Between the Ears

Award-winning poet Joelle Taylor returns to the cinema in Rawtenstall where her mother worked, and where she grew up - celebrating the horror films that turned her into a writer, with brand new poetry that evokes the projection box, the usherettes, memories of being a child in front of the big screen, and the ghosts that haunted the building.Presented by Joelle Taylor Produced by Faith Lawrence Mixed by Sharon HughesBBC Audio NorthFilms referenced - 'Carrie' directed by Brian de Palma. 'Alien' directed by Ridley Scott, 'The Exorcist' directed by William Friedkin

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 Poet. Words First is supported by the poetry organisations Apples and Snakes and Young Identity.Poems and Sound Designs by: Stories in Storeys by Lisa O'Hare - sound design by Caitlin Hinds Dear Miss Nanji by Anna Margarita - sound design by Owen McDonnell Mind The Bleep by Nigeen Dara - sound design by Jo Kennedy ESCA by HL Truslove - sound design by Laura Campbell This Thing Called Life by Jed - sound design by Cameron Naylor Aquaphobia by Nosa - sound design by Cameron Naylor and Owen McDonnell Planted by Anisa Butt - sound design by Jo Kennedy My Last Night with Mandy by Spoken 2 Life - sound design by Laura Campbell The Shrewing of the Tame by Lisa O'Hare - sound design by Oliver Denman We Are Not Divided by Anna Margarita - sound design by Ross Burns

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 his friend, composer/producer Iain Chambers, saying that he wanted them to bring about something new. Here, writer Kayo Chingonyi responds to the recordings, and Iain uses both elements to create a new composed sound piece, in tribute to Ian Rawes. We start at sunset: the sounds of wildfowl travel far across the flooded fields of the Ouse Washes in Cambridgeshire. Many are Bewick's and whooper swans spending the winter in the Fens before migrating back to Iceland and Siberia. https://thelondonsoundsurvey.bandcamp.com/album/from-dusk-till-dawn https://www.soundsurvey.org.uk Recordings – Ian Rawes / The London Sound Survey Words/voice – Kayo Chingonyi Composer/producer – Iain Chambers Mixing engineer – Peregrine Andrews Executive Producer – Nina Perry An Open Audio production for BBC Radio 3

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 highest quality gramophones. While the traditional classical and jazz cafés are slowly disappearing, there are new modern listening bars emerging, often concentrating on specific genres and even microgenres of contemporary music, with a focus on the same concept of concentrated and collective listening. Rich in binaural recordings, this radio documentary features the owners and regulars of legendary music cafés, like the classical music cafés Violon in Tokyo, and Musik in Kyoto, the jazz café Downbeat in Yokohama, as well as the DJ-Bar Bridge, a cutting-edge listening bar in Shibuya, Tokyo. Producer: Andreas Hartmann in collaboration with Julia Shimura Translation: Krzysztof Honowski Voice Actors: Peter Becker, Matthew Burton, Ian Dickinson, Riah Knight and Tomas Sinclair Spencer Photo Credit: Andreas Hartmann

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 into life. In the blustery remote Artic town of Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard (the world's northernmost settlement) cryomicrobiologists drill boreholes hundreds of meters deep to explore the deepest and oldest of earthly ecologies, bringing to the surface living microbes that are hundreds of thousands of years old. And in unceded Sápmi lands of northern Finland, permafrost mounds decompose into marshy peatlands, while biologists trace the shifting bio- and geoacoustics of a changing ecology. From the piercing-white tundra and the hundreds of thousands of lakes across the vast expanse of Siberia, indigenous folklore emerges from the unknowns of the icy underlands. And scientists in Yakutsk (the world's coldest city), travel the icy landscapes to discover the stories secreted within the still fleshy, visceral carcasses of mammoths and ancient creatures that are exposed as the millennia-year-old ice thaws. With contributions by Hannu Autto, Jonathan Carruthers-Jones, Tori Herridge, Karen Lloyd, Sanna Piilo, Svetlana Romanova, Nikita Tananaev, Peter von Tiesenhausen, and other members of Sámi, Sakha and Yukagir communities of unceded Sápmi territory and Northern Siberia who prefer not to be named. Specially commissioned spoken word piece by Sata Taas (written and spoken by Al-Yene and Jaangy, with sound design by Karina Kazaryan aka KP Transmission) With excerpts of Jana Winderen's 'Energy Field', 'Listening Through the Dead Zones' and 'Pasvikdalen'. Published by Touch Music. Recorded and curated by Sophie J Williamson Sound design by Rob Mackay Produced by Mark Rickards A Whistledown Scotland Production for BBC 3 Imagining the Permafrost is part of the wider arts programme, Undead Matter. Follow on Instagram @undead_matter

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 during the current energy crisis. Andrew's late father was a mechanical engineer, and he worked for the Central Electricity Generating Board, and fifty years ago he took Andrew around Cottam power station – which is just up the road from West Burton – and as you can imagine that tour around the plant left a big impression on an eight year old. As luck would have it, when Andrew was recording at West Burton, he was able to go to Cottam, which he discovered is now in the process of being demolished, and he walked again in his father's footsteps. It brought back a lot of poignant memories. This soundscape in an operating, and disused coal fired power station is Andrew's homage to his father, before these cathedrals of power are reduced to rubble, capturing, before it's too late, the sounds that would otherwise be lost to history. A BBC Radio Cumbria production, produced by Andrew Carter

