These transmissions are on just the right frequency for slowing down and finding your own signal in the noise. Comprising of two pulsating long-form pieces it is easy to get lost in these tones that undulate between earth and sky.
This music is ionospheric
Some music is atmospheric. This music is ionospheric. It’s a perfect soundtrack for a late-night voyage along the shortwaves of high frequencies. These transmissions are on just the right frequency for slowing down and finding your own signal in the noise. Comprising of two pulsating long-form pieces it is easy to get lost in these tones that undulate between earth and sky.
Mick Chillage took his inspiration and title from a kind of radio propagation that uses the properties of the ionosphere as a means of reflecting and refracting electromagnetic waves from a station, off the sky and back down to the Earth where they are picked up by dedicated listeners. Skywave’s are a kind of propagation that enables the long distance travel of a signal, across borders, from one country to another. This is what makes listening to shortwave radio listening so exciting. Stations from the other side of the world can be heard and picked up on simple equipment and wire antennas. It’s also what makes the amateur radio hobby so fun. Speaking into a microphone, that sends a signal into a transceiver, and out over an antenna, to be bounced off the ionosphere, and heard by another radio operator in a different part of the country or world remains extremely magical.
Like a good radio show “Skywave Transmissions” and its companion piece “HF Radiation” are easy to get lost in. Radio waves have an interesting property of getting absorbed in some elements, and reflected by others. Here the absorption is all on the listeners end. The title piece is serene and gentle, as shifting tones and micro-fluctuations flutter and transform over time. This is the kind of music I always hope to hear when I turn on my shortwave radio and scan across the spectrum, hoping to lock on to a distant DX signal. Here and there sounds reminiscent of telemetry emerge from this sonic bath of crashing radio waves.
Micro-fluctuations flutter and transform over time ::
On the darker second track, “HF Radiation” the reflections can be heard in the sinuous synth interpolations that rifle through the air as coruscations of electrified static. There is something known as “fading” when listening to shortwave, when the signal starts to disappear and fade out as the ionosphere goes through its daily changes based on its interaction with solar rays. Mick Chillage channel’s this sound of fading here with slight amounts of distortion and what I imagine as frayed wires in the circuitry of the synth. This track captures the changing sound of high-frequency radio as the earth turns, causing changes in the ionosphere.
There is not nearly enough electronic music being broadcast on the shortwaves. Sometimes you just have to put a record on. This one fits the bill until such a time as more creative DJs start spinning their work across international borders with the power of skywave. This is entirely possible for those who want to do it. WRMI, a shortwave station out of Miami, Florida and broadcasting to North America, accepts shows for a price. So does WBCQ out of Maine. Shortwave Gold is a station that beams to Europe and airtime on their transmitter can also be rented for those who are interested in producing a show. And while I would never advocate for any kind of illegal activity, there is a strong and healthy pirate radio scene on the shortwaves in North America.
For those who are interested in getting involved in the shortwave hobby, you can check out the The SWLing Post where you will find everything you need to know to get into the hobby. The shortwave listening subreddit is another good place to keep up with what is going and is a pretty friendly place for Reddit. The HF Underground is the place you want to go if you are interested in exploring the uncharted waters of pirate shortwave transmissions.
In the meantime keep your thirst for shortwave sated with this essential release from the ever prolific Mick Chillage, whose music always keeps you relaxed, never stressed.
Skywave Transmissions is available on Bandcamp.
