Departures / Arrivals - Every Floor Has A Different Color

Umi Hsu (US 2024)

9 min

Departures / Arrivals is a bilingual experimental audio memoir that follows my search for where memory is held within a diasporic time/space. After having immigrated to the United States as a pre-teen 33 years ago, I return to sites significant to my life in Taiwan: the apartment building I grew up in, walks I took with family, the school I attended, and more. Each track on the album is an audio meditation on memory surrounding a specific place and relationship with unscripted dialogs. Each composition presents a diasporic architecture, where a particular time/space is stretched and compressed at once. It’s an invitation to listen in and between the cracks of sound, language, and memory.

Composition, performance, recording, and mixing by: Umi Hsu

Listen to the series

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Ian

Nathan Gibson (UK 2023)

9 min

A bomb disposal expert by trade, Ian Jones MBE spent over 35 years on the frontline of historical events, disarming bombs and incendiary devices in the most challenging of circumstances. His experiences reveal to us a hidden side of war and the lives of the people literally trying to defuse conflict. But these days, you’re more likely to find him tending his allotment.

Produced by Nathan Gibson

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Earth Day 2023 - Voices for Nature

Agathe Dijoud (FR 2024)

5 min

In this audio piece, Agathe Dijoud joins a march in London on Earth Day 2023, and capture sounds from speeches, music and personal thoughts throughout the day. Nature can take many forms, and has the belief that marches are one form of nature resisting the climate crisis, through a human lens.

Produced by Agathe Dijoud

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Beautiful Writing

Stella Sims (UK 2024)

stellastar80 · Beautiful Writing

7 min

Calligraphy is a ancient craft where art, language and words intersect. But in a world of screens, phones and computer-generated fonts, what does calligraphy do for us? Take a journey into the magical world of A to Z as calligraphers explore this question and reveal the joy of letter art and handwriting.

Produced by Stella Sims

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I’d Rather Be Swimming

Produced by Clair Urbahn (UK 2022)

7 min

Produced especially for the XMTR Audio Arts Festival. This is an ode to living by the sea. It's why we are all here so please stop dumping sewage in it Southern Water. Cheers to the fellow swimmers that helped, young and old.

Clair Urbahn, an audio enthusiast since broadcasting at an independent FM station in Wellington NZ (radioactive.fm) moved from NZ to London in 2008, had a hand in setting up NTS Radio (nts.live) and set up pop-up stations when that was a thing. Currently overseeing podcast production and network infrastructure for Brazen (brazen.fm) as Head of Audio.

Producer: Clair Urbahn

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Walking through the submerged forest

Produced by Mary Hooper (UK 2023)

9 min

This piece is composed from field recordings and readings of letters from Bexhill Museum archives, layered to bring to life a part of our eroding coastline and an archive which lies quietly unearthed.
The field recordings were made whilst walking at low tide through pre-historic submerged forest remains, at Bulverhythe in EastSussex. This is layered with field recordings made in nearby woods.

Julian Porter, Rother Museums' curator found photographs and letters in the Bexhill Museum archives relating to the forest, which Actor and Theatre Producer Leigh Shine, read for me in a recording session.
”I hope the piece creates a spirit of place, a sense of timelessness and ever evolving change. The magical experience of walking through thousands of years of human and environmental ebb and flow.”

Producer: Mary Hooper

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The Human Jukebox

Stella Sims (UK 2024)

stellastar80 · The Human Jukebox

7 min

A portrait of Trev ‘The Pianoman’ Woodison, one of the last remaining traditional pub piano players in the UK. He's on a mission to keep the art of pub piano alive. Playing piano in pubs is no ordinary gig: Trev never knows what he's going to play until he turns up on the night, it's up to the audience to choose and for Trev to improvise on the spot. This audio piece invites listeners to join Trev down the pub as he explains what it takes to be a pub piano entertainer.

Produced by Stella Sims and Kiff Frankham

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In The Dark What’s New: Saltwater Soul

James Trice (UK 2024)

MajDuckworth · Saltwater Soul // Short Documentary

8 min

"Saltwater Soul" is an experimental audio documentary that’s really close to my heart. It dives into the world of sea swimming in Brighton, seen through the eyes of a passionate swimmer. The documentary mixes the peaceful sounds of the ocean with the lively atmosphere of protests against pollution by British water companies.

Creating this piece was a personal journey for me. I even started writing poetry for the first time, which you’ll hear throughout the documentary. It’s a mix of the calm and joy of sea swimming with the serious issue of environmental threats. My hope is that it not only shares the unique experience of sea swimming but also highlights the importance of protecting our waters.

Producer - James Trice

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In The Dark What’s New: Nuisibles

Ka-Young Park and Dimitris Roidis (FR 2023)

13 min

This work combines two worlds: a vermin exterminator in Paris and stories of the oppressed youth. After a police union’s public statement on 30th July, these two worlds suddenly intersect.

Producers - Ka Young Park and Dimitris Roidis during the Louis Lumiere Sound Documentary programme, taught by Frédérique Pressman

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In The Dark What’s New: The Lost Son

Julianne Chandler (US 2024)

11 min

A father's 27-year search for his son, who was taken from him at birth.

Produced by Julianne Chandler.

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