Three Minute Epiphany

Don is a musician, he played with Quincy Jones and Sérgio Mendes. He is also an engineer, and he built and experimented with synthesizers very early on. He created the Live Electronic Orchestra in the early Seventies which led to the development of MIDI. We hear how he requested a Rhythm Unit from Roland and ended up helping to build it! 2020 saw the Roland 808 drum machine's 40th birthday and its global impact on music has been huge. Electro, Hip-hop, House, Techno, Soul, Funk, Drum and Bass to Trap - the 808 is at the heart of their stories. It literally changed the sound of popular music.

Japan's mighty BORIS tell us about the music scene in Japan and the country's love of heavy metal and experimental noise. Experimental music group BORIS comprises drummer Atsuo, guitarist/bassist Takeshi and guitarist/keyboardist Wata. They formed in Toyko in 1992. This interview was conducted with Takeshi and translated and voiced by Ms Rie Hiramatsu-Hunter

Exploring Kenya's extreme grindcore and hardcore scene with duo Duma. Duma members Martin Khanja and Sam Karugu are former members of bands Lust for a Dying Breed and Seeds of Datura. They formed Duma together in 2019.

Takiaya Reed and Sylvie Nehill of the American / Australian drone duo Divide and Dissolve share how their experiences as Black & Tsalagi [Cherokee]and Māori women has informed their heavy sound. Mirroring the brash, bone-crushing potency of their dynamic Drone music, the formidable Takiaya Reed (saxophone, guitar, live effects) and Sylvie Nehill (drums, live effects) carry their fight and ancestors fight forward, using the power of their performances to raw attention to the ongoing battle against system oppression.

Swedish singer Robyn shares her love for Prince which started as a young child dancing to her mum's albums. She will discuss his seminal album Sign O' The Times and how his emotional lyrics have influenced her immensely.

Dub poet Roger Robinson, winner of this year's prestigious TS Eliot prize talks us through his early influences, the inspiration behind his poetry and his collaborations with electronic musician The Bug, as part of the brilliant King Midas Sound. Roger won the TS Eliot Prize for his collection of poetry titled, 'A Portable Paradise', which tackle themes such as racism and events such as the Grenfell Tower fire, as well as exploring the idea of paradise and searching for it throughout life.

Paul Wright created the British Culture Archive to document, highlight and preserve the changes in British society and culture through social and documentary photography. His focus is on post war working-class culture and diverse communities that are frequently overlooked by more established archives. The archive is currently hosting an exhibition of photography called The People's City, at The Refuge in Manchester. Paul Wright tells us more about it. Photo credit: Richard Davis

Charlotte Dos Santos has Norwegian and Brazilian heritage and was raised in Oslo. She studied jazz at Berklee College of Music in Boston and Flamenco and Mediterranean music in Valencia. Her debut album Cleo was released in 2017 Charlotte chats about her new track Harvest time - and the themes surrounding it, which include shedding your ego, metamorphosis, the influence of nature and the influence of Pharoah Sanders. She's back in the UK as part of her first headline European tour.

Russian DJ and producer Nina Kraviz talks about heading up a very special remix project. St Vincent approached Nina to make one remix of a track from her album ‘Masseduction', and Nina suggested curating a series of remixes of the whole album. This became a record called 'Masseduction Rewired', Nina called in some of the most innovative electronic artists in the world, including Jlin, Laurel Halo, Steffi, Midland, Mala, Pearson Sound. We asked her to talk us through the journey, from meeting with St Vincent aka Annie Clark in New York to rewiring the sonic structures of the record.

Jaz Coleman may be best known to you as the lead singer with eighties post-punk band Killing Joke, but he has another career as an acclaimed classical composer with a global reputation. He discusses his work and much-missed bassist Raven.

We celebrate Bowie's Birthday by replaying Mary Anne's 1997 interview with David, recorded for his 50th birthday. Hear David talk about his love of drum and bass, his friendship with Lou Reed and how he chose the name David Bowie. Includes excerpts from his 50th Birthday Special with Mary Anne, originally aired on Radio 1 in 1997. This Three Minute Epiphany was first aired in the 6 Music Weekend Breakfast Show in 2013.

