Emerging talent from two BBC talent development schemes - Sound First and Words First - collaborate to create new soundworlds of spoken word and sound design. Evocative, thoughtful and challenging, new poems recorded at the BBC Contains Strong Language festival in Leeds by the Words First spoken word artists are interwoven with new sound designs from our Sound First sound artists. Sound First is supported by ambassador Ben Brick, the producer of Have You Heard George's Podcast? by George the...

Ian Rawes (1965-2021) was a sound recordist best known for creating the London Sound Survey, a huge collection of his recordings of the sounds of London. Before his death, Ian was recording the course of the night across the wilder places of East Anglia. He made these field recordings in remote locations across Norfolk and Suffolk, sometimes camping overnight in bird hides to capture the different nocturnal moments. Ian called the project, ‘From Dusk Till Dawn’, and handed the recordings to...

A sonic journey into Japan's unique culture of music cafés and listening bars. Places where people come together to indulge in deep listening in audiophile quality, with venues for fans of everything from classical, jazz, to electronic music. This culture has its origins in the time prior to the second world war, when imported records and audio equipment were prohibitively expensive. People began to gather in cafés where, for the price of a cup of coffee, they could listen to rare records on...

The permafrost is a thriving ecosystem, teaming with life, mythology, histories and futures, hidden just below the surface. Yet unlike tropical rainforests or the deep oceans, this frozen expanse rarely appears in the cultural imagination. Curator Sophie J Williamson ventures on a journey to discover the life of the permafrost. In -40° winter of the Canadian Yukon Valley, ancient forests, perfectly preserved by the permafrost, are uncovered by miners and 10,000-year-old grass seeds sprout...

The UKs last remaining coal fired power stations are about to close, bringing to an end our use of coal to produce our electricity. West Burton is one of the last coal fired power stations still generating electricity, and Andrew Carter was able to record a soundscape there before it falls silent for ever. West Burton was originally planned to close in September 2022, but the Russian invasion of Ukraine has extended its operations until the spring of 2023 to help with continuity of supply...

In this piece, the fool stands at the edge of the cliff, looking up at the sky. She asks herself, “How did I get here?” And also, “Where am I meant to go?” Part of our recurring series of miniature audio-works for Radio 3's home for adventurous radio-making - Between the Ears. In this series, five audio-makers from around the world were invited to choose a card from the tarot deck as a creative prompt for their idea. The card at the heart of this edition is The Fool. Featuring: Briana...

Filling out a form, Mido is confronted with a series of boxes to tick. Two familiar boxes emerge from the crowd and stand side by side. One says ‘Male’. The other says ‘Female’. Beyond the Box is an intimate and inquisitive immersion into the nature of these boxes and what life is like living beyond them. Developed through a series of facilitated workshops, producer Christina Hardinge invites friend Mido to explore their personal lived experience of being ‘put in a box’. By integrating the...

feeling body is part of a series of pieces reflecting on the physical and psychological experiences during and after an extended period of illness (long-COVID). The work draws on multiple symbolisms, from The Nine of Swords in the Minor Arcana, to the undercurrent of water, where long baths were a point of solace during the experience of debilitating symptoms. Interspersed with perspectives of internal and external interactions, voiced by the composer in multiple ways as well as a by...

Marta Medvešek explores a local legend she encounters on her summer vacation in Bol, Croatia – the story of the House in a House. A magical place where imagination meets reality, and fate–possibility. The House in a House forms part of our recurring series of miniature audio-works for Radio 3's home for adventurous radio-making - Between the Ears. In this series, five audio-makers from around the world were invited to choose a card from the tarot deck as a creative prompt for their idea. The...

Researchers Bongani Kona and Catherine Boulle have spent the last year piecing together the story of one woman’s decades-long search to find the remains of her father, a South African political activist who died in 1966. In between visiting old prisons and sifting through archival collections, Bongani begins dreaming about the ghost of his own father, a man he's never met. The quest to uncover the meaning behind these recurring dreams leads to Julia, a spirit medium and healer, who...

This feature focuses on two friends, neuroscientists and ultra-runners - Matthias Ekman (German) and Laurence O'Dwyer (an award-winning Irish poet). It's a meditation on ultrarunning through interview, poetry, location recordings, sound and music. This programme weaves specially commissioned poems (Laurence O'Dwyer) and music that chart the pain and elation of running. It explores Larry’s endurance, physical deterioration and injury alongside Matthias’s personal determination to become the...

