Transmissions
The Stone Men of Newcastle
Daniel Hinds (UK 2022)
Daniel Hinds (UK 2022)
14 min
The Stone Men of Newcastle is a sequence of poems told through the eyes of The Commuter, the speaker and poet-figure, as he encounters the statues of Newcastle as part of his daily life working in the city. The sequence takes in Sir Antony Gormley’s vandalised Clasp sculpture, the St George and the Dragon war memorial at Eldon Square, another monument for the First World War, The Response 1914, and the Mercutio statue in Newcastle’s Theatre Royal. The Stone Men of Newcastle concludes with a consideration of the future figures we will immortalise in bronze and stone. The sequence enters into the current debate, typified by the Rhodes Must Fall movement and the toppling of the Edward Colston statue in Bristol, on how we engage with art and history in the form of statues. The statues sometimes co-exist uneasily with their setting: they are surrounded by the distractions of modern life, represent a past impossible to compete with or at odds with our values, and are vulnerable to defacement. Yet, they can also be sources of inspiration, beauty, and connection to the past, sites of contemplation as well as conflict.
Writer Daniel Hinds
Cast: Dan Pyre and Stacey Ghent
Lead Audio Production Partner: Naked Productions
Partners: BBC New Creatives, Tyneside Cinema, Arts Council England, BBC Arts.
Originally From Another Cross
Ben Gaunt (UK 2024)
Ben Gaunt (UK 2024)
8min
This is a sonic art piece, featuring some spoken word. The Leeds Cross stands in Leeds Minster.
A sign in the minster itself describes the cross: “The pieces making up the cross were found built into the medieval structure during demolition of the church in 1838. The cross would originally have stood outside the church, together with other crosses, and may have served as a grave marker. It dates to the tenth century A.D., and is carved in the Anglian style. The wheel-head originally belonged to another cross, although the shaft would have had a similar top. All the crosses from Leeds appear to have been produced in one workshop, and also have artistic links with other pieces from Wharfedale, such as the Collingham, Otley and Ilkley crosses. The upper tiers show several probably Christian figures, the angel and patron possibly copied from Irish manuscript art. At the bottom of the main faces are figures from Germanic mythology. One panel shows Weland the Smith, who was captured by Nithad, hamstrung, and forced to work as a smith. In revenge Weland murdered Nithad’s two sons and made their skulls into cups which he presented to their father, and then made Nithad’s daughter, Beaduhild, pregnant. Weland escaped by means of a flying machine, which is here shown strapped around him. He is shown surrounded by the tools of his trade and reaching up to seize a female figure, possibly Beaduhild or a Valkyrie, by the hair and skirt. The juxtaposition of Christian and pagan iconography indicates the mixed nature of tenth-century society, although the figure of Weland was sometimes employed to represent Elijah who ascended to heaven in a fiery chariot.
Ben recorded violinist and composer, James Gerrard, playing On Ilkla Moor Baht 'at. This Yorkshire folk song is based upon the hymn Cranbook; just like the Leeds Cross, it is simultaneously Christian and non-Christian. Ben also recorded James reading a sign describing the various sections of the cross, and combined these with recordings of bells, birds, and footsteps, all captured either in the minster itself or directly outside. Ben has attempted to replicate the cross’s beautiful, confusing, fragmentary character, and was inspired by its iconography, both Christian and non-Christian.
Produced by Ben Gaunt
Music by Ben Gaunt
Violin/Speaking by James Gerrard
The Ecco: Margery
Sara Zarreh Hoshyari Khah (DE 2024)
Sara Zarreh Hoshyari Khah (DE 2024)
8min
What happens if someone finds your autobiography and republishes only very specific parts? And what if that almost ends up being the only version? A story about a selective monk, a lucky pingpong match and a woman who's not afraid to cry in public.
THE ECCO is an international non-commercial initiative designed to tug at the boundaries of the world of audio storytelling, journalism, and documentary work. We bring together talents in different parts of the world — journalists, sound designers, audio producers, sound artists, & writers— all united by a common goal: to push themselves and each other out of their work-related comfort zones and explore the different shapes audio documentaries can take, where they may intersect with art and what the impact of such playful exploration can have.