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 Gutierrez Additional voices: Kate Bowen, Cristina Umaña Durán, Hannah Patterson, Ruoyi Shi, Sofija Stefanovic, and Canelo Joaquin Produced by Phoebe Wang A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3

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 therapeutic tools of visualisation and guided imagery with interview, together they imagine new ways of framing this conversation. Christina Hardinge is a Bristol based audio producer and multi-disciplinary artist working creatively in the field of documentary. She has over 10 years experience of telling intimate personal stories rooted in interview; spanning across the mediums of audio, film, theatre and immersive installation. Winner of the Charles Parker Radio Prize and nominee for Prix Europa's Rising Star audio award, her work has been broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Short Cuts and exhibited at international festivals. Beyond the Box 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 card at the heart of Beyond the Box is the Death card. Produced by Christina Hardinge Co-created by: Mido A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3

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 Kiswahili text-to-speech voice, and with additional sounds from performers Yaz Lancaster (voice, violin) & Michael O'Callaghan (trumpet), the piece blurs the lines between a perspective from the time of illness and one in retrospect, underlining an inevitable consequence of illness: how it arrests, irreversibly, one's awareness of their living body. feeling body 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. Nyokabi Kariũki is a Kenyan composer and sound artist. Illuminated by musical sensibilities from her African upbringing, Nyokabi shares a unique artistic voice spanning across various genres — from classical contemporary to sound art, film, and explorations into (East) African musical traditions. Her works have been experienced in various contexts around the world, from audio art festivals (including the Hearsay International Audio Festival, where she received the 2021 Hearsay ‘Art' Award), to performances by acclaimed ensembles like Third Coast Percussion and Cello Octet Amsterdam. Produced and composed by Nyokabi Kariũki A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3

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 card at the heart of The House in a House is The Tower. Marta Medvešek is a Croatian audio producer with a soft spot for helping stories cross language borders. She's produced work for BBC Radio 4's Short Cuts, Resonance FM, The Allusionist, Deutschlandfunk Kultur and BBC World Service. Since winning the Best European Radio Documentary prize at the 2021 Prix Europa, her piece “Fly or Die” has already traveled to Germany, Sweden, Lithuania, Belgium and Italy. Featuring Ivica Jakšić Čokrić Puko and Mario Borovčić Kurir Music by Kevin Kopacka Produced by Marta Medvešek A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3

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 practices one of the oldest forms of divination on the planet – “throwing the bones”. In consultation with ancestral and spirit worlds, Julia deciphers “energy fields within one's psyche, spirit and soul body.” This is all to bring solace to troubled souls and minds; to “these soft houses in which we live”, as Kei Miller writes, “and in which we move and from which we can never migrate, except by dying.” Khangela, in isiXhosa, is to look, or to search. Khangela 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 card at the heart of Khangela is The High Priestess. Bongani Kona is a writer, and a lecturer in the department of history at the University of the Western Cape. Catherine Boulle is an audio maker and writer, currently based at the University of Cape Town. Together, Catherine and Bongani won the 2021 Whickers Radio & Audio Funding Award for their documentary about South Africa's Missing Persons Task Team, and the case of James Booi. Produced by Bongani Kona and Catherine Boulle A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3

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 fastest known runner on the 800km route, the Haute Route Pyrénées. Producer Zoë Comyns weaves location recordings, amateur archive phone recordings, interviews, poetry and tracked runs. With original compositions by Ruth Kennington, many musical sequences were performed live using real-time generation and manipulation of audio that responded to Laurence and Matthias's stories. Longer composition and looped components relay the repetition of ultrarunning and mimics how the mind works as the runners spend long periods on their own in dangerous and remote locations. Each sound carries with it the resilience and propulsion of the long-distance runner. It charts how predictive brain studies in the lab might be applied out on the trail, how your mind ‘pre-plays' the terrain, anticipating where to place your feet at speed over long distances. With thanks to Regan Hutchins, Kevin Brew and Ronan Kelly. Produced by Zoë Comyns Original music and sound design by Ruth Kennington HRP archive recordings Matthias Ekman. The Racing Mind is a New Normal Culture production for BBC Radio 3

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 barnacle geese in flight; the wingbeat of a whooper swan; the ambience of a lake at night - our recordists have different sounds they wish to capture during the trip, and a variety of techniques, equipment rigs and field craft know-how at their disposal. Some want the ultimate sense of a location in stunning stereo, while others want to document specific species with as little other "pollution" as possible. What makes a good recording? And what drives them to keep heading out at dawn and dusk alone with their microphones? Featured Field Recordings: David M. - A flock takes to the air at Caerlaverock Richard Youell - Overhead Whooper Swan Johannes van den Burg - Black-backed Jackal calling at the Waterhole Anna Sulley - Bird song: Wren, Curlew, Jackdaw Robert Malpas - Inner Farne: Terns with People Johannes van der Burg - Life In The River Eye Derek McGinn - Snow Bunting Richard Youell - Geese over Caerlaverock With thanks to the Wildlife Sound Recording Society and to the British Library for permission to share extracts from the Charles and Heather Myers collection. Photo credit: Richard Youell Producers; Peregrine Andrews and Phil Smith A Far Shoreline production for BBC Radio 3.

