Saturday, March 28, 2009

Ed Special

Ed Special

Ed Special is Ann Arbor's Mark Murrell. The host of WCBN's freeform radio collage program, Special Ed (on the air since 1983), the program has put out a few collections of sound collage as well. 

He's well known for his marathon-long special sessions of live improvised sound collage (including a six-hour treatment on the theme of Jingle Bells, which I'm actually downloading, as I write this). You can find examples of his work all over the web (try HERE, or do your own search). We used to experiment a bit with freeform sound collage performance on Some Assembly Required, and I have nothing but respect for those who can keep it going, and keep it interesting, for more than a few minutes at a time.

He has no official website yet, but a web search will turn up a good deal of information about the artist and his work, over the past two decades at least. I'm pleased to add a little something to that list. Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Ed Special...


*Name:
Ed Special

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: Audio collage, radio collage.

*Do you use a pseudonym? Depending on the project or subject of radio show. Ed Special, Ed SpaceShuttle, Ed Spitup, Egg Spatula, Klaus Santos, Ed-cetera…

*Members: Special Ed: Ed Special (Mark Murrell). Sultans Of Segue: Ed Special, Yax Haxley (Colin Howells) and Kim Scarborough. Camp Wannalobotomy: Ed Special (Mark Murrell), R. F. Burns (Jon Moshier), Isadora Schutz (Julie Strand) and Nomad (Damon Stanek).

*Founding Members: Mark Murrell (Ed Special)

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Audiobnoxiousist.

*Another genre descriptor: Audiobnoxiousity.

*Why you use this descriptor: Self explanatory.

*Location: Ann Arbor, Michigan.

*Original Location: Louisiana.

*What is your creative/artistic background: Graphic arts, scavenger arts, visual and audio collage. “Studio Stupid” (is the) (umbrella name) for the production of the following radio collage programs (on) 88.3 WCBN-FM, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. “Special Ed” - Ed Special (Mark Murrell) (Began March, 1983, presently continuing. From 1983-1990 with Beanball a.k.a. Barry Bouwsma). “Sultans Of Segue” - Ed Special, Yax Haxley (Colin Howells), Kim Scarborough (early 1990's). “Camp Wannalobotomy” - Radio collage (mid 1990's) with Ed Special (Mark Murrell), R. F. Burns (Jon Moshier), Isadora Schutz (Julie Strand) and Nomad (Damon Stanek). Various Holiday Radio Marathons from 6 to 27 hours. Cassette/CD releases: Dangling Ganglion "Monsters From The Id" - Ed Special. Dangling Ganglion "Bumptiddy Bumptiddy" - Ed Special & Barry Bouwsma. Dangling Ganglion "Ignorance Is A Blister" - Ed Special. Dangling Ganglion is: Ed Special - turntables, tape loops, digital effects processing, editing, graphic artwork.

*History: 30 years, +/-.

*Born: Nowonder, 32, 1957

*Motivations: Illegal alien implant.

*Philosophy: The philosophy is in front.

*How would you like to be remembered: Medium rare.

*Web address: None yet.


2 comments:

Linnea said...

MAAAARRRRKKKKK!!!!! Linnea Here, I remember you when... well, nevermind, you remember (maybe). I just put up a second MySpace so I can keep in touch with my son who is in CA (I just moved to Iowa), and the background reminds me of your tape covers that you airbrushed. I had so much fun with you back then. Hope you get this message - very cool to "see" your stuff mentioned here and smile. Love, Linnea

Unknown said...

Mark is still keeping AA weird. Someone has to.