work for radio

Constrained Radio Shows

I have made a series of hour-long radio shows for Soundart Radio that feature poetry, text, voice, sound, music, and audio work in a variety of styles and genres loosely gathered under formal or thematic headings. You can listen online at Soundart Radio or on 102.5fm in the Totnes and Dartington area of South Devon.

All the shows are archived with tracklists at Mixcloud.

Constrained Radio Show 1: Rules and limitations

The ideas that guided my choices for first this episode of ‘constrained radio’ were a sense of working within constraints or rules or limitations, or responding to those rules perhaps by resisting them. First broadcast was at 12 noon on 13th May 2020.

  1. Louise Lawler (1972) Birdcalls – 6.52
  2. bouche bée from Entre Chien et Loup (2020) Siberian Blues – 6.45
  3. Tina Darragh (1987) Excerpt of a Montessori Lesson Plan – 1.30
  4. Land Trance (2020) Regulate – 6.44
  5. Hannah Weiner (1969) The Sound of an Object Part 1 – 1.05
  6. Hannah Weiner (1969) The Sound of an Object Part 2 – 1.08
  7. Hannah Weiner (1969) The Sound of an Object Part 3 – 1.15
  8. Land Trance (2020) Chilean Miners – 5.25
  9. Tina Darragh (1987) Walking the Line – 2.45
  10. Olchar E. Lindsann (2020) Hiya Tito, Pick a Joko – 11.35
  11. Prison Behaviour (2020) Get Out of It – 2.05
  12. Hannah Weiner (1969) Helium and Krypton – 1.08
  13. Prison Behaviour (2020) Coconut Surprise – 2.00
  14. Laurie Anderson (1977) Time to Go (for Diego) – 2.54
Constrained Radio Show 2: Repeat, transpose, reuse

An hour of words and sounds; ideas of repetition and transposition run through this selection, with a mix of vocal, verbal, textual and sonic loopings, versions, layers, and reuse. First broadcast was at 12 noon on Wednesday 20th May 2020.

  1. Marija Mojca Pungercar (2007) Le predi, dekle, predi – 2.05
  2. Joe Brainard (1972) from More I Remember – 6.30
  3. germseed (2012) gently orbiting the truth yet – 3.52
  4. Bernadette Mayer (1969)  The Complete Music of Webern: A Movie  – 4.50
  5. Moor Mother (2020) The Persistent Past (from Clepsydra)  – 1.49
  6. Caroline Bergvall (2000)  Via  – 10.00
  7. Laurie Anderson (1977)  Sh  – 1.13
  8. Moor Mother (2020)  waiting time / wading time (from Clepsydra)  – 2.45
  9. Holly Pester (2011)  Buddy Holly (performed while hula-hooping)  – 6.56
  10. Lupo | Coyote (2020)  All Clear  – 3.47
  11. Lucy Dafwyn (2017)  she sleeping now  – 3.29
  12. Lupo | Coyote (2020)  Banshee’s Toot  – 5.04
  13. Kelly Mark (2002) from I Really Should  – 4.00
Constrained Radio Show 3: Numbers and letters

This hour of sound, words, music and noises has been loosely gathered around ideas of numbers and letters. First broadcast was at 12 noon on Wednesday 27th May 2020.

  1. V2a Cuban number station 5.898MHz 2. (2012) – 2.07
  2. Patrick Ireland (1967) Vowel Drawing – 1 12
  3. Dolores Keane and John Faulkner (1979) Mouth Music – 2.25
  4. Harryette Mullen (2005) Jingle Jangle – 11.33
  5. Miles Davis (1972) One and One (from On the Corner) – 6.09
  6. Tom Waits (1977) Step Right Up – 5:43
  7. Towa Tei (1998) GBI (German Bold Italic) – 6.59
  8. Michael Nyman (1992) Wheelbarrow Walk (from Drowning by Numbers) – 2.36
  9. Jelle Meander & Maja Jantar (2004) Coded Messages – 4.20
  10. Annie Johnston (1951) Bird Imitations – 1.26
  11. Ken Ikeda (2000) Tzuki (Moon) – 4.59
  12. Beth Anderson (1973)  Terero Piece – 3.47
  13. from Penny Stocks Tracker (Youtube stream)– 2.20
Constrained Radio Show 4: Document(ary)

This episode works with the idea of document(ary), mixing field recordings, live readings of poetic projects and a sound art work. It was first broadcast at noon on 3rd June 2020.

