Sound Propositions

Joseph Sannicandro

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Transmissions in Silver

TRANSMISSIONS IN SILVER

“I see this as spiritual music, it is translating the spirit of my life in those moments that I shared with Joseph in ways that are impossible to put into words, which is why I love it.” – Stefan

The next chapter in the ongoing artistic conversation between two friends, shaped and built upon live improvisations weaving instruments, radio captures, and punctuated by binaural field recordings of cityscape walks.

Joseph’s synth work enhances circular, frantic guitar lines laid by Stefan as footsteps ground the work in a natural rhythm of bodies resonating with stimuli of time and space.

Two lives intersecting in a room – mourning the dead, raging against injustices, channelling homeland lullabies to synthesize healing waves to pass forward.

“Take a walk at night, and walk so silently that the bottoms of your feet become ears.” – Pauline Oliveros

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Stefan Spirodon Christoff is a media maker, community activist and artist living in Montréal. Stefan hosts the program Free City Radio, broadcasting weekly on seven community radio stations in Canada and shared globally as a podcast.

Joseph Sannicandro is a writer and artist based in Montreal, studying creative labor and (un)popular culture, with particular attention to sound. His work as a writer has appeared in publications including The Journal for Sonic Studies, Cultural Critique, and in edited book collections.

credits

released November 15, 2024

Stefan Christoff – acoustic and electric guitar, bells
Joseph Sannicandro – synths, field recordings, production, mix
Mastered by Francesco Toninelli

Vocal samples from Aziz Choudry, David Graeber, and a Palestinian man recorded on the street.
Guitar sample recorded on the street in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Field recordings of walks and street sounds made in the Bronx, Montreal, Rome, Napoli, Palermo, and Vancouver

 

PRESS

The Best Field Recordings on Bandcamp, November 2024:

“Incidental, informal learning doesn’t just come through reading, it comes through conversations, it comes through doing, it comes through music,” said the late [Aziz Choudry]. Not only do Stefan Christoff and Joseph Sannicandro include this quote on Transmissions in Silver, but they put it into practice. The duo began the album by doing—recording long walks in New York, Montreal, Vancouver, Rome, Naples, and Palermo. Then, they had conversations—in fact, they call their collaboration “an ongoing artistic conversation.” And of course, there’s the music, Sannicandro’s ethereal synth responding in real time to Christoff’s languid guitar. Together, they produce minimalist, politically-minded post-rock—something like Godspeed You! Black Emperor in miniature—that’s always grounded in the urban environment, never too far from the people who are doing, conversing, making music in the streets.

 

Fringes of Sound:

Transmissions in Silver has a certain feel to it, one that feels much like pure normalcy made exquisite through unconventional means. Such a description may not make a good deal of sense, but listening to it will make it very apparent. Imagine just going about your day – walking through parks, stores, along sidewalks; stopping to visit with friends, acquaintances, strangers; and taking in sights, sounds, smells, and the feelings they evoke. But there is something accompanying all of this all well, almost like an extra presence. That is how this album flows. All of the field recordings, the bit of monologue and dialogue, the odd little synth noises, and an ever present guitar that serves as the guide for this mystically mundane adventure.
Now don’t think too much of the word mundane here, it only serves to illustrate the rather plainness of much of the field recordings’ subjects – doors creaking, the wind blowing, horns honking, the occasional siren, and birds chirping. But the sum is greater than the parts here as these recordings are recontextualized into something that ultimately feels spiritual as the guitar guides us through an otherwise normal day with a new appreciation.
While the guitar and recordings do much of the heavy lifting here, there is a great deal of very subtle synth work going on as well. These airy and subdued minor pieces give an extra added air of sentimentality and amplify the dreamlike quality of the album. These airy treatments of guitar compound with these motifs and seem to carry different weights on each track. In some tracks such as “All my body felt the mourning,” it carries a darker tone, providing counterweight to the lighter tones and tinting the track with a certain level of grey. Conversely, on “The Ocean is never far away,” the light strumming and errantly picked strings brings a light sunniness to everything, bathing the sound in warm yellow light as clicky field recordings smatter about.
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Joseph Sannicandro

writer | traveler | sound organizer | contrarian | concerned citizen

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