About The Chef

Some of you may know me from the weekly show I hosted on WFMU, which was also called “The Audio Kitchen.” From 1999 until 2003, I produced well over a hundred hours of the only radio program to ever exclusively feature only found and amateur recordings. It wasn’t a collage mix-it-up show, or some crazy mix of ironically chosen sound bits over music. The material was played on its own merit, without changing the context or sound of the recordings (outside of some editing and cleaning up the audio a bit). In retrospect, it was kind of a crazy thing do, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. And it introduced a lot of people to the wonders of found sound.

While I had been an avid collector of found sound since the mid-90’s, once the show got underway it was all the contributions that poured in that made it possible for me to feature so much unique and compelling content. While many listeners donated their finds, more significantly it was all the like-minded collectors I established swapping relationships with who really ballooned my pile of found sound. And to me, there’s a responsibility in being in possession of such unique and intriguing library. There’s no joy and no positive result in hoarding material like this. This blog is an attempt to give these artifacts their due, and to offer them to you.

While I’m quite proud of the work I did on The Audio Kitchen radio program on WFMU (you can take a listen to the archives here and here), all the listening, editing and production to put out a compelling weekly program was a ridiculous amount of work for one person. A few friends offered to lend a hand, but somehow that never came to pass. And for a time, Public Radio International considered adding the show to their roster of programs (thus making working on the program a viable vocation), but in the end it was deemed just a little too wild and wooly for the public radio market place.

In the years since I put the show to rest, more found recordings continue to find me. So, while I’m not ready to get back on the treadmill and put out a tight hour of carefully chosen and edited amateur recordings right now, these days there’s new options for sharing audio content, other then traditional terrestrial radio. Through this website, I’m taking a more contemporary DIY approach, in a manner that doesn’t encroach on all my time, or my sanity.

Back in 1999, the only practical method to publically share and feature recordings like this was to go out and get a radio show on a real radio station. That’s no longer true. In fact, the web offers many viable possibilities for sharing recordings with potentials far beyond the early Napster era when I atarted the Audio Kitchen radio show.

So, welcome to The Audio Kitchen, phase two. Here at The Audio Kitchen blog I’m starting up an online museum, where you can listen to found and amateur recordings, read about their content (and where they might have been found or created), and where others (perhaps you) can also contribute similar recordings and discuss them. You can search the recordings by categories or by contributor. Although to be honest, I can’t always remember how some of these recordings came to me in the first place.

And yes, I am considering starting up a podcast here. But how and when that might happen will depend on the reception of this site and how much time I’m able to reserve to do such a thing. Meanwhile, enjoy the amateur noise. The posts here will be full of human recordings, which you can download or just listen to online. And for those of you who can’t get enough found sound, I’ve set up an online radio station which will feature huge chunks of my collection, much of it unedited and uncensored. You can access this stream, “Chunky Homestyle Radio,” by clicking here or the link on the sidebar. Have at it.   

And if you have some recordings to offer, please pitch in, share the wealth. Information on how to you can contribute to The Audio Kitchen blog can be found here. And if you’re a collector, once you start to get a number of artifacts online here I’ll provide a link on the site so readers can specifically browse selections from your collection.

As with many projects I’ve been involved in, The Audio Kitchen blog is an ongoing experiment, and your feedback is an important element in keeping it interesting and making it worthwhile. You can email me here, and comments on posts are welcome and encouraged.

Thanks For Visiting

The Professor