CHELIDON FRAME: FLATLINE VOYAGES
February 2026
This broadcast period refers to the radio exhibition, "Exposition Audioblast #10", hosted by APO33, where Flatline Voyages was first presented.
Archived audio: https://www.mixcloud.com/AFMixes/unframed-signals-01-chelidon-frame-flatline-voyages/
Flatline Voyages is a nine-part sound work that explores the porous boundaries between drone music, radio transmission, and electroacoustic composition. Drawing on shortwave SDR recordings gathered from across the globe — including number stations, amateur radio signals, regional broadcasts, and fragments of music — the project recontextualises radio interference as compositional material, shaping it into a slowly evolving artificial soundscape.
Conceived during the COVID-19 lockdowns, the work emerged from extended listening sessions navigating the shortwave spectrum from the artist’s studio. What began as research for new sonic material gradually shifted into a more intimate practice of attunement. Distant transmissions became carriers of presence and absence at once: signals suspended between information and noise, intimacy and remoteness. The title, inspired by a passage by Mark Fisher, reflects this condition — a form of travel without movement, a drift across frequencies while physically confined.
Taking inspiration from Pierre Schaeffer’s proposition that the distinction between music and noise lies in intention, Chelidon Frame decontextualises both radio signals and instrumental contributions, relocating them within a speculative auditory environment. The resulting work floats between sound art and radio art, retaining a deep connection to the medium that generated it.
Two movements incorporate material provided by fellow electronic musicians Andrea Marinelli, Asymmetric Cut, A Distant Shore, and MDC, further expanding the project’s collaborative dimension. Commissioned by APO33 for Audio Blast Festival #10 in 2022, Flatline Voyages has since been presented by a number of radio-art platforms and festivals, including Radiophrenia, OnAir OnSite, and Datscha Radio. In 2024, it was released by the Leeds-based label Difficult Art And Music, marking its first crystallisation as a fixed edition while remaining conceptually rooted in broadcast.
Chelidon Frame (Alessio Premoli, b. 1990) is an Italian musician, composer, coder, and sound artist based in Milan. His practice spans data sonification, electroacoustic composition, and live electronic performance. Across installations, radio works, and ensemble projects, he explores how over-consumed or invisible data can be rendered perceptible through sound, and how non-idiomatic improvisation and drone-based structures can reshape listening habits. Alongside his artistic practice, Premoli works as a guitarist, producer, and software developer with a background in mathematics.
- https://chelidonframe.site
Flatline Voyages was released by official release on Difficult Art And Music (DAAM) on the 29 March 2024.
https://difficultartandmusic.bandcamp.com/album/flatline-voyage