Transmissions
Soundworlds: Town Is By The Sea
Soundworlds (CA/UK 2022)
Anna Rheingans / Joanne Schwartz / Patrick Eakin Young (CA/UK 2022)
19 min
An audio picture book conjuring impressions from a childhood spent in the coastal mining communities of Nova Scotia. We follow Davey as he describes his daily routine: from waking up with the sea sparkling outside his window, to playing with his friends, buying groceries for his mother, and visiting his grandfather’s grave. Throughout the day, his thoughts keep returning to his father, working in the coal mines deep beneath the town.
Soundworlds is not just a podcast. It’s an audio stage for diverse stories told in extraordinary ways. It’s a place for an exciting new form of audio drama that we call sonic theatre. Created by musicians, writers, theatre-makers and sound artists, sonic theatre pieces are more than radio plays. They’re immersive sound worlds, intoxicating blends of music and storytelling, sound design, documentary and fiction.
Directed by Patrick Eakin Young
Music composed and performed by Anna Rheingans
Sound design and mixing: Ross Flight
Text by Joanne Schwartz, adapted from her 2017 book with illustrator Sydney Smith
Mother In The Fridge
Felix Kubin (DE 2012)
Produced by Felix Kubin (DE 2012)
30 min
What does your own mother sound like in the refrigerator? Felix Kubin tried it. And not only that. His mother also speaks from the cooking pot, the waste bin and a box. And in English, too, because the son not only does acoustic experiments, but also has to practice for a trip abroad. The mother is doing well. From the various containers she gives little lessons in English grammar by phone. An Oedipal burlesque without a script.
Producer: Felix Kubin
Produced for Vicki Bennett’s extensive “Radio Boredcast” project at AV Festival Newcastle, UK.
Recommended by Paris based sound artist Dinahbird
The Broomway
Tamsin Howard (UK 2022)
Tamsin Howard (UK 2022)
7 min
An immersive audio drama based on an inquest which occurred after two men drowned on the infamous path at Matlin Sands in Essex.
This short drama cleverly combines two narratives, one describing a tragic event through an inquest and the other takes us to the heart of the tragedy, humanising it beyond a local news story.
Recorded and produced by Tamsin Howard
Dingus - Ep 1 The House of Glass
Mike Cooter / Resonance (UK 2022)
Mike Cooter /Resonance (UK 2022)
31 min Episode 1 of 6
Dingus is a six-part radio drama produced by CBS and recorded at the height of the 1943 flu pandemic that swept through Hollywood. Denied of a marquee cast and blighted by a curious obsession with the object that drives its narrative, this innovative and formally-reflexive oddity disappeared almost completely without trace.
In 2010 artist Mike Cooter set out to find and rehabilitate this elusive artefact, initiating an 11-year journey that culminates in the re-emergence of Dingus – to be broadcast in full by ResonanceFM, podcast and archived at radiodingus.com
Ostensibly a detective drama, taking its name from an American colloquialism for an object without name or of indistinct identity (from the German ‘ding’ / ‘thing’), Dingus emerges across six episodes and a supplementary documentary as a rumination on objecthood itself: how we claim to understand some-thing, and the effects that it might have. At once both utilising and unpicking the narrative conceit of the MacGuffin, Dingus can be heard to reverse the logic of an object that serves to drive a narrative, functioning instead as an armature for the mysterious artefact at its heart: the MacGuffin as sculpture.
Confused? This series merges fact and reality with a hyper-realistic recreation of the 1940’s American detective Radio Drama genre. Perfect listening for a dark winter’s evening.
Written, directed and produced by Mike Cooter
Executive Producer Ed Baxter
Cast: Mirchell Mullen, John Christian Bateman, Alexendra Metaxa
A Resonance Production with support from Jerwood Arts, The Elephant Trust and The Henry Moore Foundation
Eliza: A Robot Story
Ella Watts / Emma Hickman (UK 2022)
Crowd Network / Ella Watts (UK 2022)
47 min Episode 1 of 4
A dark, near-future science fiction fairytale about a robot who can feel, and the world that attempts to control her. When a robot called Eliza falls in love with Him, they work together to make her fully sentient. But consciousness doesn’t come without consequences. As Eliza gets caught in a web of both loving and abusive relationships, she has to fight to survive.
