Three decades after his radio shows on WDRQ and WJLB earned him the moniker “The Wizard,” Jeff Mills is returning to the medium with a new show on NTS Live.
“The Outer Limits” is described as a “conceptional listening experience” in collaboration with NASA and Mills’ Axis Records. The Outer Limits features six one hour episodes “exploring astrophysics and science fiction through abstract soundscapes and spoken word, with completely original new and unreleased music by Jeff Mills and guest musicians,” according to a release. Each episode “will be made from enough original music to comprise an album in its own right” and are scheduled to broadcast approximately two months apart.
“Working in radio for almost a decade during the 1980s gave me a different perspective on how audio and music can be impactful devices. The freedom I was allowed then, to program whatever I chose, made me think at length about how to make programs interesting and informative for listeners. This has inspired my approach for ‘The Outer Limits’, to create radio resembling TV science fiction, dealing with subjects that can be humbling and psychologically introspective, without needing to have predictable happy endings. If you can imagine a young person running an untethered radio show having grown up in the Midwest, regularly watching Rod Serling’s ‘The Twilight Zone’, collecting Marvel comics, all the while NASA was sending humans up into outer space, well, you get the idea…”
The Outer Limits debuts on Wednesday January 17th at 2pm GMT with Episode One, titled “The Outer Limits: Black Hole” with pianist Kathleen Supové and violinist Thomas Gould.
Photo by Basic Sounds [CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
[…] of extroversion and insularity. It appears he’s in the mood to reach out right now, with his NTS Radio Show “The Outer Limits” marking “The Wizard’s” return to broadcasting and a one-night-only special at […]