The LOOKOUT FM artist residency, graciously funded by the Mike Kelley Foundation, commissions ambitious, large-scale, original artworks for radio broadcast.
“Conduction in the Catacombs”
A radio-play by Will Alexander
Performed by
Will Alexander - Voice, Juno-60, Jing
Jessika Kenney - Voice, Juno-60, SP-404, Para, Maracas, Moog Ring-Modulator, Dung-Chen
Eyvind Kang - Voice, Viola, Sitar, Acoustic Bass, MPC, Cymbals, Congas, Chajchas, Dung-Chen
Sam Rowell - Bass, Kemanak
Music composed by Kang and Kenney
Recorded and Mixed at ATX Los Angeles by Kang and Kenney
Will Alexander is an artist of perpendicular imagination, both prolific and visionary, whose body of work spans poetry, fiction, drama, philosophy, visual art, and music.
In over forty books—including “Asia & Haiti,” “Towards the Primeval Lightning Field,” “Diary As Sin,” and “Refractive Africa”—Alexander explores a multidimensional poetics rooted in trance, surrealism, history, literature, and cosmology.
Reimagining the world, transmitting “signals into mystery,” exploring language as a form of energy and imagination as a mode of transformation- all acts of wonder Alexander happily perpetrates upon his audience.
Alexander’s writing style is marked by dense, hypnotic accumulation—more invocation than exposition. Language in his work functions as a metaphysical instrument: each word resonates across conscious, subconscious, and supra-conscious planes, disrupting linear time and fixed meaning. Alexander’s writing is not descriptive but generative—poetry as force field, and source field.
“Conduction in the Catacombs” was first published in 2011 as part of the collection “Inside the Earthquake Palace.” It marks Will Alexander’s first experiment in theater. It has rarely been performed. Alexander began collaborating with Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney in October of 2023. A shared language of expression began to form and the three came up with the idea to adapt Alexander’s play to a non-visual format.
Will Alexander was born in Los Angeles, California in 1948 and has remained a lifetime resident of the city. He earned a BA in English and creative writing from the University of California–Los Angeles in 1972. He has taught at many colleges and universities, including the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, the University of California, and Hofstra University, among others. His collection "Singing In Magnetic Hoofbeat: Essays, Prose, Texts, Interviews, and a Lecture" (2013) was awarded an American Book Award. Alexander was a 2022 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His other honors include a Whiting Fellowship for Poetry, a California Arts Council Fellowship, and the 2016 Jackson Poetry Prize.
Jessika Kenney is a vocalist, composer, writer, sound artist, and teacher whose commitments to improvisation, poetry, and aural study have yielded a unique perspective.
Their explorations of tone, space, and the metaphysics of sound have been featured in many contexts and venues including the Seattle Public Library, Nottingham Contemporary, and the Benton Museum. Collaborators and projects include a lengthy discography with Eyvind Kang, the final recorded vocal work of Alvin Lucier, performances with Melati Suryodarmo, composing the vocal music of A24’s Midsommar, and choral direction on SUNN O)))’s Monoliths and Dimensions.
Eyvind Kang is a composer and violist whose work spans experimental, classical, and traditional music forms.
His collaborations include Jessika Kenney, Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson, Bennie Maupin, Stuart Dempster, Sun City Girls, SUNN O))), among others. Known for his explorations of microtonality, modal improvisation, and sonic ritual, Kang’s work has been presented at leading festivals and venues worldwide.
“Conduction in the Catacombs”
A radio-play by Will Alexander
Performed by
Will Alexander - Voice, Juno-60, Jing
Jessika Kenney - Voice, Juno-60, SP-404, Para, Maracas, Moog Ring-Modulator, Dung-Chen
Eyvind Kang - Voice, Viola, Sitar, Acoustic Bass, MPC, Cymbals, Congas, Chajchas, Dung-Chen
Sam Rowell - Bass, Kemanak
Music composed by Kang and Kenney
Recorded and Mixed at ATX Los Angeles by Kang and Kenney
Will Alexander is an artist of perpendicular imagination, both prolific and visionary, whose body of work spans poetry, fiction, drama, philosophy, visual art, and music.
In over forty books—including “Asia & Haiti,” “Towards the Primeval Lightning Field,” “Diary As Sin,” and “Refractive Africa”—Alexander explores a multidimensional poetics rooted in trance, surrealism, history, literature, and cosmology.
Reimagining the world, transmitting “signals into mystery,” exploring language as a form of energy and imagination as a mode of transformation- all acts of wonder Alexander happily perpetrates upon his audience.
Alexander’s writing style is marked by dense, hypnotic accumulation—more invocation than exposition. Language in his work functions as a metaphysical instrument: each word resonates across conscious, subconscious, and supra-conscious planes, disrupting linear time and fixed meaning. Alexander’s writing is not descriptive but generative—poetry as force field, and source field.
“Conduction in the Catacombs” was first published in 2011 as part of the collection “Inside the Earthquake Palace.” It marks Will Alexander’s first experiment in theater. It has rarely been performed. Alexander began collaborating with Eyvind Kang and Jessika Kenney in October of 2023. A shared language of expression began to form and the three came up with the idea to adapt Alexander’s play to a non-visual format.
Will Alexander was born in Los Angeles, California in 1948 and has remained a lifetime resident of the city. He earned a BA in English and creative writing from the University of California–Los Angeles in 1972. He has taught at many colleges and universities, including the Jack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics, the University of California, and Hofstra University, among others. His collection "Singing In Magnetic Hoofbeat: Essays, Prose, Texts, Interviews, and a Lecture" (2013) was awarded an American Book Award. Alexander was a 2022 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. His other honors include a Whiting Fellowship for Poetry, a California Arts Council Fellowship, and the 2016 Jackson Poetry Prize.
Jessika Kenney is a vocalist, composer, writer, sound artist, and teacher whose commitments to improvisation, poetry, and aural study have yielded a unique perspective.
Their explorations of tone, space, and the metaphysics of sound have been featured in many contexts and venues including the Seattle Public Library, Nottingham Contemporary, and the Benton Museum. Collaborators and projects include a lengthy discography with Eyvind Kang, the final recorded vocal work of Alvin Lucier, performances with Melati Suryodarmo, composing the vocal music of A24’s Midsommar, and choral direction on SUNN O)))’s Monoliths and Dimensions.
Eyvind Kang is a composer and violist whose work spans experimental, classical, and traditional music forms.
His collaborations include Jessika Kenney, Bill Frisell, Laurie Anderson, Bennie Maupin, Stuart Dempster, Sun City Girls, SUNN O))), among others. Known for his explorations of microtonality, modal improvisation, and sonic ritual, Kang’s work has been presented at leading festivals and venues worldwide.
Listen on the FM Dial
101.5 FM in Pacific Palisades
99.1 FM in Hollywood Hills