Speechification

Here he is again. Chris Watson: sound recordist, Speechification touchstone (and Cabaret Voltaire founder). And this is an extraordinary item. 50:21 recorded in Antarctica (using microphones and hydrophones). It's special because it's not a radio programme. It's from Watson's own Touch Radio podcast.

So he does things you can't do on the radio - he dwells on a single sound for far too long and on almost imperceptible ambient sound for longer still (it's quiet in Antarctica). And it's a 192kbps MP3 so the quality is excellent. Listen on your iPod. If you subscribe to the Touch Radio podcast you'll sometimes get lovely enhanced, chapterised files with pictures too.

A Journey South was recorded while Watson was on location for David Attenborough's next TV series (MP3). The picture is from the Touch Radio web site.

I don't usually go for documentaries about Australian indigenous communities on ABC Radio National. It's not that I think such matters are unimportant. Quite the opposite. It's just that there's a certain ... well, hand-wringing to much of the ABC material in question. This, however, is very different. It's a great doco from a few years back concerning Arnhem Land- up there - and its people in the context of Colin Simpson's original ground-breaking radio broadcasts from there in 1948. But it's also about radio journalism, documentary-making - particularly as regards the recording of indigenous culture, and the issues in repatriating media - and some lovely glorious sound itself.

ABC Radio National: Return to Arnhem Land [mp3]

We're posting a lot of Radio 3 at the moment aren't we? Well, how could we resist this? Extraordinarily atmospheric radio; evoking the vanishing towns of the American South West with music, stories and just plain sound. MP3 here.

I particularly like the complaints about the noise of motorcycles.

Maybe the best thing about this programme is the way the continuty announcers really enjoyed trailing it all week. Clearly delighted to be asked to do something silly. But there's a lot else that's good about this overview of scores and soundtracks for comedy films and TV. It takes in the influences of silent cinema, the genius of Scott Bradley and his scores for Tom And Jerry and the modern tendency to make the music play it straight. Fantastic stuff. The programme page tells you almost nothing about it, but there's some additional info in a press release buried somewhere down this page. (MP3 here.)

This is just lovely. It's got the stuff you want from radio feature-making: something you didn't know, an unexpected insight, evidence that people you thought you knew all about aren't what you thought they were. It's about soldiers and birdwatching: specifically birdwatching done in warzones, birdsong on battlefields. Twitchers in uniform—and in peril of death. Moving and enlightening (web page, MP3). (Here comes the clunky link). And while we're talking about sound (we were talking about sound weren't we?), you should get over to the WNYC web site and listen to this really gorgeous show (there's a link to the MP3 on the page) from the Radiolab team (from the end of 2007) about the way they work with sound to tell stories. Clever and humane communication.

A perfectly loopy Archive Hour from philosopher/metalhead Julian Baggini a couple of weeks ago. It's about memory and the things you hear when you're growing up and Baggini's made full use of the slot to play luxury length chunks of Slayer (actually, as a commenter points out, there's no Slayer: I must have imagined them) and Peter Sellers and the sound of a modem and a steam train and a cash register and so on. I think Baggini's premise is a bit thin actually but it's a really marvelous excuse to listen to all those lovely sounds... (MP3).

Here's an orgy of high-end medical sound for you: gurgles and pings, clicks and whirrs. A mesmerising programme recorded at Harefield heart hospital by sound artist John Wynne. The quiet voices of patients offset the clinical cacophany with their stories. The show went out in Radio 3's Between the Ears slot in June and was accompanied by photographs taken by Tim Wainwright, including the one on the left (MP3).

I've always been a fan of unusual percussion. I once got to play an anvil soundalike in the Derby Playhouse. And played canons (via reel to reel) for 1812. I've never gotten to play the taxi horns for An American In Paris though. Rainer Hersch has made this excellent programme about unusual instruments, making me all nostalgic for my metal-bashing days. Good to hear the intra-percussionist rivalry too. How we hated those bloody timpanists. MP3 here.

The Speechification crew were at the BBC this week, showing them what we were up to, hoping they wouldn't hate it. They were thoroughly charming and helpful, especially with news on new features coming soon which mean it won't be such a struggle to uncover who actually made the programmes we all love. There does seem to be lots of good stuff around the corner. But this Key Matters programme is an illustration of what still makes Listen Again so frustrating. It's a lovely programme, fifteen minutes about what makes the key of E flat major so distinctive, and as soon as you stumble across it you want to listen to the four programmes that preceded it. And you can't. They've gone. Curses. Oh well, at least we captured this one. MP3 here.

Update: Speechification listeners are marvels. If you look in the comments you'll see that 'Riffle' has the remaining programmes. I've grabbed them from him and here they are: C major, D minor, B flat, F sharp.

Been busy. Sorry. Listen to this, it's brilliant. MP3 here.