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 also appeared in POSTSCRIPT, The Skinny and the Barbican Young Poets 2019/2020 anthology. Her work explores blackness, history, memory, desire and the ways these ideas interact with each other. Caleb Azumah Nelson (b. 1993) is a British-Ghanaian writer and photographer, living in South East London. He was recently shortlisted for the Palm Photo Prize and won the People's Choice prize. He has produced music and sound for artists such as MAVI and Belinda Zhawi. His writing has been published in The New York Times, The White Review, Granta and Harper's Bazaar. He was shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2020 for his story 'Pray'. His first novel, OPEN WATER, was published by Viking (UK) and Grove Atlantic (US), and was longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and the Desmond Elliott Prize. New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts. Esme Allman – Writer, Poet and Performer Caleb Azumah Nelson –Writer and Performer, Sound Production Tife Kusoro – Performer Rory Bowens (NTS) – Executive Producer

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 best left unanswered. Besides, Leanne's very busy scrolling through videos of dogs on her phone and eating biscuits, so she doesn't really have the time. However, the Present Moment is persistent in her curiosity of the here and now, and refuses to stop dinging Leanne's doorbell until she has her answers, forcing her away from the blissful euphoria of her phone (and her fridge) to face up to the uneasy prospect of some time without distraction. Accompanied by a dreamlike score composed by Emma Barnaby. About Leanne Leanne Shorley is an actor, writer, comedian and spoken word artist. This is her second piece for New Creatives. Her first, ‘Couple Goals', was broadcast on ‘BBC Introducing Arts with Gemma Cairney' on BBC 6 Music last year. She's an alumni of BBC Words First and has recently appeared on the BAFTA winning ‘Life & Rhymes' on Sky Arts. New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts. Leanne Shorley - Writer and Performer Emma Barnaby - Music Composer Martha Pazienti Caidan (NTS) - Executive Producer

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 a protest against the institutional failures of the period and the stigma surrounding HIV that still remains. Colliding past and present, ‘Quilts of Love' features interviews with Barton Friedland, Project Coordinator of the 1994 display, and the staff of The Food Chain, a frontline HIV charity that recently spearheaded the 2021 exhibition. The work pays homage to this stunning piece of visual and community art, but also the tireless work of the people who have made sure the stories behind the Quilts are preserved and the names it commemorates are never forgotten. About Tom Tom Foskett-Barnes is a composer and sound designer working across film, theatre and sound art. Tom scored Oscar-nominated short documentary Black Sheep and Bafta-nominated short film toni_with_an_i. For theatre Tom has worked at Old Vic, the Arcola, Soho Theatre and The Globe. In 2016 Tom was Sound and Music Composer in Residence with ROLI as part of the Embedded_Innovate Scheme and in 2017 Tom was selected as part of the Old Vic 12. ‘Quilts of Love' is the second instalment in a trilogy of works about UK queer history. The first was ‘Living With The Light On', an audio documentary about the UK's leading LGBT+ helpline Switchboard. Tom trained at the Royal College of Music as a Soirée d'Or Scholar generously supported by a Clifton Parker Award and was also the recipient of a BAFTA UK Scholarship. New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts. Tom Foskett-Barnes - Composer, Sound Designer and Producer  Anna Brewster, Siobhán Lanigan, Clifford McManus, Clare Quinn (The Food Chain) and Barton Friedland (Quilts of Love Display) - Interviewees  Rory Bowens (NTS) - Executive Producer

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 to build a better understanding of what it is like to be a bee, and gave him leads to his scientific inquiries. In return, his discoveries in the lab were enhancing his dreams. Dream worlds are a central part of human life. Neuroscience has shown that they are an important activity for human brain and its evolution, and not mere epiphenomena. Within these dream lands, time is telescoped, it is distorted; offering a space to try specific hypotheses. About Apian Apian is a machine built for exploring the age-old interspecies relationship between humans and bees. It offers a refuge to encounter this alien species on a more egalitarian basis, mediated by technology and human thoughts. Working outside any institution, Apian is a non-profit bureau, a ministry of bees. It is heuristic, experimental, messy, serious, but above all tries to be honest. In 2020, Apian published his first book, Hives/Ruches (RVB/Vevey Images, 2020) - a visual atlas of the hive. “Apian also aims to be collaborative and has been a meeting place for shared sensibilities. It has been shown for example at Eyebeam 2021, La Becque 2020, and CTM Festival Berlin 2019, among others. New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts. A piece by Apian (Laurent Güdel, Robert Torche, Ellen Lapper, Aladin Borioli) A special thanks to Dr. Randolf Menzel. Producer: Josh Farmer (NTS)

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 be defined by a multiplicity of looks; seeing again, anew, once more. As the artist finds out, ‘Blue' casts its shadow over all they see. From the vantage point of many years, ‘Time is what keeps the light from reaching us' is a cinematic vision; a long-distance double-take. About Cassandre Cassandre Greenberg is an artist and writer. Most recently, she completed the audio documentary, Touchdown. She was the 2019 recipient of the Michael O'Pray Art Writing prize, and her texts have been published on Art Monthly, The White Review, The Architectural Review, and others. She has shown works at ICA, IMT Gallery, SPACE studios, and Auto Italia. New Creatives is supported by Arts Council England and BBC Arts. Cassandre Greenberg - Writer, Director, Performer & Producer MX World - Musician Martha Pazienti Caidan (NTS) – Executive Producer Mark Estall - Sound Engineer Archival material from BFI National Archive. Quotations selected from Blue by Derek Jarman (1993), with thanks to Basilisk Productions and James Mackay.