  1. Christian Marclay (2000)  Guitar Drag – 14.20
  2. Jeff Mangum (2000) – from Orange Twin Field Works Vol. 1 – 4.11
  3. Kimberley Campanello (2019) from Mother Baby Home – 17.32
  4. Jeff Mangum (2000) – from Orange Twin Field Works Vol. 1 – 3.32
  5. M Nourbese Philip (2007) from Zong – 14.24
  6. Jeff Mangum (2000) – from Orange Twin Field Works Vol. 1 – 3.07
Constrained Radio Show 5: Tales and tellings

This episode mixes stories, story-telling and ideas of narrative, with tracks that evoke places, conjure memories, or recount lives. It was first broadcast at noon on 10th June 2020.

  1. Sascha Akhtar (2015) City – 2.07
  2. Sascha Akhtar (2015) Night – 1.36
  3. Boards of Canada (2006) Under the Coke Sign – 1.31
  4. Sue Coulson (2018) Finally Floating in Concrete – 17.52
  5. Christian Marclay and Barbara Bloom (1999) from The French Diplomat’s Office Soundtrack – 2.56
  6. Sascha Akhtar (2015) Rococo – 1.54
  7. Max Richter (2004) The Trees (from The Blue Notebooks)  – 7.53
  8. Joan Jonas (1988) The Anchor Stone – 2.31
  9. Angola Prison Vocal Group (1959) Rise and Fly – 8.00
  10. Clouddead (2003) son of a gun – 5.48
  11. Kim Cascone (2001) Dust Theories 1 – 4.17
Constrained Radio Show 6: Modes of translation

This hour of music, song, performance, text, celebrates forms and modes of translation; languages in their mix and multiplicity, how languages operate, how we communicate (or don’t) with each other; the works selected also acknowledge the translation of a genre or type into a new context. It was first broadcast at noon on 17th June 2020.

  1. Kalup Linzy (2009) Melody Set Me Free – 3.43 
  2. Harryette Mullen (2002) Dim Lady – 1.08
  3. Harryette Mullen (2002) European Folktale Variant – 2.14
  4. Robert Pete Williams (1959) So Much Happenin in the News – 4.01
  5. Jelle Meander & Maja Jantar ( 2004 ) Peut-on arrêter la contagion? – 4.07
  6. Smiley Culture (1985) Cockney Translation – 6.27
  7. Flatus Vocis Trio (1990) Grosso Modo – 11.35
  8. Ric Royer (2007) The Bloomfield Coincidence – 1.04
  9. Ric Royer (2007) The Redivider Box – 5.42
  10. Anne Tardos and Jackson Mac Low (1997) Thanks – 9.58
  11. Kalup Linzy (2009) Please Please Please – 5.04
Constrained Radio Show 7: Nothing here now

This edition of Constrained Radio Show is a collaboration with artist Sebastiane Hegarty; based in Winchester, and teaching at Solent University, Sebastiane works with materialities of sound and geographies of listening. He put together a selection of material, including some of his own work, and I added some tracks that work with the concepts of his gathering; his blog post expands on the content and the thinking around the gathering: https://sebastianehegarty.wordpress.com/2020/06/22/nothing-here-now/ It was first broadcast at noon on 24th June 2020.

  1. Sebastiane Hegarty (2020) Premonition: variation for FS from Tapping the air, a performed paper [FS – Florian Schneider] – 01:29
  2. Voices from possessed children [edit] (1978) from Okkulte Stimmen Mediale Musik: Recordings of unseen intelligences 1905–2007 – 01:32
  3. Michael Esposito (2019) ‘The Yellow Jackets Last Stand of 1811‘ from Medium: Paranormal field recordings and compositions 1901-2017 – 04:16
  4. ‘Banta’ Trance Speech [edit] (1948) from Okkulte Stimmen Mediale Musik – 02:40
  5. Trompes Amengon [edit] (Txicao, July-August 1975) from Brésil: Musiques du Haut Xingu – 02:25
  6. Alice Kemp (2019) ‘A Gold Blade To The Back Of The Head’ from 9 Dreams In Erotic Mourning – 03:16
  7. Sally Ann McIntyre (2015) Collected Huia notations (Like shells on the shore when the sea of living memory has receded) – 03:21
  8. Susan Hiller (1987) Magic Lantern – 05:01
  9. Sebastiane Hegarty (2019) Séance for six radios from a live performance at The John Hansard Gallery, Southampton – 05:11
  10. William S. Burroughs (1965) Inching: Is this machine recording? from Nothing here now but the recordings. (1981) – 01:44
  11. Stephen Cornford (2016) Electrocardiographs of a Cathode Ray Tube [side a] – 04:12
  12. Peter Moss with Joe Keeton (1979) Sue Atkins as Antony Bennet [edit] from Encounters with the past, London: Sidgwick & Jackson – 01:47
  13. Sebastiane Hegarty (2020) Séance for hour hand and harp – 06:52
  14. I will be here [found tape recording from personal archive] – 01:00
  15. Psychic TV (1983) ‘Proof on Survival‘ from Dreams Less Sweet – 02:24
  16. Gwen’s Prayer (2005) from The Trebus Project: songs & stories from the centre – 04:04
  17. Alice Kemp (2016) ‘Secret Room Accessed By A Passage Written In Green Ink’ from Fill My Body With Flowers And Rice – 05:38
Constrained Radio Show 8: Rinse and repeat

