Incantation, Wendy (2018)

Frances Scott and Chu-Li ShewRing

“Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeosity made flesh. The trombones crunched redgold under my bed, and behind my gulliver the trumpets three-wise silverflamed, and there by the door the timps rolling through my guts and out again crunched like candy thunder.” (1)

Incantation, Wendy is a recorded broadcast for radio by Frances Scott and Chu-Li Shewring. The piece looks to the work of pioneering composer and musician Wendy Carlos. Carlos famously arranged the distinctive soundtracks for Stanley Kubrick’s ‘A Clockwork Orange’ (1971) and ‘The Shining’ (1981), and spearheaded developments on the Moog Synthesiser and use of the Vocoder.

Incantation, Wendy includes excerpts and full recordings from Carlos' extraordinary practice, including unused material intended for ‘A Clockwork Orange’ and ‘The Shining’. and recordings by the Scott and Shewring, as music from the recording session bleeds into sounds beyond the studio, and scripted readings using a Vocoder invoke the spirit of 'Danny' - “A shine knows a shine.” (2)

The broadcast includes the following excerpts and tracks from Wendy Carlos’s oeuvre: ‘Switched on Bach’ (1968); ‘The Well Tempered Synthesiser’ (1969); ‘Sonic Seasonings’ (1972); ‘Wendy Carlos' A Clockwork Orange’ (1972); ‘Digital Moonscapes’ (1984); ‘Beauty in the Beast’ (1986); ‘Wendy Carlos: Secrets of Synthesis’ (1987); ‘By Request’ (2003); and ‘Quintessential Archeomusicology - Film Music by Wendy Carlos: Rediscovering Lost Scores Vol.1’ (1972 - 2005)

Incantation, Wendy was first commissioned by TACO! for RTM.FM and performed as a live session as part of TEN SLOTTE programme, curated by Vincent Stroep/Escautville for Het Bos, Antwerp.

It was recorded at Totland Bay on the Isle of Wight, October 2018 and forms part of a research residency at

TACO!

which will culminate in a new, long-form film, Wendy.

Read Sophie Risner's response here >>

Special thanks to Wendy Carlos and Larry Gutch. Footnotes: (1) Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange (1962); (2) Stephen King, The Shining (1977).