no. 262 | Many Returns of the Purple Martins, August 11, 2026
This week’s PSO was created at the end of the street and around the bend, where there is a housing complex purpose-built just for Purple Martins. This group of gourd-like nests is hosted by a generous neighbor and maintained by a group of volunteers. Shout out to Adam Butler, who reached out and invited me to come down to one of their sessions.
Purple Martins live and raise young there from about mid January to late summer, before taking off again in September for South America. Right now, thousands of Purple Martins are roosting in Round Rock, preparing for that voyage.
This week’s piece also migrates. For the first time, PSO is featuring a B-Side on the site! The second image and sound is accessible by swiping/scrolling right. The initial recording was made on guitar in the sanctuary, and later I added lap steel. For the B-side, I inverted and databent the image further and modualated the track with a sound-sculpting device called an S4 made by Torso. Although the B-Side is sourced from the same file as Side A, it’s sound is completely transformed. Props to Mark Menjivar for lending me this enigmatic and magical tool.
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ABOUT PSO — THE WEB PROJECT
Porch Swing Orchestra is an art project begun on the web by Barry Stone that explores the interplay between still images, sound, and place.
Photographs and musical improvisations build a framework for deep listening and visual contemplation. Barry Stone plays acoustic guitar with a Fahey-inspired picking style mixed in with electronic effects, like My Bloody Valentine for a campfire. The sounds of the outside—bird calls, stray conversations, passing cars—become part of the music.
Stone scrambles the code and layers images taken on-site to channel chance operations into new imaginaries.
Most PSO pieces are made on Stone's front porch in Austin, Texas, but PSO has traveled to Spiral Jetty in Utah, the border town of Del Rio, Texas, Maine, and the San Juan Islands.
Each piece consists of a paired image and audio recording taken on site, uploaded to a standalone fullscreen homepage. Each piece is displaced by new pairs of audio and image. Past pieces can be accessed and streamed randomly via the
PSO RADIO page.
Since 2018, PSO has collaborated with dozens of musicians, artists, poets, writers, and activists to publish over 240 unique combinations of images and sounds.
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PSO PERFORMANCE
PSO performs live in unconventional venues such as Shield Ranch and the James Turrell Skyspace, The Color Inside, as a part of The University of Texas Landmarks Songs in the Skyspace Program. PSO was commissioned to create a unique set of visuals and audio compositions for the Texas Historical Commission for the Sounds of Liberty Hill Event Series at the French Legation in Austin, Texas.
Original projected imagery accompanies an immersive audio experience which can comprise field recordings, acoustic guitars, e-bow, synths, piano, and singing. PSO plays solo and often with others such as
Bill McCullough, Leslie Moody Castro, and longtime collaborator
Paul Stautinger.
PSO also curated a series of live events, VAST IS THE SEA, at Co-Lab Projects in Austin, in which 8 artists presented works combining images and sound over four weekends.
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PSO EXHIBITS
PSO has been the subject of many gallery presentations. PSO has exhibited in solo shows at Klaus von Nichtssagend Gallery in New York, ICOSA in Austin as a Soundscape artist, and the Galveston Arts Center.
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PSO RELEASES
PSO has released two full length lathe cut vinyl records, a full length CD, a split virtual seven inch EP with The Reformers, and two Cassette EPs.
Releases can be purchased on
BANDCAMP or at
BARRYSTONE.COM
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To experience selected past pieces, listen to the
PSO RADIO, or stream us on
TIDAL in the links below.
