XMTR Radio Hour Ep32: Sono Electro and XMTR Festival Unpacked

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2024)

60 min / Episode 32 of 32

This XMTR (Transmitter) Radio Hour is a retrospective conversation about the inception and outcomes of sound art and sonic storytelling festivals Sono Electro and XMTR Audio Arts Festival that took place in St Leonards on Sea in September. James Wilkie from Sono Electro and Lucia Scazzocchio from XMTR talk to Isobel Anderson - host of Girls Twiddling Knobs, about how the worked together on the festival(s), the learnings from behind the scenes and their ambitions for the future - could St Leonards on Sea become a sonic destination? This is a candid conversation about collaboration, curation and working with and within an established creative community,  with clips and and extracts from artists and performances featured at the festival. 

You can access full audio works from the tracklist at xmtr.fm/festival. 

Tracklist: 
Anam Cara - Ear to the Ground - Dan 'you are tuning in to the Lido graveyard'
Limbo Tapes - Radio Limbo Live at XMTR Festival
Blanc Sceol - Orbit Meditation 
Stellaria Media (Lucida Guy and Alice Armstrong) Blue Heart
Ben Philipps - Home Sounds
Ben Chennett -  A Choir for Hastings and St Leonards
Marcia Farquar - The Lido 
Jem Finer - Pinball Machine 
Phil Smith - Zwischenzeit
Will Gore + Esme Curtis - Invisible Cities, Argia
Ed Baxter + Anthony Moore - Life Sentence
Jem Finer - Pinball Machine 
Blanc Sceol - Orbit Meditation 

XMTR Radio Hour Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep31: Long Live the New Sound

Produced by Adriene from LLtNS (US 2024)

60 min / Episode 31 of 31

This XMTR (Transmitter) Radio Hour hands over the reigns to Adriene and Stuart from LLtNS (Long Live the New Sound) the freeform anti-podcast podcast for creative audio where audio makers and recordists can freely upload their sounds to add to this ever growing archive. They have chosen a selection of unexpected, eclectic, precise, messy and otherwise sounds from what has been uploaded over the years. 

Works featured:

• Misophonic Happenings by Carlo Patrão

• ASLEEPerd by sleep number beds

• 920am by Jazmine (JT) Green

• Episode 1 : The Circles by Matters of Truth

• Rakiura/Stewart Island - 09/23 by Sam Donkin

• Episode 2 : The Change by Matters of Truth

• good and bad and dangerous and dangerously good by  information jewellery

• On the village cricket pitch by SDU

• We Went Camping by Regan Hutchins

• Voies Urbaines: Rue Mespoul by Mathias Guilbaud

• This is absolutely, definitely not a test. And the previous episode was too long by vegetarian nachos

• A Past Life by Olivia Ravioli

• Fish by Cristina Marras

• Engaged by Mr.

• Cracking Through by Lily Sloane

• Sherry's Health Insurance Nachos by Henrici Tai

• Throwing rocks at a frozen river by adriene

XMTR Radio Hour Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio
This Episode was curated by Adriene and Stuart and hosted by Adriene from LLtNS

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Things You Don’t Hear at a Podcast Conference

Produced by Lina Prestwood (UK 2024)

54 min

Is it an alternative keynote? A lament? A provocation? Or an incitement to revolt? You decide.

With more than a whiff of the corporate in an industry that appears to champion and bolster the indie spirit, some audio conferences can feel like deeply incongruent spaces. Keynotes are usually about markets, ad revenue and content buckets from men (and it is usually men) who appear to have been born in the boardroom -  and the big story they tell is of the exciting growth! growth! GROWTH! of the audio space. They value our small shows and our brilliant creativity, they tell us. Bring us your best ideas, they say.

Yet, that’s often not what it feels like for many of  the producers in that very audience. Right now, being an audio producer has never been harder, more volatile or more exhausting. And if your show doesn’t come with a dead body or celebrity at the centre of it, it can feel nigh-on impossible to get away.

So, with that incongruence in mind, for the inaugural XMTR audio festival, Scenery Studios asked a selection of producers and creative audio champions to share how they’re really, truly navigating being creative producers in the podcast industry in September 2024. 

