Listen Live on KKFI
At 7pm on the fifth Thursday of the month (Fifth Thursdays in 2022 are March, June, September, December).About the Show
From Ark to Microchip
The provocative "From Ark to Microchip" mixes commentary, dramatic re-enactment, original music, historic voices, audio art and sound effects in a pan-historical, pan-cultural milieu. Programs in the program series have received several awards.
“Co‐composer Dwight Frizzell captured the full range of motion and two fully operational US Air Force attack planes from their flights to their subtle shutdown sounds. Orchestrator Michael Henry then wrote a score, using traditional (military band) instruments to echo the flaring motors and snorting exhaust. The (National Audio Theatre) plays the piece with stunt‐pilot daring, blurring the lines between music and machine.”—Andrew Miller, The Pitch
http://www.isorhythm.com/Sonic_Force.html
Sonic Force National Audio Theatre version
for 2-A10 Warthog Attack Planes, Location Recording Group, Documentary Production Group, A10 Warthog Mixing Crew, Instrumental Ensemble, Jet Exhaust Choir, Sound Effects Squadron, and Sound Projection Specialists
Sonic Force is an unusual collaboration between the National Audio Theater and the A-10 Warthog Fighter Squadron at Whiteman Air Force Base in Knob Noster, Missouri, newly created for multi-channel audio theater performance. The work, as introduced by the pilots and ground crew detailing their experience with the small and versatile A-10 attack plane, both celebrates military technology and retools it for artistic (rather than combat) purposes.
Digital recordings capturing the full range of motion of two A-10s, from their cacophonous takeoffs to their turbulent flights to their subtle shutdown sounds, are used by the musicians, vocalists and the sound effects crew to merge and interact with the Warthogs’ own turbo-jet musicality.
Written and composed by Dwight Frizzell and Michael Henry
Orchestrations and conducting by Michael Henry
Directed by Dwight Frizzell
Assistant Director Megan Hauser
Cast (Air Force Reserve)
Col. Roger Disrud
Captain Valerie Saur (pilot)
Technical Sergeant Dale Taylor
Air Evac Lifeteam James Lofton, Tim Pickering, Todd Shanks, Steve Rush
Actors (National Audio Theater)
Control Tower Narrator Lance Roger Axt
Pilot 1 (Saur) Megan Hauser
Pilot 2 (Caveman) Kevin Donnelly
Instrumentalists and Sound Effects
Native Flute: Jerry Fretwell
Clarinets: Dr. Thomas Aber, Zoe Aber, Nancy Fohn
Tenor sax: Dave Taylor
Tibetan bowls: Steve Donofrio
Alto sax and percussion: Patrick Alonzo Conway
Guitar: Julia Thro
Zwoom: Dwight Frizzell
Whirl Wands: David Shin and Don Priest
Water gong: David Shinn
Cymbals: Fredrick Greenhalgh
Other brass/woodwind realizations: Michael Henry with newEar
Recording Engineers
Dwight Frizzell (Wabi Media)
Megan Henninger
David Shinn
Mark Wiener (CBS)
Tom Curley (CBS)
Renee Pringle (NPR)
Dianne Ballon
Tom Lopez (ZBS)
Michael Henry
Kerby Mitchell
Henry Howard
Dave Taylor
Michael Wilson
Mix engineers
Dwight Frizzell
Michael Henry
David Shinn
Kyle Harris
Ben Taylor
Mike Knopka
Stu Rushfield
Sponsored and Assisted by
Whiteman Air Force Base and the Ft. Leonard Wood Firing Range
Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation
National Endowment for the Arts The NEA believes that a great nation deserves great art.
Native American Public Telecommunications Airos.org
Missouri Arts Council. This program was made possible with funding from the MAC, a state agency.
Ford Foundation
Missouri State University, West Plains University/Community Programs
The West Plains Civic Center
The West Plains Public Library
Yellow House Community Arts Center
Air Evac Lifeteam
Randy Story