For this episode of Constrained Radio Show the tracks have been selected around questions of repetition, of the use of language and sounding and voicing as material, and a mix of repetitive structures that range from the alphabet, to the litany, from memorial to remaking. This time some of the material has been suggested by poet and publisher James Davies in Manchester, and there are two tracks selected by Sebastiane Hegarty, that couldn’t fit in the previous episode. It was first broadcast at noon on 1st July 2020.

  1. Tom Jenks (2006) ’99 Names for Small Dogs’ – 02:31
  2. Jaap Blonk (2001) ‘kras’ from bek – 06:00
  3. Ceri Buck (2006) ‘Plastics make Possible’ from Characters Out In Their Thousands – 02:00
  4. Claudia Rankine (2011) ‘That Once Were Beautiful Children’ – 04:05
  5. Jonty Semper (2001) ‘11.11.33 BBC Radio LP4936’ from Kenotaphion – 01:53
  6. Ellen Fullman (1985) ‘Woven Processional’ from The Long String Instrument – 11:32
  7. Ceri Buck (2006) ‘If it’s not … It is’ from Characters Out In Their Thousands – 04:27
  8. Hannah Silva (2018) ‘Talking to Silence – part 2’ from Talk in a bit – 02:13
  9. Stephen Vitiello (1999/2002) from World Trade Centre Recordings: Winds After Hurricane Floyd – 02:57
  10. Claudia Rankine (2011) from Citizen: An American Lyric – 09:03
  11. Tracie Morris (2017) Parts 2, 3 and 4 from Re-Sonate/Ursonate – 08:36
Constrained Radio Show 9: Liquidities

This episode of Constrained Radio Show has a liquid theme with threads of layering and structure stirred through it; the show includes four pieces by Lily Greenham, from the album Lingual Music (2007) which brought together many of her earlier recordings; there are three tracks from Ursula K. Le Guin and Todd Barton’s Poetry and Music of the Kesh project, originally made in 1985; and there are various pieces that play with ideas of wateriness, uncertainty, flow and discovery. I hope you enjoy swimming among these myriad sounds. It was first broadcast at noon on 8th July 2020.

  1. Lily Greenham (2007) ‘Improvisation’ from Lingual Music – 01:17
  2. Sue Coulson (2019) ‘Slipping Up the Tower’ from Vertigo 282 – 04:09
  3. Ursula K Le Guin & Todd Barton (2018) ‘Twilight Song’ from Music and Poetry of the Kesh – 01:01
  4. Lily Greenham (2007) ‘Seascape’ from Lingual Music – 08:02
  5. Sue Coulson (2019) ‘Underwater’ from Vertigo 282 – 04:30
  6. Ursula K Le Guin & Todd Barton (2018) ‘Yes-Singing’ from Music and Poetry of the Kesh – 02:36
  7. Moor Mother (2020) ‘Geology of Ruin’ from Clepsydra  – 01:17
  8. Jodie Saunders (2020) ‘SOAP’ – 05:44
  9. Hannah Silva (2018) ‘Talking to Silence – part 1’ from Talk in a bit – 03:17
  10. Lily Greenham (2007) ‘Tillid’ from Lingual Music – 01:16
  11. Moor Mother (2020) ‘Sound is Fossil Poetry’ from Clepsydra  – 01:54
  12. Jodie Saunders (2020) ‘Glossolalia’ – 01:49
  13. Lily Greenham (2007) ‘Polar Polaris’ from Lingual Music – 08:56
  14. Félicia Atkinson (2020) ‘L’Enfant Et Le Poulpe’ from The Flower And The Vessel – 05:58
  15. Ursula K Le Guin & Todd Barton (2018) ‘Dragonfly Song’ from Music and Poetry of the Kesh – 05:23
Constrained Radio Show 10: Words and worlds