This was made during an immersive retreat where a curated group of talents collaborate, experiment, and support each other in crafting audio projects that are as diverse as they are profound
Producer: Sara Zarreh Hoshyari Khah
Bread and Roses
Soveks Lo (UK 2023)
Soveks Lo (UK 2023)
17 min
A behind the scenes radio documentary about the making of the Enfield Peoples Theatre production of Bread and Roses. The play focuses on the 1915 Edmonton Rent Strike and community action led by (and won) by women during World War 1. However, it draws comparisons with the current housing crisis and the issues of homelessness.
Producer - Soveks Lo
Maroon Community Media
Every Voice: The Magic Flute: From Morehouse … to the opera house with Monostatos
David Norville + Terrance McKnight (US 2023)
David Norville + Terrance McKnight (US 2023)
22min Episode 1 of 5
Every Voice spotlights the vibrant stories and perspectives that reflect the whole of the American musical experience. There are many different kinds of classical music, depending on where you are in the world. While this music typically preserves the traditions of a given society, classical music in America remains wedded to its Western European roots. This show explores why — and what America’s classical music really sounds like. Through interviews, historical investigation, and personal storytelling, Terrance McKnight unearths the hidden voices that have been shaping our musical traditions all along. This debut season examines the representation of Blackness in opera. While character flaws are universal, stereotypes often fall along racial lines. We look at the loneliness, jealousy, self-loathing, and cultural appropriation associated with African characters in 18th and 19th century operas by Mozart and Verdi, introducing the African-American personalities found in the operas of Atlanta-based composer Dr. Sharon Willis.
Hosted by Terrance McKnight
Produced by David Norville
Contributing Strategic Advisor Tony Phillips
Tales of the Town: The Great Migrations
Delency Parham and Abbas Muntaqim (US 2022)
Delency Parham and Abbas Muntaqim (US 2022)
34min Episode 1 of 12
The first epsiode in a 12 part grassroots series telling over 100 years of Oakland history. There’s over 30 interviews, from elders, ancestors, and peers, that tell the tales of the town. The series starts with the 1st and 2nd Great Migrations that brought Black Southerners in influx to the Bay Area - looking at the circumstances that made these people travel across the country in search of “freedom” and opportunities and the struggles they encountered upon arrival.
Produced and hosted by: Delency Parham and Abbas Muntaqim
Audio Production: Maya Cueva
African Space
Sound Africa (SA 2015)
Jedi Ramalapa / Sound Africa (SA 2015)
40 min
Africa is hardly thought of as a continent much involved in space exploration.
An episode of 2 halves:
The Afronaut: An introduction to a largely forgotten space program in Zambia in the 1960s. Did the leader of this wildly ambitious project, Edward Nkoloso, have a plan or was he just the delusional eccentric he was later made out to be?
The Telescope: A small town in the Karoo Desert of Northern South Africa has finally found its place in the world with the establishment of one of the biggest international science projects of our time. As the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) begins to take shape, we look at the telescope network that will likely transform the way we understand the universe and our place in it.
Produced by Jedi Ramalapa and the Sound Africa network
Oscillations - Push To Walk
Jane Curtis and John Jacobs (AU 2022)
Jane Curtis and John Jacobs (AU 2022)
17min, Episode 3 of 4
In Push to Walk: A People’s History of the Pedestrian Button find out how the PB/5 pedestrian button came to be a fixture on Australian streets from the people who helped make it happen: engineers, Vision Australia advocates and the blind and vision impaired communities.
This is part of a series that takes artists and listeners deep into the Powerhouse's collection of half a million objects to unearth stories about the vibrations, fluctuations, and movements woven through our world – and beyond it.
Produced by Jane Curtis and John Jacobs
Narrated by Bernie Hobbs
Fear Of Missing Out: Halima
Jesse Lawson (UK 2022)
Jesse Lawson / Halima Jibril (UK 2022)
30min
Fear of Missing Out gives the microphone to young people living in the UK to talk about about topics we wish we'd learnt in school. Every episode, a new presenter goes on a personal journey through the bits of British history that people aren't talking about enough.
In March 2022, a report came out about Child Q: a 15 year old black secondary school student from London, who was strip searched by the police in her own school. 22 year old Halima moved to England from Ireland when they was 14. Hearing about Child Q felt like a breaking point for her own resilience to racism in the UK. Halima looks into the history of the criminalisation of black communities in the UK, which for Halima – and Child Q – started at school.
Produced by Jesse Lawson
Co Produced and Narrated by : Halima Jibril
A Boldface Production, supported by the Audio Content Fund.
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