KPFA-FM Music Dept. ➔ Sten Hanson Translates Åke Hodell’s Interview, 1 of 2

Analog Audio

Event Type

Interviews

Origin

KPFA

Identifier

AM.1972.04.XX.A

Program Length

27 min

Part

1 of 2

Dates

| broadcast
| 402 | created

Description

Three brief excerpts from an interview that Charles Amirkhanian had with Sten Hanson, in Stockholm, concerning the life and work of his fellow Swedish sound poet, Åke Hodell. Hanson, relates how Hodell’s childhood fascination with airplanes led him to volunteer for the Swedish Air Force, and how a plane crash during training left Hodell too injured to ever fly again. During his lengthy recovery Hodell became interested in literature and poetry, eventually writing a book of poems about flying. Over the ensuing decades Hodell became a pioneering composer of text-sound compositions or sound poetry. Much of his work concerned itself with political themes and concerns about racism, including his controversial works “Mr. Nixon’s Dream” and “Mr. Smith in Rhodesia”. The latter work created quite a stir when it was revealed that Hodell used children’s voices in a piece that was widely interpreted as critical of the British Empire’s policy towards its former African colonies.

Genres

Sound poetry

Subjects

Sound poetry
Text-sound compositions

Acknowledgment

Funding for the preservation of this program made possible through a grant by the GRAMMY Foundation.

Related place

Stockholm (Sweden) (was recorded at)

Related Entities

Amirkhanian, Charles
Hanson, Sten, 1936-