The Seattle Phonographers Union  

The Seattle Phonographers Union was founded in 2002 as a result of a meeting at the Indy Media Gallery in downtown Seattle, WA. 

Organizer / Catalyst: Isaac Sterling brought together local recordists who shared an interest in field recordings.
Attendees & Participants: Included Doug Haire, Chris DeLaurenti, Toby Paddock, Mark Griswold, John Tulchin, Alex Keller, and Steve Barsotti.
Format: The evening featured a round-robin style presentation of individual recordings and early collaborative real-time layering of unprocessed field recordings. 
Archival Legacy: Recordings from this historical session at the Indy Media Gallery have been preserved and released as part of the group's archival discography (such as side B on their self-titled cassette release via Banned Production). 

 
You can explore catalog details via Discogs or read reflections in the Tokafi Interview. 

 

July 26th: SPU performs at Couth Buzzard Books in Greenwood

Join us for coffee and peruse the stacks at Greenwood's Couth Buzzard Books on July 26th for an intimate set. Avail yourselves of the fine munchies (and even grab a beer if you like!!) and immerse yourself in one of our abstract narratives. Donations to the hat are accepted but completely voluntary.

June 10th: SPU on KUOW's Weekday with Marcie Sillman

The Seattle Phonographers Union visted with Marcie Sillman on KUOW on Monday, June 10th to discuss what attracts us to the sounds that we use and how we can better appreciate the symphony of our everyday sonic landscape.

Listen to the show here: SPU ON KUOW

SPU Performs at the Chapel Peformance Space in Wallingford.

Join the Seattle Phonographers Union at the Chapel Performance Space on Wednesday November 14th for a special SPU performance. The group will be experimenting with their usual presentation method, should be an interesting evening!

Wednesday, November 14th
8PM
$5-$15 sliding scale

Chapel Performance Space
Good Sheppard Center
Wallingford, Seattle

Seattle Art Museum: Ancestral Modern

Some of us will be performing at the ReMix event for the opening of Ancestral Modern, a survey of Australian Aboriginal paintings. We'll be playing from 8:30 - 11 PM, tucked away in the small Aboriginal gallery in the northeast corner of the second floor (near the Native American gallery).

Aboriginal paintings are maps of land, conceptual representations of the mythological qualities of the landscape and the journeys of the Dreamtime ancestors, symbolizing their connections with distant places and beings. Unlike Western maps, there is no scale or compass orientation, and they do not necessarily show the "true" proportions or geographical relationships between features. A painting is often made on the ground with the artist moving around it, arranging the various features according to their present position and focus. Different views of the landscape and multiple perspectives may be superimposed on one another. Our own work often involves a similar kind of abstract "mapping." We move through the world, recording significant details of a given place or journey, mixing, rearranging, and overlaying multiple sonic perspectives in ways that often distort actual scale/volume or geographical relationships.

Sounds of Summer on KUOW in Seattle

The Seattle Phonographers Union will be appearing on KUOW’s Weekday with Steve Scher on Wednesday August 10^th at 9:00 AM.

Tune in to 94.9FM and listen to us discuss the Sounds of Summer as well as play sounds from our varied collections.

The Seattle Phonographers Union Stands Up!!!

Thursday February 17th:
The Seattle Phonographers Union Stands Up!!
The Chapel Performance Space
The Good Shepherd Center in Wallingford.
4649 Sunnyside Avenue North in Seattle
8:00 PM start time
Suggested donation $5-$15

The Seattle Phonographers attempt to break out of out typical "politburo" style presentation for a more interactive and intimate use of the space. 
Join us as we workshop/ experiment with different ways of improvising with unprocessed field recordings including smaller, localized sound playback setups, real time amplification of existing sound sources, longer duration recordings and other ideas. 

This unique presentation by the SPU pays homage to the late Rolf Julius who passed away on Saturday, January 22nd.