Revolver, ISBN 9783865884534, Germany, 2008, English
Radio is one of the mediums whose death has been announced many times. But as a phoenix, it systematically arises from its own ashes, finding new embodiments, followers and practisers - in a word, "re-inventing" itself. People from the Austrian Kunstradio know this process very well, having supported and produced radio art, becoming neither rich nor famous, since 1978. Heidi Grundmann, supported from a certain point on by Elisabeth Zimmermann, has given voice to an unbelievable number of sound artists, letting their projects realize and archiving what can be categorized as works of love for experiments with sound and waves. Nevertheless, even after such a long curatorial activity this is the first serious effort to bring together and fix on paper enough of the theory, experiences and practices brought by all these people. Again, the Kunstradio name is quietly cited here and there, but never pushed, and the two wanted to be joined by four other editors in order to make the best possible work and expand the possibilities of a serious book-anthology of texts. The result is thrilling: this is undoubtedly one of the most important books about radio art, something produced with unquestionable authority, with high-level essays, covering such a huge amount of historical performances, practices, documents and works that it would be simply unfair to try to list only a few. With almost fifty different contributors, all of them well known to those familiar with this scene, this is an unmissable text, destined to be a major point of reference.