For over half a century, the Wildlife Sound Recording Society has been active in encouraging amateur recordists to develop their skills and increase their understanding of the natural world, in the UK and around the globe. In this impressionistic sonic portrait, we join society members on a group field-recording trip to Caerlaverock Wetland Centre in Dumfriesshire, to share in reflections and reminiscences about encounters with nature and the art of audio recording. The sound of thousands of...

In this captivating Between the Ears, Professor Shawn Sobers uncovers the fascinating story of Emperor Haile Selassie I and his pianola as told through the music of the time.

A soundscape of nostalgia, loneliness and reflection on Kwei’s journey home after a concert as he recollects memories following a big move to a new city. About Esme and Caleb Esme Allman is a poet, writer and theatre-maker based in South East London. She is an alumna on the Roundhouse Poetry Collective and the Barbican Young Poets programme. She has previously received poetry commissions from the ICA’s New Creatives Programme, English Heritage, the Barbican and Sydenham Arts. Her work has...

Part poem, part surreal radio play, Ding Dong explores the difficulties of staying in the present through the mind of a millennial, and delves into why shutting off your senses with the content on your phone is far more appealing than opening your eyes to the discomfort of today (and even worse, the bleak uncertainty of tomorrow). When the Present Moment comes knocking, Leanne wants nothing to do with her. She’s far too smiley and righteous, and she has some difficult questions which are...

For the first time since it was initially displayed in Hyde Park in 1994, the UK AIDS Memorial Quilt was unfolded in its entirety in July 2021. It features hundreds of hand-stitched, glue-gunned and collaged memorial panels. Each is the size of a grave plot, powerfully naming a generation of loved ones lost during the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the 80s and 90s. The Quilt, with all its colours, materials and immense care and detail, is a heart-breaking monument of love for those departed, as well as...

Acting as a lullaby, this 14-minute piece mixes together a narrative, spoken by Randolf Menzel, and music. Just before going to sleep, listeners will experience Randolf Menzel’s dream and question if bees dream as well. Dr. Randolf Menzel is a German neurobiologist who dedicated his life to the world of bees. At the beginning of his career, he was dreaming of becoming a bee. At nights, and sometimes during the day, he was transforming into his subject of research. These experiences helped him...

Standing on Waterloo Bridge in 2021, the artist re-examines the personal impact of Derek Jarman’s final film, ‘Blue’ (1993). His celebrated experimental film is a poetic reckoning with his grief at the loss of friends, lovers and his own life as a result of AIDS-related illnesses. ‘Time is what keeps the light from reaching us’ is an audio essay, sampling from the film itself, asking the question, what does it mean to review Jarman’s film without an image today? A re-view, in this case, might...

George Mackay Brown was one of Scotland's most important 20th-century poets, who also wrote novels, plays and short stories steeped in the rich history and myths of Orkney. Orcadian composer Erland Cooper grew up on the same street, just a few doors down, until the poet's death in 1996. To mark Mackay Brown's centenary, Erland returns to Stromness with acclaimed violinist Daniel Pioro. They journey over hilly moorland on the island of Hoy and to Rousay, an island known as the Egypt of the...

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition takes an image as its starting point - from a radio producer who finds herself caught in a news image to a painting come to life. Chromophonia explores colour for the ears, through the eyes of two colour experts. Cheryl Porter is a books and paper conservator, specialising in medieval manuscripts and methods of creating and preserving...

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition takes an image as its starting point - from a radio producer who finds herself caught in a news image to a painting come to life. Tonight, the audio artist Fallon Mayanja explores the idea of words as corpses, or shells, as she brings a photograph of crashing waves to life. Produced by Fallon Mayanja A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition of takes an image as its starting point - from a radio producer who finds herself caught in a news image to a painting come to life. In this edition, Australian documentary maker Mike Williams revisits the scene of a family photo on a road trip to visit a famous outback pub. An unexpected obstacle forces him to contemplate the...

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition takes an image as its starting point - from an audio-maker who finds herself caught in a news image to a painting come to life. In To Have/To Hold, Aliya Pabani pieces together fragmentary memories of a protest from the news images taken that day. Standing trying to hold a line around a homeless encampment in Toronto, photo journalists are...

Five audio-makers from around the world take over The Essay to offer a series of Radio 3's innovative Between the Ears features in miniature. Each edition takes an image as its starting point - from a radio producer who finds herself caught in a news image to a painting come to life. Creation of the Birds by Sami El-Enany is part tone poem and part narrative reimagining of Remedios Varo’s painting of the same name. El-Enany chose to focus on three main aspects for his Creation of the Birds,...