Transmissions
Suspense : The Hitch-Hiker
Suspense The Hitch-Hiker (US 1942)
Mercury Theater (US 1942)
29 min Episode 45 of 52
The Audio equivalent of a black and white matinée film, narrated by a young Orson Welles. (Citizen Kane) We are pulled in with the question; Who doesn't like a good ghost story? No blood or gore, just a shocker, a thriller, a real Orson Wells story. Sometimes you want your heart to be warmed and sometime you want your spine to tingle.
Wells plays the protagonist Ronald Adams who comes across a mysterious hitchhiker as he drives across the States in his Buick. This radio play takes the listener to another era but the production is so good - and to think this was all done live!
There’s even a Patreon style plea at the end to Mrs and Mrs American working man and woman to lend Uncle Sam a dime to help win the war against the Nazis. It’s revelatory.
And if you’e never heard the original War of the Worlds by H G Wells, it’s really worth a listen (Also produced by the Mercury Theatre)
Produced and Directed by William Sphere
Scored by Bernard Herman
Narrated by Orson Welles
Produced for The Mercury Thearter
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XMTR Radio Hour Ep16
Social Broadcasts (UK 2022)
Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2021)
60 min / Episode 16 of 16
The next hour has a distinctly European flavour and will be showcasing work from the Italian radio platform Radio Papesse, the Belgian space for sonic creations RadioLa as well something from the prolific Italian multi-media artist Cristina Marras and a short from the Social Broadcast archive.
Sound artist Anna Raimondo has four languages in her life, French, Italian, Spanish and English and decided that it would be sensible to get some phonetic training to help her achieve a proper British accent. Her Henry Higgins happens to be Australian and the results teeter between absurd and endearing. Me My
English and all the languages of my life by Anna Raimondo
From Radiola.be (by the Atelier de creation sonore radiophonique in Brussels)
Next, we’re going to take a sort of road trip in Sardinia along the St Barbara Mining trail but also on a personal trip down a memory lane belonging to Italian radio maker Cristina Marras’s memories as she goes on this 500k pilgrimage with her friend who is happens to be called Cristina Maras.
The smell of Naptha by Cristina Marras
Back to the UK now to Peterborough and more specifically to the Portuguese area just off the Lincoln road, where Francesco Costa is having an after-work glass of wine at Tasca, a Portuguese canteen complete with football on the TV and cakes and stews behind glass counter.
Love and Life on Lincoln Road - Francesco Costa by Lucia Scazzocchio
From Radio Local
Now Imagine a camera zooming out up from Lincoln road, up from Peterborough, up from Britain, Europe, the earth and now we can see earth from space. But then we hurtle down towards Alabama in the US, it’s 1954 and a Meteor hits.
Meteor Bodies by Kate Donovan with mentorship from Katharina Metts
From Radio Papesse’s Lucia Festival
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City Of Women - Dicks
Vaaka (IN 2019)
Produced by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma (IN 2019)
22 min Episode 2 of 14
How often have you been walking down the street, running an errand or riding the bus when you see something… and you do a double take. Your eyes keep going back to it and your brain goes into overdrive: ‘IS THAT WHAT I THINK IT IS?’ Yes, it’s EXACTLY what you think it is. Long before we got unsolicited dick picks in our DMs and inboxes, we got them unsolicited irl. In ‘Dicks’ we talk to women about the whats, whens and hows of all those dicks.
City of Women, explores the calculated strategies, backdoor negotiations, and often absurd lengths women go to have fun and feel free in their city. Universal experiences told from an Indian woman’s perspective. A fun, complex, joyride into the minds of women and the streets of Bangalore.
Written and produced by Radhika Viswanathan and Samyuktha Varma.
Associate Producer: Menaka Raman.
Music, sound, mixing, and mastering : Erwick D’Souza.
More from Vaaka Media
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High Street Tales - A Reading of London Street
Aundre Goddard and Richard Bentley - High Street Tales (UK 2021)
Aundre Goddard and Richard Bentley (UK 2021)
32 min
Ok this is technically a location based sound walk of London Street in Reading but it’s an engaging listen even at a distance. (Some of the historical dramatised parts are a little wooden but entertaining none-the-less)
Artists Aundre Goddard and Richard Bentley’s sound walk ‘A Reading of London Street’ tells the story of the community at the heart of London Street bringing London Street’s history to life and capturing its unique identity.
