Nicolas Montgermont

Recorded Live at the Lion Noir festival, Montrouge, France, in June 2018. Before the invention of radio and electromagnetic wave theory, Thomas Watson spent time at night listening to the sounds “produced by the telephone” when no one was connected. Later we would learn that electricity travels through the air and that these sounds are natural radio waves heard through long power lines that act as an antenna. Long Waves Scan is born from the practice of listening to radio signals blindly. Nicolas Montgermont performed Long Waves Scan live using only a radio set as the sound source. The frequencies that passed through the site were scanned to identify interesting sounds, and then used with a set of effects to modify their timbre and temporal structure. Over time, the frequencies gradually transform into music thanks to the radio set which acted as a synthesizer.