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Sounds of the Earth - November Nov 10, 2019

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Relax with a calming mix of music and natural sounds - from the chirping of nesting seabirds on a remote island to night-time in the marshes of Trinidad, sounds from the banks of a mighty Kenyan river and the waking dawn in the heart of Southern India.

The Sounds of Al-Andalus Nov 04, 2019

Show notes

A journey in sound across the lands intimately associated with Al-Andalus, medieval Moorish Spain and Portugal. Starting in Granada at the glorious Alhambra Palace, we hear the running water of the fountains that adorn the palace as well as the sound of modern day Andalusia, with flamenco singer Juan Pinilla. We then move to Alfama and Mouraria in the old Arab quarter of Lisbon, where we hear the melancholic melodies of fado, as well as the trams that transport both tourists and locals around the city.

We then travel south, to Loulé in the Algarve, before crossing the sea to Morocco, and the sounds of the old Medina in Fez. It is the sound of the sea - across which invaders travelled and refugees and exiles escaped - that we end on.

Listening to Lalibela Nov 03, 2019

Show notes

In 1968 Redzi Bernard's mother arrived in Lalibela - Ethiopia's holy city - on a mule after an arduous trek through the mountains. Earlier this year Redzi recreated her mother's journey and when she arrived in Lalibela she discovered a timeless world.

Just before dawn on a Sunday, she enters an church complex - all below ground level - where hundreds of pilgrims gather in white robes, incense burns, and drums and incantations fill the air.

Ethiopian Orthodox priests lead ceremonies and devotees pray with eyes closed and palms stretched upwards. As day breaks, birdsong and light filter into the scene and slowly pilgrims start to drift away.

To hear Redzi's Ethiopian journey in full go to BBC Sounds and search for 'Journey of a Lifetime'

Downtown Nashville, Tennessee Oct 28, 2019

Show notes

Think of the American South and one man-made sound plays out evocatively across the landscape: the horn of a passing freight train. For a century and a half it's been almost synonymous with the idea of America, particularly where the rural blends with the urban. In the city of Nashville, Tennessee - 'music city' - the last century has been accompanied by another signature sound: the honky tonk bar.

In this leisurely half hour, we witness the musical arrival of a freight train as it crosses the public highway into downtown Nashville. The rattle of the tracks and sonorous horn dissolve into the sounds of Broadway, the strip where every premises has windows open onto the street, spilling music out to draw tourists in. And between the bars, buskers plug the gaps.

It takes about half an hour to walk up and down Broadway from the Cumberland River - past honky tonks throbbing with Dolly Parton and Lynyrd Skynyrd covers, street renditions of Louis's Wonderful World and pedal-powered bars pumping out hits for bachelorette parties.

The sounds which compete for our attention within this cacophony provide as vivid a snapshot of contemporary Nashville as the freight train horn that sits so snugly within this cityscape, framing the downtown walk.

Produced by Hannah Dean with recordings by Alan Hall. A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3.

Sounds of the Earth - October Oct 18, 2019

Show notes

A montage of music and natural sounds from farmland in Somerset where willow warblers, robins and swallows merge with the faint chirp of crickets; a group of white rhinos going about their daily business in KwaZulu Natal; a troupe of busy white-throated Capuchin monkeys in a Costa Rican rainforest; and the ethereal call of the bellbird echoing through a forest in New Zealand.

The Signal-Man Oct 13, 2019

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Renowned field recordist Chris Watson follows the sound of signal bells, and finds himself in a Gate Box on a stretch of the East Yorkshire railway, listening for trains and birds with signalman Dave Beckett.

Sounds of the Earth - July Jul 25, 2019

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A montage of music and natural sounds from a sunrise recorded in Cluny House Gardens in Perthshire; the call of a lyrebird captured in the eucalyptus trees of Hastings State Forest in southern Tasmania; a woodland in Minsmere, Suffolk where tawny owls, nightingales and cuckoos greet the early morning; and the mysterious hooting of a troupe of white-handed gibbons in Khao Yai National Park, Thailand.

Bach Walks: Roseburg to Lübeck Jul 18, 2019

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In the fifth of five "slow-radio" walks in which writer Horatio Clare searches for Bach's footsteps - and his ghost - the route takes him from the village of Roseburg along the Old Salt Road to Mölln, and on to the city of Lübeck.

Into the Eerie Jul 11, 2019

Show notes

Artist and cultural geographer Rob St John joins presenter Will Abberley on a walk through the Pennines, untangling the idea of the dark and unsettling impression of eeriness in the English landscape.

Night-time at the zoo Jul 05, 2019

Show notes

Dusk to dawn at the Isle of Wight Zoo.

On the beautiful Sandown Beach on the Isle of Wight stands a historic fort, now home to the Isle of Wight Zoo. It is run by the Wildheart Trust, which promotes the survival of endangered species, and is well-known as a centre for rescued big cats who, along with pocket-sized primates and other even smaller animals have a starring role in this portrayal of the sounds of the zoo.

The programme moves from dusk, as the animals prepare for sleep, through the small hours of the night, when the silence is punctuated by the sound of snoring, to dawn and the beginning of a new day.

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