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 North. With Mackay Brown's book An Orkney Tapestry as their guide, they perform in a megalithic rock-cut tomb, shelter from gale-force storms against bothy walls with sheep, hike to an iron age broch, and discover an audience of fiddle-loving seals, culminating in a secret tape-planting ceremony. George Mackay Brown famously rarely left the islands. But he enjoyed an international reputation, founded the St Magnus festival, and collaborated often with composer Peter Maxwell Davies. His words also inspired Erland's recent trilogy of records: "The essence of Orkney's magic is silence, loneliness, and the deep marvellous rhythms of sea and land, darkness and light". And for the centenary, Erland has also recorded a three-part orchestral movement with Daniel Pioro and Studio Collective at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. As an experiment, and collaboration with the landscape itself, all digital recorded files were deleted and the only recording exists on a reel-to-reel tape. Erland will bury this during the trip in an undisclosed location, to be left for three years to decompose... unless someone else finds it first. With thanks to the George Mackay Brown estate, Polygon Press, and Sue MacGregor. Producer: Victoria Ferran Exec Producer: Sara Jane Hall A Just Radio 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 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 pigments. David Batchelor is a contemporary artist and writer who works with and writes about colour. Through the colours black, yellow and blue, we hear physical processes and personal reflections. How is colour created, and how can it be used? And how does it feel to spend a career working with colour? Produced by Calum Perrin 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 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 future. Produced by Mike Williams 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 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 drawn to her striking red coat amidst a sea of police. One photo in particular, an image from Al Jazeera, catches her eye. As she faces a line of cops, a woman she doesn't know embraces her from behind with the appearance of tender stillness. A look at the multitude of stories a news image can tell and how far they can go to capture reality. Sound designed by Jesse Perlstein Produced by Aliya Pabani 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 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 is a tone poem, composed and produced by Sami El-Enany, based on the painting by Remedios Varo of the same name. Varo's painting depicts an anthropomorphic owl sitting at a desk drawing a series of birds with a musical brush. After being drawn, the birds are imbued with starlight refracted from a magnifying lens and come to life. A look at the private life of an artist, the origins of inspiration, and an ode to the personalities of beautiful birds and the landscapes they inhabit. This fantastical exploration of the metamorphosis from an abstract idea to a finished artwork is in three movements - The Skylark, The Oystercatcher and The Blackbird. Owlman performed by Joe Winnsmith String necklace performed by David Denyer Birdsong performed by Jessica Winter Composed and Produced by Sami El-Enany A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3

Fifty-five years since the release of The Beatles' album Revolver, their music still casts a long shadow over the people of Liverpool. For many growing up and working in Liverpool during the 50s and 60s, The Beatles have cast a long shadow. They breathed the same air, inhabited the same streets and felt the same promise of a new, postwar culture. The story of the 'Fab Four' has been told and told again. But for a young couple like Gwen and her ex-soldier husband Ken, and young people like Barrie (a biology teacher who taught sex education to thousands of 'Scousers' before moving to Manhattan) and Keith (the son of a bookie's runner and Cavern member), the experiences of the 60s formed the basis of their lives - and all played out to a Beatles soundtrack. The album Revolver confirmed The Beatles' transition from young lovable moptops to maturer, somewhat troubled artists. In a collage of music, voices and location atmospheres, Tomorrow Never Knew accompanies Gwen, Barrie and Keith through the intervening years and, simultaneously, retraces the band's origins to an encounter at a fete in a field next to St Peter's Church, Woolton, with some of those who were there. Produced by Alan Hall A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio Three. If affected by substance misuse, please contact: www.changegrowlive.org

The joys and horrors of the internet, evoked by stories, sounds and an exciting new electronic and vocal work composed by Kieran Brunt. Opens with an introduction by the composer. 30 years ago, Tim Berners-Lee created the very first website. This powerful edition of Between the Ears explores how the internet has dramatically reshaped our lives over the following three decades. In 1990s Glasgow, a young woman in a physics computer lab glimpses a different future for the world - and herself. In Luton, the web awakens a young man's Sikh identity - a few years on, it will bring him riches. In 2001, a young mother in France finds escape through Wikipedia. Ten years later, an Austrian law student is horrified when he requests his personal data from Facebook… Over four movements of music and personal stories, the Virtual Symphony moves from sunny optimism to deep disquiet, as our relationship to the internet shifts. Around these stories, composer Kieran Brunt weaves electronic and vocal elements in an exhilarating new musical work commissioned by BBC Radio 3. Kieran Brunt and documentary producer Laurence Grissell worked in close collaboration to produce a unique evocation of the way in which the internet has fundamentally changed how we experience and understand the world. Composer: Kieran Brunt Producer: Laurence Grissell Interviewees: Melissa Terras, Harjit Lakhan, Florence Devouard and Max Schrems Electronics performed by Kieran Brunt Vocals performed by Kieran Brunt, Lucy Cronin, Kate Huggett, Oliver Martin-Smith and Augustus Perkins Ray of the vocal ensemble Shards Programme mixed by: Donald MacDonald Additional music production: Paul Corley Additional engineering: Ben Andrewes

