Julia Drouhin and Phillipa Stafford, as Sisters Akousmatica, investigate mysterious radio broadcasts known as “the Silent Key”.
Radio: drag the dial across frequencies at any given time, any given place and you will hear a cacophony of sounds. Static, pops and crackles, whistles, the tap, tap tap of the world and the universe going about its electromagnetic business. In between those sounds are stations: broadcasts that are music, news, chatter, cryptic messages and espionage. Stretching out around the world in a network of terrestrial communication, bouncing off the heaviside and landing back again to be collected by radio-listeners – in cars and in kitchens. Sisters Akousmatica are always listening – seeking out the strange broadcasts destined for…? Well, who knows. NM, SK begins to examine some of the recordings they have made in their quest to research “the silent key” – a series of broadcast messages that they discovered in the winter of 2017.