A WFMU Tribute to Steve Roden

WFMU ran a tribute to the late Steve Roden on October 14, 2024. Roden died in September 2023, and for this show, its host, Daniel Blumin, played tracks selected with Stephen Vitiello and Michael Raphael, and he interviewed them, and the show also includes interview segments featuring Roden himself. I was excited to see here the recording “Sandy,” which Roden and Vitiello collaborated on for the 44th Disquiet Junto project, way back in November 2012, following Hurricane Sandy’s assault on the East Coast. The project, and this track, utilized field recordings made by Raphael. The WFMU show opens with a recording of Roden singing as a child, and includes numerous pieces of his own work, plus 7” records from his personal collection. Roden was an instigator of what came to be called “lowercase” sound, music that emphasizes small noises and quiet gestures. He was also a visual artist, and a collector, and a wonderful human being, whom I got to spend time with over the years. This broadcast is a great introduction to Roden and his music and the way he thought about and worked with sound.

Check out the archived WFMU show at wfmu.org. More on the Disquiet Junto project that led to the track “Sandy” here at disquiet.com. Far as I can tell, the first mention of Roden on my site was back on October 29, 2000, a year and a couple weeks shy of a quarter century ago.