Slow Radio

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The Sounds of a Winter Sunday in the Park Feb 28, 2021

Show notes

This Slow Radio feature takes us on a leisurely stroll round the park. Parks are always important but during the lockdowns they've become vital to people stuck in cities and towns. Children can still play in the park; grown-ups can still walk, run and even dance there.

When a smattering of snow fell in London recently Greenwich Park erupted with people - of all ages - pouring like lava down the icy slopes below the Royal Observatory, on sledges, tin trays, even grill pans. There were snowball skirmishes and snow sculptures appeared. It was a wonderful sight, and even more arresting were the sounds - the cacophony of joy.

The park these days is 'full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight, and hurt not', the sounds of life and happiness. But, in the distance you hear, too, the sounds of sorrow - a church bell tolls and ambulances wail. Today's Slow Radio programme gathers all these - the birds, the dogs, the children, runners, boxers, ice, mud, rain, and the - almost - silence, capturing a winter's Sunday in the Park With...sound.

Producer: Julian May

Take Me to Your Happy Place Jan 31, 2021

Show notes

Winterwatch's Gillian Burke chooses music and natural sounds that encourage her own personal wellbeing, including lapping waves, doves and crickets from her childhood in Kenya.

Lighting the Beacon Dec 28, 2020

Show notes

A slow radio journey into illumination, drawing inspiration from light beacons and signal fires. Used across the centuries as alert systems and warnings of invasion, but also for celebrations and as emblems of hope, this programme lights up the darkness, conjuring a chain of signal fires and beacons out of sound and reflecting on their meaning and purpose. Drawing on short quotes from literature from Ancient Greece to the present day, we move from the lighting of a match, to the creation of a chain of beacons, and end next to the coast at a lighthouse casting its warning light out over the sea.

Producer: Catherine Robinson for BBC Wales

Sounds of the Earth – December Dec 13, 2020

Show notes

Relax with a calming mix of music and natural sounds - from the banks of the River Wye to Kenton, near Newcastle, via the Bristol Downs and Manningtree. With field recordings by Karen Hall, Tim Dowling, Stefan Taylor and Chris Watson.

Soller - We're All Going on an Aural Holiday Nov 29, 2020

Show notes

Take your ears on a binaural summer holiday through the Mallorcan town of Soller, from sunrise to sundown. The sleepy town awakes into market day, and tourists arrive at the Miro-decorated train station before climbing aboard the tram that runs through the town square down to the beach of Port de Soller. Night brings the local fiesta of St Bartomeu as the drums beat into the night in the town square.

Household Gods Nov 01, 2020

Show notes

Composer Iain Chambers’s celebration of the domestic sound world, starting in the present day before travelling back in time.

Lockdown gave us the excuse to consider our own home environments in a new way. Household Gods takes this new focus further, exploring in depth and amplifying the sounds of domestic objects, arranged into a through-composed musique concrète work.

This is a joyful sonic celebration of the domestic environment, starting in the present day, and travelling back in time to explore earlier homes, through historic sound research and sound design.

At times the domestic sound world is bustling, at others a haven of peace. We hear the technology that helps us cook, clean, relax, eat, pass time.

During lockdown, many of us rediscovered the hidden joy in the objects that surround us that we hadn’t properly considered before our enforced isolation.

Composed and produced by Iain Chambers.

Sounds of the Earth - October Oct 18, 2020

Show notes

Relax with a calming mix of music and natural sounds - from the Flow Country of the Scottish Highlands to the Bristol Downs, via Chesil Beach and an East Sussex bluebell wood.

With field recordings by Chris Watson, Timothy Dowling, Martin Handley, and Steve Urquhart.

Penguins v Seals - Tristan da Cunha Oct 04, 2020

Show notes

With extraordinary close-up recordings of his life as a vet, the bird population, the wildlife, the sea and the shore, veterinarian Joe Hollins brings his time on the island of Tristan da Cunha to the ears of the Slow Radio listener.

Joe has recorded over 20 hours of close encounters with wild life and domestic animals, and this Slow Radio piece will take the chance to really zoom in on the incredible richness of sounds which he has recorded here over six months.

This is one of the most unique locations for untamed wild life and birds and this has enabled Joe to get right in there among the penguins, the seals, and the sea birds that cover the cliffs. He is also present at every part of the farmer's life - sawing the over grown horns of the sheep, birthing calves, and helping with the milking.

The landscape itself is as rich a sound terrain - from getting on and off the tiny boats, and fishing vessels, scrabbling down the cliffs or into the heart of the volcano itself.

This will be one of those rare things - an animal paradise for the ears.

Producer: Sara Jane Hall

Music from Rogue's Gallery: Pirate Ballads, Sea Songs and Chanteys Imaginary Songs From Tristan da Cunha by Deathprod

Sounds of the Earth - September Sep 06, 2020

Show notes

Relax with a calming mix of music and natural sounds - from the beaches and forests of Costa Rica, to the shores of Loch Ballygrant on the Isle of Islay.

With field recordings by Les Pratt, Bronwen Buckeridge, Chris Watson, and Stephanie Lyons.

Sounds of the Earth - July Aug 02, 2020

Show notes

Relax with a calming mix of music and natural sounds - including a Swedish forest, a Dorset dawn chorus, and water lapping the shores of Lough Erne in Northern Ireland.

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