This is part of High Street Sound Walks, a series of self-guided, immersive sound walks to help people discover the magic of their local high streets for Heritage Open Days.
Produced by Aundre Goddard and Richard Bentley for High Street Sound Walks a commission by Historic England, National Trust and Heritage Open Days with support from the players of People’s Postcode Lottery and produced by Sound UK.
Radio Armed Response
Claudia Wegener (ZA 2007)
Produced by Claudia Wegener (ZA 2007)
60 min
London based artist Claudia Wegener from Radio Continental Drift walks the streets of two suburban communities in Johannesburg S.A. In door to door interviews, at times through intercom systems and across gates, she asks questions related to public safety and a privatised security system. The result is a radio artwork mixed from what the artist likes to call dramatic field recordings. In surprisingly intimate, often humorous conversations, narratives of a complex urban patchwork of communities unfold before your ‘very eyes’. Yet what unravels, far beyond ‘issues of security’, social and urban divisions are shared concerns, questions, stories and visions about living together.
Producer: Claudia Wegener
The original half hour audio piece from 2005 is reframed in recent footage for London’s art radio station Resonance104.4fm
Recommended by Paris based sound artist Dinahbird
Here There Dragons: Paris: Mixité (Diversity)
Jess Myers (FR 2017)
Jess Myers (FR 2017)
21 min / Episode 1 of 5 (Season 2)
Jess Myers, urbanist and editor focusing on urban planning and architecture explores the cultures and the urban condition of cities. After exploring gentrification in New York, the second season of Here There Dragons takes her to Paris to try and understand how the city works from a social and cultural perspective.
In this episode she explore the concept of ‘Mixité’. Does a good social mix create greater security for urban residents? This episode we're talking mixité or diversity. How does it affect public space socially and politically in the Parisian region.
Produced by: Jess Myers
Guardians Of The River : Ep 1 Power To Protect
Guardians of the River (US 2021)
House of pod / Wild Bird Trust (ZA/US 2021)
43 min Episode 1 of 8
This is the story of the guardians of the Okavango water system. These guardians have a monumental task: safeguard a remote, near pristine environment facing threats from all sides. Join the adventure as the National Geographic Okavango Wilderness scientists and tribe members embark on an epic four-month expedition to follow a trickle of water 1,500-kilometers across Southern Africa. As their journey unfolds, they realise their real quest will take trust, a team, and an alliance with a legendary snake-like demon named Mukisi.
It brings to life the sights and sounds of the Okavango, its animals and people and gives local tribes the chance to finally be heard and participate in one of the world’s most important conservation initiatives.
Directed and narrated by Kerllen Costa
Produced by House of Pod and the Wild Life Bird Trust (South Africa)
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Ear Of The Edgeland: Breydonsound
Eastern Ear (UK 2019)
Produced by Eastern Ear (UK 2019)
38 min, Episode 2 of 4
Ear of the Edgeland’ is a series of podcasts that takes an explorative and alternative look at Norfolk. Author and curator, Sarah Lowndes is in conversation with Yarmouth-based painter, Bruer Tidman. The conversation is punctuated with music from artist and musician, Jason Parr with field recordings of Breydon Water, Burgh Castle and from under Breydon bridge.
Producer: Richard Fair and Oliver Payne
Eastern Ear
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We Were Always Here: They Weren’t Us
Hana Walker Brown - Broccoli (UK 2021)
Produced by Hana Walker-Bown at Broccoli (UK 2021)
28 min Episode 1 of 6
During the 1980's, Marc Thompson found his feet and his people as a young Black gay man in Brixton, South East London, enjoying everything that life and his community had to offer; family, parties and a safe space to express himself. At the same time, reports of a strange cancer that had been affecting young white gay men begun to emerge from America. It was like a mist, slowly creeping into the consciousness of Marc and his friends. But it was over there and these were white men, so there wasn't anything to worry about it, was there?
Producer and Sound Design: Hana Walker-Brown
Broccoli Productions
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Soundwalk In The Morning Rain
Lina Chang (US 2020)
Produced by Lina Chang (US 2020)
2 min
An audio collage of field recordings from NYC, made in response to Cities and Memory's collection 'Smithsonian Treasures'. Inspired by a letter addressed to Miss Wheaton, by the artist Elizabeth W. Capron as part of the Smithsonian Treasures online exhibition of recordings submitted in response to the Smithsonian collection.