And that’s EXACTLY what we got - and way, way more - from:

Talia Augustidis  // Jasmin Bauomy  // Benbrick // Davy Gardner // Sarah Geis // Axel Kakoutié // Starlee Kine  // Anna Sinfield // Julie Shapiro // Shreya Sharma // Deborah Shorindè // Ross Sutherland

Just like the live audience at the XMTR festival,  follow along with this handout  - it shares the questionnaire they responded to, their biogs, the two questions we asked the audience after  – and the responses we gathered from a brainstorm about how we might start to  better advocate for the creative health of our podcast industry. 

It will live here for three weeks on the XMTR Listen Page / Player until 5th November

Transcript available here.

Producer: Lina Prestwood (Scenery Studios) @scenerystudiosltd

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep30: Ed Baxter (Resonance FM)

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2024)

60 min / Episode 30 of 30

This XMTR (Transmitter) Radio Hour is a conversation with Ed Baxter who has recently stepped down as Resonance FM creative director after being at the helm for over 22 years. Ed has selected a number of audio works that he initiated, directed or produced during this time, with a common theme of 'creating the conditions for something to happen'. These radio experiments are a wonderful example of what occurs when this medium is stretched and contorted,  allowing for the unexpected whist setting out imaginative parameters.

Works included are:
Score for Open-heart Surgery on Charlie Watts
Shut Your Eyes to Art
SpeedDataRadio
The Exeter Whisper
Fifth Sketch for Ascent and Descent
Intimacy and Distance
Millions Flee as California Burns

XMTR Radio Hour Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep30: Ed Baxter (Resonance FM)

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2024)

60 min / Episode 30 of 30

This XMTR (Transmitter) Radio Hour is a conversation with Ed Baxter who has recently stepped down as Resonance FM creative director after being at the helm for over 22 years. Ed has selected a number of audio works that he initiated, directed or produced during this time, with a common theme of 'creating the conditions for something to happen'. These radio experiments are a wonderful example of what occurs when this medium is stretched and contorted,  allowing for the unexpected whist setting out imaginative parameters.

Works included are:
Score for Open-heart Surgery on Charlie Watts
Shut Your Eyes to Art
SpeedDataRadio
The Exeter Whisper
Fifth Sketch for Ascent and Descent
Intimacy and Distance
Millions Flee as California Burns

XMTR Radio Hour Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio

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In The Dark What’s New- Diary of a Young...

Alexandra Valahu (CH 2023)

13 min

Alexandra Valahu is a writer and emerging audio producer living in Switzerland. “Diary of a Young...” was made over a few weeks during the In the Dark course, and — in Alexandra’s words — “what started as a somewhat lighthearted inquiry … evolved into something deeply surprising”.

This piece is a letter of love from Alexandra to her sister Adri.

Produced by Alexandra Valahu

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The Colour of chalk: Both Sides of the Valley with Razia Aziz

Alinah Azadeh / Sonic Boom (UK 2022)

47 min

"The Colour of Chalk" podcast is part of "We See You Now", a project dedicated to exploring diverse voices and connections to the South Downs National Park. The project is being led by writer and artist Alinah Azadeh, who has been commissioned by the South Downs National Park Authority as the first Writer-in-Residence for Seven Sisters Country Park and the wider Sussex Heritage coast in company with the skylarks, Alinah takes us on a Summer’s walk along the meanders of Cuckmere Valley to the sea, at the heart of Seven Sisters Country Park, with fellow writer Razia Aziz - to share her work and explore the landscape of family, honouring mothers, writing outdoors, seeing life from all sides and nature’s role in healing trauma. ‘Nature doesn’t see the divisions we see’

Hosted by Alinah Azadeh
Audio Production by Sonic Boom Audio

Supported by funding from Arts Council England as well as the South Downs National Park Authority.

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Letters to Ummi

Khol Journal (LB 2022)

Kohl Journal · Letters to Ummi | رسائل إلى أمّي

25 min

Overheard glimpses of intimate stories shared in rushed conversations had in scattered moments of safety and care amongst anonymous members of queer families. The conversations are in Arabic, Farsi, English, Cypriote Turkish and Kurdish. Letters To Ummi is an evolving multilingual, intergenerational and multifaceted project that centers non identifiable and anonymous ways of engagement, focusing on Queer West Asian, South West Asian, North African and East African+ realities, both from within the regions and their diasporas. It is an on-going project that centers lived experience and questions how to safely archive vulnerable and intersectional realities.

