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.

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