethics of archiving and preserving marginalized cultural production among other topics.