Aerial (2003) by T. Dockstader

Supported and produced by Sub Rosa, during 2002-05.
Published as a limited box containing 3 CDs : Aerial 1, 2 & 3.

The complete work was for the first time broadcast at the

The Aerial project
I've written before of my interest in shortwave radio, in the notes to the Quatermass CD. Also, in the notes to the Omniphony CD (which has my first "Aerial" mix, "Past Prelude," in it), I mentioned "The Aerial Etudes," which was my working title for what became the three CDs you have. And, at the end of an interview with Chris Cutler (which can be found in the "Unofficial TD Website"), the piece I mentioned I was starting to work on at the time became Aerial.) When I was very young, people got most of their entertainment from radio. They called it "playing the radio," as if it were a musical instrument. That's what I've tried to do in this piece. About this time, a few people encouraged me to look into using a computer for this work. I'd never used one, but I saw it would allow me to keep my mixes digital - no more transfer losses. So, at the end of 2001, I got a computer and an editing program for it, and spent what seemed a long time learning it. I began selecting mixes and loading them into the computer in late March, 2002. Out of the 580, I selected 90 "best" mixes - eventually reduced to 59, the ones on the CDs. Finally, in assembling the CDs, I followed David Myers' suggestion to allow each piece to flow into the next - making a continuous journey to the end.
Tod Dockstader, 14 september 2003

Tod Dockstader
is born in 1932, an only child, in St. Paul, Minnesota, USA. After grade-school, went to the University of Minnesota for nine years: the university's highschool, undergraduate and graduate schools where he studied English Literature, Psychology and Art. In the Art department, he studied painting, photography and film-making.
In 1955, married, moved to Los Angeles, worked as a film editor, writer and production designer at UPA studios in Burbank. In 1957, moved to New York City, worked in animation studios there, and, finally, a sound studio: Gotham Recording - where he worked as an engineer, and did the music released on LPs in 1961 and '66. In the later '60s, he worked in NYC, Westport CT, and Montreal, Canada, doing designs for expositions, mostly for the Air Canada pavillion at "Expo 67" in Montreal, for which he did a film, soundtracks and audio-visual displays. In the '70s and '80s, he worked in Westport on audio-visuals: films, filmstrips, slide shows, TV films and videotapes for a variety of publishers - most notably a series on American history for American Heritage. In 1990, he retired, built a home studio and began work on what would become « Aerial."