Transcript and more info

Sound: Letters To Ummi Community
Produced for Kohl Journal.

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep22 : Soundworlds with Pat Eakin Young

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2023)

60 min / Episode 22 of 22

This Transmitter Radio Hour explores the sonic theatre of Soundworlds -  in conversation with director Patrick Eakin Young. The award winning Soundworlds is an audio stage for diverse stories where musicians, writers, theatre makers and sound artists collaborate to create a unique and immersive series of musical theatre for the ears.

Extracts played are from:

1. Remnants Part 1
A three-part auditory excavation, unearthing the songs and stories of love and loss, buried beneath the soil of post-war Bosnia.
Featuring: Courtney Angela Brkic
Composition: Christian Mason, Shelley Parker

2. Town is by the Sea
An audio picture book conjuring impressions from a childhood spent in the coastal mining communities of Nova Scotia
Music composed and performed by Anna Rheingans
Text by Joanne Schwartz, adapted from her 2017 book with illustrator Sydney Smith

3. A Christmas Party
Living-room concert meets domestic drama in an immersive holiday special
Voice and piano: Douglas Dare

Recorded and Edited by Lucia Scazzocchio

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep21 : Samuel Robinson's audio world

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2023)

60 min / Episode 21 of 21

This Transmitter Radio Hour is a selection of audio works chosen by sound artist, musician and audio maker Samuel Robinson who joins Lucia in conversation as they discuss what audio works bring him joy, as well as unpacking some of the current podcast tropes, listening in on some heart- felt conversations and joining some dots between Sam’s life in the US and the UK through sound.

Here is his selection:

1. Captain Maurice Seddon  - May i explain explain my situation?

In the words of william english “captain maurice seddon was a highly unusual and inventive person who took an uncompromising stance on life”. he was the inventor of heated clothing, and made many media appearances in the 1980’s to promote them. 

Seddon recorded his phone calls, this piece is one of 12 from the collection ‘the seddon tapes vol. 1’ put together by his friend William English in 2017 and released on paradigm discs.

2. Emily Naylor - Untitled

This is a piece a friend (Emily) sent me a while ago and recently remembered. Emily made it while doing a radio masters at Goldsmiths.

3. The onion - A very fatal murder (episode 1)

It’s such a clever send up of the true crime ‘genre’ of podcast spawned by the success of serial. it nails it. I listened to this first in 2018 (i think when it came out) and yet despite it feeling so played out then i’ve noticed the production of podcasts with the approach of this podcast is parodying only increase!
 
4. Everything is alive - Grain of sand (inspector sands clip)

This clip is taken is an interview with a grain of sand called chioke. each episode of EIA (or those i’ve heard) has an intermission of sorts that features a short segment that is tangentially linked to the primary interview. in this episode the link is the ‘inspector sands’ announcement used at train stations to alert staff to a fire without scaring the public.
Hosted  by Ian Chillag, produced by Jennifer Mills
Listen to the whole episode

5. Samuel Robinson - Driving to the airport with Larissa

Very few people make me really laugh but Larissa is one of them. in 2021 she gave me a lift to the airport and started talking to the GPS which made me laugh.  I wanted to capture the moment, to document our friendship and its dynamic. I started recording on my watch (i think), and a few months later when home I cut it up and paired with a piece of music i’d made at some point.

6. Raw sounds podcast (cultural exchange segment)

In early 2019 I worked with a group of people at raw material’s raw sounds project to develop their creative audio production skills. It was pitched to me as a podcast course, but there’s so many different types of podcasts, and this group had disparate interests and needs. I chose to work to each week support them to develop skills with interviewing, recording, editing, music production, critical thinking, scripting, ideation, etc. we would record what we did each week with the view to edit it together ultimately to create our own podcast. I have a very good friend who worked as a teacher in Sonoma county, California with a group of younger people with varying special needs. i proposed we do a ‘cultural exchange’, in which members of each group would ask and answer each others questions — the results of which i edited together and assembled over a piece of music composed by someone in my group. 

Recorded and Edited by Lucia Scazzocchio
Curated by Samuel Robinson

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