A radiophonic exploration of The Gododdin, a lament for the fallen, bringing to life one of the oldest, yet enduringly relevant, treasures of European literature The Gododdin occupies a unique place in the literature of the United Kingdom. The oldest Welsh poem - a battle elegy from around 600AD - it was passed down orally, possibly in the form of song, for hundreds of years. Written down by two scribes in the 13th century in a form of proto-Welsh - Brythonic - then spoken from Scotland down through Cumbria to present day Wales, it's as strange yet accessible to Welsh-speakers today as Chaucer is to English-speakers. The events commemorated are real, but took place before Wales and England even existed, and long before there was such a thing as the English language. The Gododdin were a tribe based south of present day Edinburgh, who, as Britannia was reshaping itself in the post-Roman era, were fighting off incursions of Anglo-Saxons from the east. The poem describes a real battle. The time is the 7th century; the site of the battle near Catterick; the context, a warring world of rival tribes and chieftains. We can identify the lord, Mynyddog Mwynfawr, who gathers the Celtic warriors together from his own tribe, calling for help from Gwynedd in present-day Wales. And we know that the poem was composed by Aneirin, who must have been present at the battle. Aneirin recorded what he witnessed in a series of 100 elegies for the fallen. What we hear is an evocation of the men who went into battle, hopelessly outnumbered, and were cut down. Their names in themselves are a form of poetry, the naming a sacred act of commemoration. The characters of the fallen are here preserved like bog-men of fifteen hundred years ago. 'Madog cut down men like rushes, but was shy before a girl'; 'At court the quiet one, Erthgi made armies groan'. The Gododdin, largely forgotten, re-emerged in the early twentieth century. Its tale of the pity of individual lives ended in battle, often young lives, carries clear relevance today. The Gododdin also deals in what we would now call collateral damage: the bereaved and the bereft. The epigraph to David Jones's First World War masterpiece In Parenthesis is taken from The Gododdin, and it collapses the distance between the 20th century and the 6th century: 'Sennyessit e gledyf ym mhenn mameu' - 'His sword sounded in the heads of mothers'. Today, the Gododdin's ancient tale of warriors, far from home, serving a nobleman and paying with their lives, seems both timeless and timely. Between the Ears: Rhythms of Remembering enters into the world of The Gododdin, weaving extracts of Gillian Clarke's new English translation of the poem with an immersive soundscape and music. Her translation of Aneirin's words - the first complete one by a poet - read by Lisa Jen Brown, provide the backbone of the programme, and the poem's history and resonance today is explored through interviews with Gillian, theatre director Mike Pearson, and Ieuan Jenkins, who recalls his experience of serving as a young soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan. With music specially composed for the programme by Georgia Ruth. Produced for BBC Wales by Megan Jones

In early summer, as darkness descends, Berlin resonates with the sound of nightingales. You can hear their haunting, ever-changing songs in parks, woodlands and gardens across the city. From Kreuzberg to Treptower, Tempelhof to Hasenheide, Berlin has become a refuge for one of the most celebrated and mythologised birds on earth. The city is the summer home for over one and a half thousand nesting pairs. Nobody's quite sure why nightingales have adopted the city so enthusiastically. Maybe it's Berlin's enlightened policy towards park management which leaves areas of untended scrub and dense bushes providing ground-nesting nightingales with perfect cover. Whatever the reason, this blossoming of nightingales means that their song has become the soundtrack to countless moments in Berlin's residents' lives: lovers listening to the nightingale's melody in the depths of the night; a childhood memory of illness soothed by hearing the song – and the German name Nachtigall – for the first time; and a visit to one of the few architectural remnants of Germania, Hitler's megalomaniacal plan for a new city on the site of Berlin. This programme gathers memories of the nightingale's lingering, multi-faceted song and the sounds of city evenings to create an audio portrait of Berlin, its people and the bird to whom it's given refuge. We hear too from a group of musicians who seek out nightingales in the city's parks to play alongside them. They describe feeling their way into the nightingale's song, the call-and-response between bird and human and the sense of each listening to the other. Some even describe themselves as nightingales: they've travelled from far countries to make music in Berlin. The programme is made in collaboration with Berlin Museum of Natural History's Forschungsfall Nachtigall project that asks members of the public to record nightingales and send in their recordings – along with stories and memories of the bird which has become a symbol of the city. With the voices of Sarah Darwin, Korhan Erel, Gaby Hartel, Volker Lankow, Christopher and Erika Lehmpfuhl, Charlotte Neidhardt, Philip Oltermann, Sascha Penshorn, Tina Roeske, David Rothenberg and Cymin Samawatie. Featuring music from David Rothenberg's 'Nightingale Cities' project and 'Berlin Bülbül by David Rothenberg and Korhan Erel. Location recordings in Berlin by Martyna Poznańska and Monika Dorniak. Producer: Jeremy Grange Photograph courtesy of Kim Mortega

