Introducing raxil4

135 artists are taking part in "Inside Job" which takes place on the 7th and 8th of April on Level 6 of Tate Modern. Over the next few weeks The Rebel Magazine will be chatting to some of the Tate staff who are showing their artwork. Today it's the turn of raxil4 also known as Andrew Page, a multi disciplinary sound artist who specialises in analogue electronic dronescapes, acoustic audio phenomenon and installation, he is active on the London sound art, improv and noise scenes. He has performed live all over Europe and the UK, many of his performances have been in non traditional venues, often choosing to play spaces with character and interesting acoustic qualities, such as caves, churches, crypts, prison cells, psychiatric hospitals & water towers. He has also performed live and installed durational works in galleries such as Tate Modern (London), The Barbican (London), The Arnolfini (Bristol), M-HKA (Antwerp), Sonnestube (Lugano), Soundfjord (London) & GV Art (London). His works have been broadcast on radio stations internationally.

Q) Where did you grow up and what kind of education did you receive? "I was born and raised in Leicester, I was trained in Photography and Video Art, worked briefly as a Proof Reader and Graphic Designer and sang in a dodgy Grunge band for several years in my late teens / early twenties."

Q) How long have you been working at the Tate and what's the best show you've seen there? "I have been working for Tate for about 12 years now, I started off in the retail warehouse at Tate Modern, when that was demolished to make way for the new Blavatnik Building extension I moved over to Tate Britain to work in the Chapel Stores which has since been converted into the Tate Britain Canteen, then I spent a few years over at the Chadwell Heath offsite Tate Enterprises warehouse, before returning to Tate Modern as a member of the Retail Book Ordering Team. One of my Favourite shows was Cildo Meirelles way back in 2008, you can still see one of the highlights of the show his piece 'Babel' at Tate Modern as part of the public collection.

Q) What can you tell me about the work you're exhibiting in the Tate Modern show? "It's actually a fairly old piece dating back to 2013, it was created using an old Tascam 4-Track tape recorder and a three minute looping cassette featuring sounds of the Sun originally made by NASA which were recorded at different speeds to create various pitches making a new playable instrument.The piece is called Solaris Variations and although it began in 2013 due the the nature of the piece it has taken many forms over the years. Astronomers at Stanford University recorded acoustical pressure waves in the Sun by carefully tracking movements on its surface with the Michelson Doppler Imager on the SOHO spacecraft. Acoustical waves bounce from one side of the sun to the other in about two hours, causing its surface to oscillate. These sound waves are normally at frequencies too low for the human ear to hear, so the scientists have sped up the waves 42,000 times and compressed 40 days of vibrations into a few seconds.A recording of the piece was part of Anastasia Freygang's HIAS Oasis installation at the vienna art fair on october 11th 2013. The instrument itself was on display as part of an interactive installation in the GV Art Gallery's Noise & Whispers group Sound Art exhibition from the 8th November - 14th December 2013."

Q) How can people find out more about your work - do you have a website or do Instagram? Almost every audio recording I have made since 2006 can be found here: https://raxil4.bandcamp.com/

Q) Is there anything you have to declare / do you have a favourite quote, thought or joke you'd care to share? "One of my favourite words is Tintinnabulation, which is the lingering sound of a ringing bell that occurs after the bell has been struck. This word was invented by Edgar Allan Poe as used in the first stanza of his poem The Bells."

"Inside Job": An exhibition of art by Tate Staff will take place on Level 6 of the Blavatnik Building of Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern