Hello you. It’s Resonance FM fundraising season once again as the greatest community arts radio station on Earth attempts to raise enough cash to support another year of broadcasting ceaselessly independent, radical and uncompromising music, documentary, discussion and experimentation; all mercifully free from adverts and sponsorship. All life is here – programmes for London’s Pensioners and Congolese community rubbing shoulders with experimental composers, hastily-formed punk bands, Grime MCs – it’s a wondrous, inclusive cacophony. In our current blighted landscape I’m sure you’ll agree we need them more than ever and it truly is a cause for celebration that Resonance turns eighteen years old in 2020. But unfortunately the cake and bunting will have to be put on hold as redevelopment plans for their Borough High Street HQ means that the station is in urgent need of moving to new premises – and frankly that’s going to cost.
Fortunately there are lots of ways you can help ‘to make to make this fascinating and successful experiment a sustainable, on-going concern’, all of which can be accessed via the Fundraiser.Resonance.FM website. You can set up a regular donation, attend one of the numerous fundraising galas occurring over the next couple of weeks, or you can bid for all kinds of highly desirable items and experiences as part of the station’s Fundraising Auction – which I’m delighted to say features another exclusive offering by Howlround!
This year we have a lathe-cut 7″ single up for grabs on beautiful white vinyl, only three copies in existence and featuring two tracks exclusive to this release. All three are being auctioned off for the fundraiser and the only way to properly hear their contents is to make a winning bid – there will be no repress, no reissue and no digital. Truth be told I’m actually shooting myself in the foot a little bit with this ‘for six ears only’ ruling as both tracks are very fine indeed, featuring field recordings made in a remote log cabin in Yosemite, California and intended for release back in 2015 as part of the Creak In Time sessions (or failing that, part of some lavish boxset for that future moment when I suddenly remember I don’t have a pension). No offcuts here, my friends, this is pure tape loop gold!
The singles have been produced by our friends at OneCutVinyl.com, who have once again kindly donated their time and resources for free. You’ll find each listed separately on Ebay and you have until just after 19.00 GMT on Sunday 16th February to put in a bid. Each can be accessed through the Auction page of the Fundraiser website, but for the sake of convenience number one can be found here, number two here and number three here. All proceeds go straight to keeping Resonance FM on air, so please dig deep. London would be a duller, greyer place without it…
Robin The Fog 