In early summer, as darkness descends, Berlin resonates with the sound of nightingales. You can hear their haunting, ever-changing songs in parks, woodlands and gardens across the city. From Kreuzberg to Treptower, Tempelhof to Hasenheide, Berlin has become a refuge for one of the most celebrated and mythologised birds on earth. The city is the summer home for over one and a half thousand nesting pairs. Nobody's quite sure why nightingales have adopted the city so enthusiastically. Maybe it's Berlin's enlightened policy towards park management which leaves areas of untended scrub and dense bushes providing ground-nesting nightingales with perfect cover. Whatever the reason, this blossoming of nightingales means that their song has become the soundtrack to countless moments in Berlin's residents' lives: lovers listening to the nightingale's melody in the depths of the night; a childhood memory of illness soothed by hearing the song – and the German name Nachtigall – for the first time; and a visit to one of the few architectural remnants of Germania, Hitler's megalomaniacal plan for a new city on the site of Berlin. This programme gathers memories of the nightingale's lingering, multi-faceted song and the sounds of city evenings to create an audio portrait of Berlin, its people and the bird to whom it's given refuge. We hear too from a group of musicians who seek out nightingales in the city's parks to play alongside them. They describe feeling their way into the nightingale's song, the call-and-response between bird and human and the sense of each listening to the other. Some even describe themselves as nightingales: they've travelled from far countries to make music in Berlin. The programme is made in collaboration with Berlin Museum of Natural History's Forschungsfall Nachtigall project which asks members of the public to record nightingales and send in their recordings – along with stories and memories of the bird which has become a symbol of the city. With the voices of Sarah Darwin, Korhan Erel, Gaby Hartel, Volker Lankow, Christopher and Erika Lehmpfuhl, Charlotte Neidhardt, Philip Oltermann, Sascha Penshorn, Tina Roeske, David Rothenberg and Cymin Samawatie. Featuring music from David Rothenberg's 'Nightingale Cities' project and 'Berlin Bülbül by David Rothenberg and Korhan Erel. Location recordings in Berlin by Martyna Poznańska and Monika Dorniak. Producer: Jeremy Grange Photograph courtesy of Kim Mortega

Alison Lock's dreamlike journey describes her dramatic, near-fatal accident four years ago. One morning, on her regular walk on the Yorkshire moors, she slipped and fell into a millpond, breaking her back in seven places along the way. Alison has no memory of the moment of falling, but every second of clawing her way back to life, from one handhold to the next, is vividly imprinted and distilled into this poetic sequence. Music by Will Gregory (Goldfrapp, The Moog Ensemble), with violin by Alex Balanescu (Michael Nyman Band, Balanescu Quartet), and vocals by Hazel Mills (Goldfrapp, Florence and the Machine, The Paper Cinema). Sound design by Iain Hunter. A Pier Production, produced and directed by Kate McAll.

Maria Margaronis surrenders to the life of the hive to explore the ancient folk customs around the telling the bees. The lives of bees and humans have been linked ever since the first hominid tasted a wild hive’s honey. Neither domesticated nor fully wild, honey bees are key to our survival, a barometer of our relationship with nature. Without them, we’d have no fruit, no nuts and seeds, and eventually, no food. No bees; no songbirds. Silent woods. For centuries, we’ve projected stories and beliefs onto these strange, familiar creatures, seeing them as messengers between this world and the next. In this Covid-wracked year, Maria Margaronis explores the old customs of “telling the bees” about a death or significant event, lest they grow angry and leave us. She enters the sonic world of the hive to hear what the bees might be telling us in the company of wise bee guides like Toxteth’s Rastafarian Barry Chang, Mississippi's Ali Pinion, Lithuania's Paulius Chockevicius and young beekeeper Zhivko Todorov in London’s busy Finsbury Park. Others tells us and their bees their significant news. Follow bee tellers and bee callers on a seasonal journey from summer through winter into spring, tuning in to to the hum of the hive and the buzz of the universe. Recorded binaurally. Producer: Mark Burman Additional bee recordings Mark Ferguson

Although they cover more than 70% of the globe’s surface, most people have little idea about what our oceans sound like. In some traditions of science and storytelling, the sea was a place of deathly quiet - “The Silent World” - but of course there’s anything but silence down there. Sound actually travels further and faster in water than air. Norwegian artist and composer Jana Winderen has been recording and sharing sounds of the deep for nearly two decades, dangling microphones from boats to uncover sonic wonders such as the tectonic boom of melting ice, singing whales, and fish that howl at the moon. With a background in natural sciences and fine arts, Jana Winderen’s vast sound archive brings the oceans to life in a unique way: transporting us to Greenland, where the waters moan under the pressure of the climate emergency; plunging us into cacophonous Caribbean coral reefs; taking us to a Thai fishing community, who for generations have passed down traditional techniques for underwater hearing. By listening closely one can perhaps look at the planet we live on with a new perspective. Recordist and host: Jana Winderen Dog: Charlie Contributors: Madeline Appiah, Carlos Duarte, Hans Slabbekoorn, Rungrueng Ramanyah / รุ่งเรือง ระหมันยะ (Bang Nee) Translation and photography: Palin Ansusinha Mixing: Mike Woolley With thanks to: TBA21-Academy and Ruben Torres Producer: Jack Howson A Reduced Listening Production for BBC Radio 3