This episode of Constrained Radio Show brings together a variety of voices – writers and performers responding to places, their place, their world; responding from specific positions of experience and knowledge and community. There are poems from Charles Curtis Blackwell, delivered each day by telephone to his local recording studio, a number of excerpts from a reading of Larry Eigner’s recorded in 1974. We hear part of a performance where Cecilia Vicuña explores words, meanings, associations and story; and connects these in song, chant and ritual. Ritual is central to the practice of queer artist C A Conrad, and in the reading included here they present some of a series of 36 rituals developed in the desert around Marfa, Texas. Near the centre of the show is a recording of the Balinese Ketjak chant, a performance that enacts a battle of apes and giants described in the Hindu epic the Ramayana. We also hear two tracks, ‘Bluebird’ and ‘X’ from the 2019 King Midas Sound album Solitude, with vocals in poet Roger Robinson’s distinctive voice. And toward the end of the show is an excerpt from ‘Freedom is a Constant Struggle’ a reading by US poet, writer, and thinker Fred Moten. It is scheduled for first broadcast at noon on 15th July 2020.

  1. Charles Curtis Blackwell (2020) ‘i think we got it’ (bonus track) from On the Wall – 00:46
  2. Charles Curtis Blackwell (2020) ‘01: April 5, 2020’ from On the Wall – 04:52
  3. Cecilia Vicuña (2016)– from Dia:Chelsea Readings in Contemporary Poetry – 06:32
  4. Larry Eigner (1974) ‘Dying; A Structured Field; A Temporary Language’ from Selected Poems, S Press Tape No. 37, recorded by Michael Kohler at Swampscott, Massachusetts, 1 and 11 July – 01:20
  5. King Midas Sound (2019) ‘Bluebird’ from Solitude – 04:55
  6. C A Conrad (2016) from Circle M: Marfa Poetry Machine in 36 Things at Dia:Chelsea Readings in Contemporary Poetry – 02:25
  7. Larry Eigner (1974) ‘To Negotiate; Music is Human; Unyielding Rock; Paper’ from Selected Poems, S Press Tape No. 37, recorded by Michael Kohler at Swampscott, Massachusetts, 1 and 11 July – 02:00
  8. Cecilia Vicuña (2016)– from Dia:Chelsea Readings in Contemporary Poetry – 03:18
  9. Larry Eigner (1974) ‘Birds; How Much A Squirrel; The Sun Goes’ from Selected Poems, S Press Tape No. 37, recorded by Michael Kohler at Swampscott, Massachusetts, 1 and 11 July – 01:43
  10. Ketjak (2013) Ketjak Chant recorded at the Indonesia Pavilion, World Expo, Shanghai – 06:38
  11. Charles Curtis Blackwell (2020) ’26: April 30, 2020′ from On the Wall – 01:17
  12. Charles Curtis Blackwell (2020) ’28: May 2, 2020′ from On the Wall – 02:54
  13. Fred Moten (2013) from ‘Freedom is a Constant Struggle’ at Arika, episode 4, Tramway, Glasgow – 07:06
  14. Fred Moten (2013) from ‘Freedom is a Constant Struggle’ at Arika, episode 4, Tramway, Glasgow – 01:33
  15. King Midas Sound (2019) ‘X’ from Solitude – 05:26
  16. C A Conrad (2016) ‘Unknown duration of fear’ – 04:00
Hello! This is a test. for radia.fm

http://radia.fm/2021/03/show-834-hello-this-is-a-test-by-mark-leahy-for-soundart-radio/

The core material for this project began with a selection from the Harvard Sentences, and then other materials including phrases from the Modified Rhyme Test, and panphones were added. This collage was then read aloud to an Android tablet and converted to a new text using Google speech to text software. The new text was read to the tablet and a second conversion was performed. That resulting text was then edited and had punctuation added.

For this iteration of the project, as a piece for radio, the source materials were reedited and rerecorded with contributions from a number of different voices. These were then layered and combined into a three-part sequence, where the sections are in a ratio of 4:5:2. Repeated beats and rhythms were used as a base, including a reference to the song Tom’s Diner, used in testing lossiness in the development of the MP3 file format. Questions of signal and noise, of message sent and message received, of the relationship of different voices to who and what is heard run through the text.

First broadcast on 22nd March 2021. It is Show No. 834, and is the Soundart Radio contribution to Season 46.

Thanks for their vocal contributions to: Dante Lorenzo, Veronica Fazzio Welf, Sue Coulson, Shelley Hodgson. Thanks to Lucinda Guy and Chris Booth at Soundart Radio for inviting me to work on this.