This all female production explores age-old fantasies about sentient AI and female robots becoming more than they are programmed to be. Unlike ‘Her’ or ‘Bladerunner’ this is from the robot Eliza’s perspective as she analyses the humans around her, especially ‘Him’
Eliza: Tanya Reynolds , Him: Arthur Darvill, Her: Dominique Tipper
Additional Voices: Sarah Griffin and Tom Crowley
Writer: Emma Hickman
Director and Producer: Ella Watts
Sound Design and Mixing / Mastering: Alexis Adimora
A Crowd Network original made in partnership with The Pankhurst Trust / Manchester Women’s Aid
The Waves: Queens
Erinn Dhesi (UK 2022)
Applied Stories / Erinn Dhesi (UK 2022)
21 min Episode 5 of 5
Waves is five audio fiction productions exploring the contemporary impact of Britain’s colonial past.
A statue of Queen Victoria in Leamington Spa’s town centre becomes much more than an old monument, with dramatic and outrageous results.
Written by Erinn Dhesi
Directed by Gitika Buttoo
Starring : Vimal Korpal, Bharti Patel, Dilan Raithatha, Ravneet Sehra Elexi Walker
Made by Holy Mountain in association with Tamasha Theatre Company and supported by the Audio Content Fund for Applied Stories
No Big Deal
Charlie Billingham (UK 2022)
Charlie Billingham (UK 2021)
17 min Episode 1 of 1
A bit of light relief with this new true-crime comedy thriller. Join acclaimed journalist Emily Stephenson as she delves into the murky waters of a 2004 undercover police operation gone horribly wrong.
True Crime podcasts are ripe for comedy and we’re keen to hear more from Emily and these incompetent undercover cops - you can donate a coffee here ko-fi.com/charliebillingham to get more made.
Written by Charlie Billingham
Starring : Gayaneh Vlieghe, Mungo Russell, Calum Maclean, Lydia Cook, Henry Whaley, Chesney Fawkes-Porter, Cait Mahoney & Charlie Billingham.
CBS Mystery Theatre: Ep 14 The Girl Who Found Things
Created by Himan Brown for CBS (US 1977)
Created by Himan Brown for CBS (US 1974)
41 min / Episode 14 of 1399
Forget true crime, these mystery dramas were reintroduced in 1974 on CBS Radio as a nostalgic hark back to old time radio. These dramas proved so popular that the series kept going for a decade.
IA young girl with criminal tendencies is taken by a couple who discover her peculiar talent for retrieving lost things - including corpses
Written by Henry Slesar
Featuring Norman Rose, Martha Greenhouse, Bryna Raeburn, Robert Dryden, Barbara Caruso, Anna Costello
Follow the series
A Walking Scientist
Jasmina Al Qaisi (2020)
Jasmina Al Qaisi (2020)
10 min
Drawing thin lines between imagination and reality in an odd, yet common life situation- missing a flight. The monologues take the listener through different noisy layers of one voice changing tenses, presenting a possible future-past self which is just a coping mechanism for diverting racing thoughts of guilt. The play is centred around creating a new identity in a possible future: a walking scientist, a humorous being, but also an occasion for social critique from a dissident to conforming with a life ruled by capital. The piece is created with vernacular sounds: computer cooler, street shop alarms, walking sounds - mostly translated from noise to voice and back.
Written, performed and produced by Jasmina Al Qaisi
This piece was a recipient of Works for Radio from The Lake Radio and a longer version 2nd place in Burning Mic non-german speaking category for Berliner Hörspiel Festival of free Radio Plays
In The Dark: Static Winter - 83 and The Visitation
Pete Hazell (UK 2021)
Pete Hazell (UK 2021)
10 min
Somewhere in a remote outpost, amongst foul weather and radio static, a lone operator scans the bleak signals and reports his findings to HQ.
But why isn't HQ responding?
Is something trying to visit the outpost?
And Who's Leonard?