On May 14th, Cal Fish shared a performance inside the RTRU* Exhibition at KAJE, using electromagnetism to animate Spirit Accumulation Aid, their sound sculpture made from metal buckets found decomposing in the Hudson Valley. These resonant vessels outfitted with copper coils are turned into sonic receivers and emitters, becoming conduits for spirit accumulation and channeling in the lineage of both Konstantin Raudive’s work with EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena), as well as Fish’s practice of making soft ecological archives kinesthetically and aurally accessible through sound sculpture.

Demonstrating and activating the sculpture, the artist performed using the work commisoned by KAJE for RTRU*, as well as elements of the Dynamic Listening Instrument, a modular sculpture that uses electromagnetic fields to place sounds in a spatial venn-diagram.

Spirit Accumulation Aid is a variable sound sculpture composed of two suspended found metal buckets with mounted transducers and a wall-mounted parametric speaker. Sourced from wooded sites in the Hudson Valley, north of New York City, the buckets evoke the region’s residual material traces—informal deposits of domestic and agricultural debris embedded within the forest floor. Partially submerged in moss and leaf cover, such objects mark a dispersed, vernacular archaeology of the local landscape.

The work activates these vessels through a system of transducers and magnetic coils that induce and amplify internal resonances within the metal. This setup is combined with a Raudive-inspired diode circuit, an FM radio receiver and low-power FM transmitter, and a sequence of audio materials, including field recordings, interviews, musical fragments, flute passages, and effects processed through a dream pop–oriented pedal chain. These elements are assembled into two parallel ninety-minute recordings, played simultaneously through each bucket as a duet.

Connected via found wire to the metal substructure of the building, the buckets operate as conductive bodies and provisional antennas, capable of receiving and modulating additional electromagnetic interference within the space. Visitors are invited to touch the surfaces, encountering the work through vibration and using their own bodies as extensions of the signal path. The result is a sustained tonal composition (including a Pre-York River “gem tone for oil”) alongside a secondary diode circuit, which can be used as a localized sonic interface.

The work is dedicated to Raffi Kelly Ohanian, Pat Chin, Violet Winkler, and others.