A legend within the plunderphonics scene,
Jon Leidecker (better known as
Wobbly) is a San Francisco-based composer, sound collage artist, and improviser. Long before he officially joined
Negativland in 2011, he had been exploring found-sound manipulation and musical appropriation on his own and through collaborations with artists like
People Like Us,
Matmos,
Lesser, and
Thomas Dimuzio. Active as a radio DJ throughout the '90s, he first received wider attention for releases like
Wild Why (2002), which transformed commercial radio airchecks into hyperactive glitch collages. His later work is less sample-heavy, with albums like 2019's
Monitress and 2021's
Popular Monitress focusing on improvisations for mobile devices.
Actively experimenting with sound and guesting on
Negativland's Over the Edge radio program since the mid-'80s,
Leidecker adopted the pseudonym
Wobbly in 1990. His debut album, Greetings, appeared in 1999, and Radio, a triple CD-R of live radio improvisations from throughout the previous decade, was released by Ovenguard Music in 1999.
Leidecker appeared on several plunderphonics compilations (sometimes under the name Brindle Spork) and released a mini-CD-R titled Regards in 2001. Several of
Wobbly's most well-known releases appeared in 2002, including Playlist (Illegal Art),
Wild Why (Tigerbeat6), Live 99>00 (Phthalo), and There Goes Nothing, a self-issued collaboration with
People Like Us taken from a radio broadcast on KFJC. The two artists were joined by
Matmos for a country & western-themed performance at the San Francisco Art Institute, issued by Tigerbeat6 as Wide Open Spaces in 2003. Remix-heavy 12" EP Multiple Peady was issued in 2004. Also appearing the same year was Unseen Forces, the debut by Sagan, a collaborative project featuring
Leidecker as well as
Blevin Blectum,
Lesser, and video artist Ryan Junell. Their single "Resting Pleasures" appeared on 333 Recordings in 2006.
In 2008,
Wobbly released a split single with
Bulbs (on Canadian label Ache) as well as a collaborative CD-R with
Thomas Dimuzio. Radio Web MACBA, an online radio project of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Barcelona, commissioned him to host Variations, a podcast series about the history of sampling and collage music, which premiered in 2009. Two more collaborations were released in 2010:
Music for the Fire (with
People Like Us) and Simultaneous Quodlibet (with
Lesser and
Matmos). Having worked with members of culture jamming pioneers
Negativland for several years,
Leidecker officially joined the group in 2011. He additionally collaborated with
Dieter Moebius and
Tim Story, resulting in 2014's
Snowghost Pieces (followed three years later by
Familiar).
After
Negativland founder Don Joyce passed away in 2015,
Leidecker took over the program. He also collaborated with improvisational group Animals & Giraffes (appearing on the 2018 release Landlocked Beach), as well as pianist
Tania Chen,
Sonic Youth co-founder
Thurston Moore, and
David Toop, performing the music of
John Cage on the release Electronic Music for Piano. In addition,
Leidecker joined
the Thurston Moore Group, appearing on their 2019 release Spirit Counsel. That same year, Triplicates, a collaboration between
Zeena Parkins and
Wobbly, was issued by Relative Pitch Records, and
Monitress, the first
Wobbly solo album since 2002, appeared on Hausu Mountain. The release was based on
Leidecker's live improvisational performances for multiple mobile devices running pitch-tracking apps and synthesizers.
Popular Monitress, a more prepared exploration of the same processes, followed in 2021. ~ Paul Simpson