Classic Album Sundays: Aki Onda

"It was that night I made the first contact, via a hand-held radio in a hotel room in Seoul."

Classic Album Sundays (CAS) returns to Ultima for the third consecutive year. Listeners can enjoy a full album from start to finish, played on audiophile-grade equipment. Before the listening session, invited guests introduce and discuss the record. Afterwards, the audience is invited to join the discussion.

Album of the night

Multimedia artist Aki Onda presents his captivating and near‑hypnotic release, Nam June’s Spirit Was Speaking to Me (2020).

In conversation with Kent Horne, host of CAS in Oslo, he speaks about his connection to his older Korean academic peer, multimedia pioneer Nam June Paik (1932–2006). Onda describes how, through radio scanning, he intercepted cryptic messages that he came to believe were Paik’s spirit speaking to him: "Scanning through the stations, I stumbled upon what sounded like a submerged voice and I began to record it in fascination." And so this album was born.

Programme

18:00 Doors open. We play related music ahead of the main event.

19:00 Album talk with Aki Onda and Kent Horne

19:45 Album listening session (39 minutes 50 seconds)

20:45 Public Q&A and discussion

Facts

• Classic Album Sundays is an international concept, organised in Oslo by Kent Horne.
• Tonight’s audio menu: Turntable: Thorens TD 124 DD, Tonearm: Thorens TD 124, Tonearm lifter: Little Fwend, Cartridge: Thorens SPU 124 (Ortofon), Phono stage (RIAA): McIntosh MP100, Signal cables: Midas Reference Flavia, Power distributor: Isol-8, Mixer: Pioneer DJM-A9, Amplifier: Full Fat Audio FFA 8004 HD, Speakers: 2x Danley Sound Labs SH50-T (Top) + 2x VUE Audiotechnik 215 15-Inch (Sub).
• Aki Onda features at Ultima as artistic director of Cassettes 100, a work by José Maceda for 100 performers and cassette players, presented at Deichman Bjørvika on 18 September.