A radiophonic sound journey of Parisian brutalism by composer Iain Chambers, composed entirely from recordings of the buildings featured. Paris is well known for its historic architecture: the Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomph, and the endless rows of apartment buildings built by Hausmann in the 19th century. But beyond the historic centre lie a series of alternative Parisian cities, built from concrete during the 1960s and 70s. This lesser-known concrete Paris creates a surprising journey around the Boulevard Périphérique, the ring road that contains the historic centre of Paris. These alternative Parises were built after World War 2, when the need to provide mass accommodation was counterbalanced by the desire to protect the historic centre. So a ‘multi-polar’ solution was found, and the administrations beyond the Péripherique - many of them Communist - set to work commissioning architects to reimagine the city. We visit buildings at Ivry-sur-Seine designed by Jean Renaudie and Renée Gailhoustet; Bobigny, by Oscar Niemeyer; and Créteil, by Gérard Grandval. Contributors: Robin Wilson Gérard Grandval Serge Renaudie Producer/Composer: Iain Chambers Sound mix: Peregrine Andrews Executive Producer: Nina Perry Recordings by Dinah Bird, Iain Chambers Translations by Madeleine Williams An Open Audio production for BBC Radio 3

Bogs have always captured the human imagination, inspiring both fear and fiction. Between the Ears wades into this treacherous netherworld in a search for the lost and found. These liminal spaces have a unique and troubling consistency: neither absolutely water, nor absolutely earth, but a potentially dangerous mix between the two. On an abstract level, their slippery nature makes them difficult to categorise and unsettles us. On practical level, contact with these elements of nature can leave us feeling tainted or contaminated. They also preserve secrets from the past in the form of the ancient bog people whilst creating life through crucial ecosystems. Is it this ambiguity that keeps us going back for more? We squelch our way through in the hope we can untangle their contradictory nature before getting swallowed up. Featuring Hetta Howes, Jim Perrin, Mark Daniels, Karin Sanders, Neil McCarthy and the poetry of Seamus Heaney Original composition and sound design by Phil Channell Produced by Neil McCarthy

Composer and sound artist Rob Mackay traces the migratory route of the monarch butterfly, from the Great Lakes in Canada to the forests of Mexico, via the shifting coastal landscape of the eastern shores of Virginia. Along the route of this sonic road-movie Rob meets people working to protect this extraordinary species: Darlene Burgess, a conservation specialist monitoring butterfly populations on the shores of Lake Eerie; Nancy Barnhart, coordinating the monarch migration programme for the Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory at Kiptopeke State Park, where we also encounter composer Matthew Burtner, whose sonifications of data from the local seagrass beds help track changes in the monarch's environment; and butterfly expert Pablo Jaramillo-López giving a tour of the Sierra Chincua and Cerro Pelón reserves in Mexico. We also hear reflections from the late Lincoln Brower, the American entomologist whose legacy has inspired many of today's research and conservation efforts. The programme features Rob Mackay's binaural field recordings, and audio from live stream boxes, set up in partnership with the ecological art and technology collective SoundCamp to monitor the monarch's changing habitats. Plus Rob’s own flute playing, recorded in the Mexican forest meadows with David Blink on handpan and trumpet, alongside poetry in Spanish about the monarch by Rolando Rodriguez.

Stories of real life chance encounters, inspired by the 75th anniversary of the much-loved film Brief Encounter. Introduced by Matthew Sweet. Using different recordings of Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No. 2 - which famously underscores the 1945 film - Between the Ears reflects on how a chance meeting can change our lives forever. In the 1950s two people bump into each other changing trains at Harrow-on-the-Hill station. In 2001, two strangers meet on a train bound for Edinburgh. In 2014 two paths cross in a departure lounge at Toronto Airport. Meanwhile, a few Christmases ago in a pub in Margate eyes meet across a crowded bar. For each person, for good or ill, life will never be the same again. Between the Ears tells their stories, set to Rachmaninov's haunting music. Producer: Laurence Grissell Sound mixed by Donald MacDonald Featuring the voices of: Barry and Maureen Leveton Anna Nation Kähler Kristen Adamson Aoife Hanna Featuring the following recordings of Rachmaninov, Piano Concerto No. 2: Krystian Zimerman, Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa Leif Ove Andsnes, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Antonio Pappano Vladimir Ashkenazy, London Symphony Orchestra conducted by André Previn John Ogdon, Philharmonia Orchestra conducted by John Pritchard

While we, as a species, grapple with ongoing legacies of racism and violence, and as biodiversity loss and the mass extinction of wildlife on earth accelerates, the call to bear witness becomes ever more necessary. What might it mean - for ourselves and the other beings on this planet - if we were able to sorrow, if we knew how to grieve? As things disintegrate around us, is bearing witness a final act of love we can offer our world? “Loving and grieving are joined at the hip,” says spiritual activist and author Stephen Jenkinson. “Grief is a way of loving what has slipped from view. Love is a way of grieving that which has not yet done so.” Biologist and philosopher Andreas Weber and poet and psychologist Anita Barrows reflect on what is lost as beloved species and places of wilderness continue to vanish; reparations scholar-activist Esther Stanford-Xosei grieves the genocide of communities that were the custodians of ways of living in harmony with the earth; and activist Kofi Mawuli Klu mourns the immense beauty of forests now destroyed. Every waking moment is a requiem - not what we signed up for. But what did you sign up for? Into what were you initiated? Lacking in ceremony and ritual, grappling with legacies of undone spirit work and ancestral trauma, bearing witness to what is happening within ourselves and around us might “not be everybody’s idea of a good time” (Stephen Jenkinson), but it might be what we need to do. It might help us to belong. Voice of the chorus: Niamh O’Brien. Cello improvisations: Lucy Railton Additional words and music: Phil Smith Produced by Phil Smith. A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3.

