A man on a mission - Mr. Kubin revives the Speaking clock! Follow Felix around his hometown Hamburg while he attempts to announce the time every minute. There's no guarantee for chronological accuracy but tuning in today will change your idea of radio. For full immersion listen on headphones. Sendung auf deutsch.
All my life I had difficulties with deadlines and punctuality. So, I decided that in this radio piece I will turn into a clock myself, a human “Zeitansage”. While doing this, I follow daily routines like making coffee, singing under the shower, going on a roller coaster, climbing up a church tower, cooking with friends, visiting a doctor, recording a long night session in my electronic studio, drinking whiskey and babbling along about whatever crosses my mind.
The recordings were done at different days and occasions, albeit in large coherent sections. Sometimes there are unexpected jumps from one scene to another and the listener will be pushed into a parallel reality. But don’t worry: we will always be in time.
For most of the sessions I used a binaural microphone which gives the listener a three-dimensional, subjective impression of the goings-on, especially when using a headphone.
The rhythm of my announcements changes during the course of the day. Here is a list with the precise intervals:
14 – 15 h time announcements every minute
15 – 17 h every 2 minutes
17 – 20 h every 3 minutes
20 – 00 h every 4 minutes
00 – 05 h every 5 minutes
05 – 12 h every 6 minutes
Of course, due to the imperfect nature of the human clock, some errors occur. I also sometimes decided to change the intervals, just for fun. So, I do not recommend to set your watch to it, in case you need to catch a train. But most of the time, I am pretty precise.
Below you find a track list, in case you are interested in a special section.
14:00 Introduction
14:02 Arrival of friend Olsen
15:40 Leaving home
16:20 Visit of the “Michel” church tower
17:15 Visit of the funfair “Hamburger Dom”
17:30 “Sky Dance” ride (53m high carousel)
18:15 “Wild Mouse” ride (roller coaster)
18:37 At “Zardoz” record shop
19:10 At “Café unter den Linden”
19:55 Shaving in my bathroom
20:22 Taxi ride with a fish
20:35 Visiting Helena Hauff and her husband Gregg
21:20 Cooking and listening to music
22:47 Intermission: Mr. Snørrensønsøn and Ms. Bipolar comment on a Polish wedding video
00:04 At Helena’s again (cont.)
00:53 Walking home in the rain
01:45 Looking for sound files in my studio
02:58 From short wave to medium wave
03:20 A long electronic music night session
08:26 Dream of a doctor’s visit
09:00 Wake up!
09:20 Experiment with headphones and mics (internal feedback)
09:40 Coffee, cereals, phone call
10:17 Reading aloud (“Archäologie der Medien” and “Caravanserail”)
10:34 Covid-19 antigen self-test
11:02 Shower, teeth, organ
11:30 Bike ride to the otolaryngologist (very windy)
11:57 The final ducks
12:00 The End
Felix Kubin is a Hamburg-based artist, whose various experiments and epithets include radio art, composer of futurist experimental pop as well as chamber orchestra music, incendiary performer, record label owner, lecturer, and curator. He began recording and performing electronic music at the age of 12 and was soon discovered by Alfred Hilsberg, founder of the seminal German punk/electronic label Zickzack. In 2019, the French filmmaker Marie Losier has shot an award-winning film portrait about him called “Felix in Wonderland”.