Landed - The Family Farm

Farmerama / Col Gordon and Katie Revell (UK 2021)

30 min

What if we’ve been getting this wrong?” Col Gordon is a farmer’s son from the Scottish Highlands. After a decade away, he’s finally returned to the place that he loves: his family farm. Now, he’s eager to start realising his vision for an agroecological future: a future in which rural areas are alive with culture, many more people work on the land, farms operate in sympathy with nature, and nutritious food is available to everyone in society. But now that he’s back, Col’s starting to wonder whether this vision can be achieved within the existing family farm model. Increasingly, it seems the odds are stacked against farms like his.

Many are struggling to survive, let alone to employ people and deliver good food affordably to local communities. As older farmers retire without succession plans, and their land is amalgamated into large industrial operations, the future of the small family farm looks pretty bleak. As he wrangles with all of this, Col stumbles across something that throws his vision – and his very understanding of farming – into doubt. What does it mean to say that “The family farm is a colonial concept”? And might this jarring idea be the key to understanding the problem – as well as its potential solutions?

Produced by Col Gordon and Katie Revell
Executive Producer Abby Rose
Music by Dagger Gordon and Col Gordon

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep28: A swimming event, A Requiem, Toilets, Silence and Salt Beef

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2024)

60 min / Episode 28 of 28

This XMTR (Transmitter) Radio Hour celebrates works that have been submitted to xmtr.fm over the past year with an episode from Bristol based radio project Limbo Tapes' new podcast Limbo Calling, an exercise in mischief and the mundane from New York based Icelandic composer/sound designer Andrea Kristindottir, Berlin based photographer and audio story teller Miri Berlin takes on a haunting journey from intensive care unit to crematorium and musician and sound engineer Ivan Eastley contemplates silence. 

Works featured: 

1. Limbo Calling: Fear Swim
Pete Hazel (UK 2024)
https://limbotapes.podbean.com

2. Requiem for a Mother
Miri Berlin (DE 2023)


3. The Peephole
Andrea Kristinsdottir (US/ISL 2023)


4. Silence
Ivan Eastley (UK 2023)


5. Salt Beef and Carrots
Lucia Scazzocchio / Social Broadcasts (UK 2018)
https://soundcloud.com/socialbroadcasts/sets/cherrytree-chronicles

Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio

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All-American Ruins: Sober

Blake Pfeil (US 2023)

15 min

A multimedia travelogue where Blake Pfeil recounts experiences exploring abandoned spaces across the United States and reimagines them through multimodal storytelling.

The cornerstone piece of the project is abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, an award-winning audio series which guides listeners through immersive sonic fantasies, recreating experiences exploring abandoned spaces across the United States and around the world. Along the way, the show asks critical questions about American history and culture, community, capitalism and economics, the environment, and mental health while encouraging folks to activate their imaginations as a tool for healing.

The show was recently featured as an Official Select at On Air Fest in Los Angeles, California. The finale for season two is the most personal journal yet. In the episode, which takes place at an abandoned brewery in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Blake reflects on his journey to sobriety, and how his spiritual connection to abandoned places pulled him through the darkest time in his life

Produced by Blake Pfeil
Music by Indigo Days, Lotus, Joseph Beg, Lama House, and Brett Gregory
Featuring Isabel Wilder, Nik Magill

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This is Chicago: The Secret

Stephen Pate and Ashlie Stevens (US 2023)

35 min

In Near North, a hospital visit reveals a secret second family nearby. Six miles as the crow flies.

This series of short audio portraits from Chicago draws from the long lineage of oral history recording in the city, perhaps inspired by the likes of Studs Terkel and the assumption that everyone has a story if you just ask.

Created and produced by Supraphonic Studios' Stephen Pate and Ashlie Stevens

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This I is Made of Paper

The Paris Review (US 2023)

21 min

Pulitzer Prize winner Sharon Olds discusses sex, religion, and writing poems that "women were definitely not supposed to write,” in an excerpt from her Art of Poetry interview with Jessica Laser. Olds also reads three of her poems: “Sisters of Sexual Treasure” (Issue No. 74, Fall–Winter 1978), “True Love,” and “The Easel.”

Production and Sound Design - John DeLore
The Paris Review

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep25 : A Field Trip to Edmonton

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2023)

60 min / Episode 25 of 25

This show is dedicated to the joyful chaos that is Angel Edmonton in Enfield, North London. Once an industrial hub attracting factory workers and their families, the area has been neglected for decades as factories gave way to warehouses and social housing fell into decay.  Today it's a multicultural crossroads undergoing massive redevelopment. Echoes of Angels produced by Social Broadcasts takes us on a trip down the main artery - Fore Street, guided by local residents and business owners. 

Echoes of Angels a Social Broadcast by  – Lucia Scazzocchio 

Commissioned by Fore Street for All 

Next we join Enfield People’s Theatre with local producer Soveks Lo behind the scenes of their latest production Bread and Roses - a community play recounting the 1915 Edmonton Rent Strike and the community action (led and won by local women) drawing parallels with the current housing crises.

Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio

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Childcare Voices: Stay and Play

Eva Freeman / On The Record (UK 2023)

26 min, Episode 1 of 4

People on the frontline of the childcare crisis share their stories and investigate the historical roots of the problems they face. As they look into the past, will they find solutions to the problems of today? Eva, a single mum, artist and designer talks about stay and plays.

Stay and Plays are often volunteer-run groups, found in church halls. They are places people looking after very young babies and children can go, to play with others, have a cup of tea and a chat, and maybe even make friends. An experienced play facilitator herself, Eva first discovered the value of stay and plays when she was a new parent. They were, she says, life saving and gave her a community that has lasted. If they are so vital, why then does no one talk about them?

Produced by Eva Freeman
Sound design by Hannah Kemp Welch

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Euphoric Transformations

Charlotte Morlie (US /BE 2023)

11 min

Charlotte Morlie is a Belgian audio producer living in Brooklyn, New York. In her first non-narrated piece, she uses both interview and archival tape to convey a story of transness and queer joy. 

Produced by Charlotte Morlie
Special Thank You to Em Panetta 

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Bread and Roses

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

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Dancing Ideal: Maja

Ioannis Valasakis (UK 2023)

Ioannis Valasakis · Dancing Ideal: Maja 2023

8 min

Reflections from Maja, a dancer who studied in Gothenburg's Ballet Akademie, on her relationship with dance and her body, shared in hushed nighttime confessions. A poignant sonic portrait of a dancer in the throes of self-discovery and acceptance.

Producer - Ioannis Valasakis

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