The dramatic effects of climate change evoked in words, sounds and a powerful new musical work. Over four movements of rich and evocative music, the listener is transported to the front line of the climate crisis, with stories from coastal Ghana – where entire villages are being swept away by the rising sea – to Norway’s Svalbard archipelago in the high arctic where the ice is melting with alarming speed. The dramatic final movement ponders two contrasting possible outcomes to the crisis. In this ambitious new commission for BBC Radio 3, Kieran Brunt weaves together electronic, vocal and orchestral elements recorded in isolation by players from the BBC Philharmonic. Each musician recorded their part individually at home and these recordings were then painstakingly combined by sound engineer Donald MacDonald to create a symphonic sound. Documentary producer Laurence Grissell and composer Kieran Brunt have collaborated to produce an ambitious and original evocation of the causes and consequences of rising, warming oceans. Credits Composer: Kieran Brunt Producer: Laurence Grissell Electronics and violin performed by Kieran Brunt Orchestral parts performed by members of the BBC Philharmonic Vocals: Kieran Brunt, Josephine Stephenson & Augustus Perkins Ray of the vocal ensemble Shards Sound mixed by Donald MacDonald Interviewees: Sulley Lansah, BBC Accra Office Hilde Fålun Strøm and Sunniva Sørby, heartsintheice.com Blaise Agresti, former head of Mountain Rescue, Chamonix Blaise Agresti recorded by Sarah Bowen Wildlife recordings by Chris Watson Newsreaders: Susan Rae & Tom Sandars Adverts voiced by Ian Dunnett Jnr, Luke Nunn, Charlotte East, Cecilia Appiah Additional engineering: Ben Andrewes

Artist Graeme Miller captures the poetry of the landline. In this half hour, we follow the arc of a single call from dialling to hanging up, taking in the sweep across the global landscape of the 20th century. He draws out the private habits and distinctive speech as well as the collective dreams and nightmares of the landlines art and culture. While collaging the mores and cadences of telephone behaviour and speech the piece also lands in the physical space of the landline - the actual line and the real land. The world of the telephone engineer atop a telegraph pole; the village operator, the maintenance or laying of underwater cables, the middle-of-nowhere phone box which exists oblique to the density of traffic of information and chat. The plot lines of death and murder stalking the crossed lines of the city, to the call of the worried voice "Are you still there?". All these spaces are opened up with the reassurances and communities of landline use. It is a line crossed next to the atmospheric space that denotes a fragility and hints at the ways in which the technology that opened up connection also imported in its liveness an equal and opposite force of disconnection. Running out of change, the broken phone box, the drama and plunge into existential separation, opened up by the one-sided conversation and now, the relentless possibility of being in touch. With thanks to Max Flemmich of Darvel Telephone Museum and Dr Sarah Jackson, Senior Lecturer English and Creative Writing, Nottingham Trent University. A Cast Iron Radio Production.

In the 1980s a young anthropologist entered the Amazon rainforest to try to find and live amongst a previously uncontacted tribe, known locally as the Outcasts. Feared by neighbouring groups through stories of secretiveness and violence, they were mythologised as spirit people. Laura's only companion on her trip was her nine-year-old daughter Emilia. Venturing deep into the forest, Laura and Emilia found the group and lived on their fringes for months. But with the Huaorani initially hostile and refusing to engage, Emilia became increasingly ill. Laura faced a life-defining decision: leave the forest with her daughter or send her away and stay alone. As Laura tells her incredible story, an immersive binaural forest soundscape guides the way. Recorded in the Amazon by multi-award-winning sound designer Gareth Fry and mixed with Laura's taped forest recordings, we join Laura on a surprising journey deep under the forest canopy. In midsummer week, Radio 3 enters one of the most potent sources of the human imagination. 'Into the Forest' explores the enchantment, escape and magical danger of the forest in summer, with slow radio moments featuring the sounds of the forest, allowing time out from today's often frenetic world.

Artist and musician Rhiannon Armstrong revisits a formative friendship from her childhood in a new light, with the help of some of the bus drivers and passengers from the W12 route in east London. We follow a journey of the W12 recorded in the summer of 2019, as it crosses from Walthamstow to Wanstead in East London. Two long term drivers on the route, Godfrey Stewart and Mohammed Shabir, share stories from their working life as it was then and as it is now, in spring/summer 2020 amid the pandemic. Rhiannon remembers her friendship with the driver of the bus home from school in Montreal in the early 1990s, and recounts how her understanding of the relationship has changed over time. Through these recollections, conversations with Godfrey and Mohammed, and music made from field recordings of the route in 2019, what emerges is a meditation on loneliness, usefulness, and the place a bus route can have in our lives. Written and produced by Rhiannon Armstrong With contributions from Godfrey Stewart and Mohammed Shabir Music by Dinah Mullen with Rhiannon Armstrong Executive producer Sarah Cuddon Mixed by Mike Wooley Transcription support from Harun Morrison and Jo Verrent