Kathryn Jeffs gives us a peek into a new series called Earth's Tropical Islands. She highlights the great adventures the team had filming wildlife in Madagascar, Borneo and Hawaii

We continue Relaxation Week with a Three Minute Epiphany from Malaysian-born and LA-based singer Yuna. She has experienced a busy year with the release of her latest album Rouge, featuring Tyler The Creator and Little Simz. Yuna has also become increasingly involved in the fashion world. She took time out to tell us about how she relaxes and how her home is the ultimate sanctuary.

We continue relaxation week with a 3 Minute Epiphany from Danish singer/songwriter, Agnes Obel, whose forthcoming album Myopia is set for release in 2020 on the Deutsche Grammophon label. The album is an album about trust and doubt and the writing process for this record found Obel experimenting with with production techniques including warping and pitching down vocals, strings, piano and other instruments. All this week we're relaxing and we encourage you to join us. We'll be chatting to some of our favourite artists and asking them to share their top tips for switching off and taking time for self care.

We continue relaxation week with a 3 Minute Epiphany from Angolan-Portuguese electronic musician Pongo, who started rapping over kuduro dance routines at Queluz train station in Portugal, when she would travel every week to physiotherapy. She went on to join kuduro dance collective Buraka Som Sistema, making her musical debut on their album Black Diamond. We caught up with Pongo to find out what she does to relax, when the world around seems slightly hectic. We're relaxing and we encourage you to join us. We'll be chatting to some of our favourite artists and asking them to share their top tips for switching off and taking time for self care.

She talks us through the power of sound and how a gong bath can enhance the practice.

Nitin Sawhney is a British Indian musician and composer, with one of the most distinctive voices in modern day music. He has released over twenty studio albums and works across a number of different specialisms including film, video games, dance and theatre. Antony Gormley is a British Artist best known for his Angel Of The North sculpture near Gateshead. He currently has a new exhibition at the Royal Academy in London. Antony and Nitin have known each other for many years and collaborated together on the cover for Nitin's 2008 album, London Undersound

Anne's work includes sculptural installation, photography and audio. She often explores our relationship with place and space and her pieces re-purpose objects and challenge us to view our surroundings in a totally different way. Anne's art is often fully immersive, creating installations that you enter into rather than view from a distance. She often experiments with new materials and the process of creating each new work, is as important as the finished piece. You can see Anne's Winter Commission at Tate Britain in London from the 30th of November.

Jim's passion for art began in childhood, when his parents encourage him to paint, sculpt and enter competitions on the back of cereal boxes, which happily, he won. As a teenager Jim studied at art collage and it was here that he discovered the performance art of Gilbert & George and Joseph Beuys, which inspired his early adventures in comedy and which has continued to inform his writing and performances throughout his career. Recently seen on your TV discussing the history of Video Art, Jim's own art work is exhibited up and down the country. He is also an ambassador for the Turner Contemporary, home of our special Art is Everywhere show on Tuesday the 3rd of December.

Our celebration of art starts with the renowned boundary-pushing make-up artist.

We look ahead to Delia Derbyshire Day 2019 with event organiser Caro C. Delia Derbyshire Day is a Manchester-based organisation, which pays homage to Delia Derbyshire. The organisation's work is centred around the Delia Derbyshire Archive which is held at John Rylands Library in Manchester city centre. A popular event in the cultural calendar, this year's Delia Derbyshire Day incorporates the Electric Storm 50 project, which honours the 50th anniversary of the album 'An Electric Storm' by White Noise, a trio made of up David Vorhaus, BBC Radiophonic workshop member Brian Hodgson and Delia Derbyshire. Best known for her realisation of Ron Grainer's original Dr Who theme in 1963, which is widely recognised as an iconic piece of early electronic music. Delia also produced music and sound for radio, theatre, film and even fashion shows.

He has released seven albums over the years and shows no sign of slowing at 75.

The BAFTA award-winning composer talks about creating music for video games.

Robert Gordon McHarg III is a curator of the exhibition - The Clash: London Calling at the Museum of London. The exhibition features a huge collection of items from The Clash's personal archive including photographs, notes, clothing and one broken Fender Precision Bass.

We catch up with experimental artist and producer, The Haxan Cloak better known to friends and family as Bobby Krlic. Bobby recently scored the music for Ari Aster's folk horror film, Midsommar. Known for his dark, intense and at times downright terrifying music, Bobby chats about creating atmosphere with music. He also speaks about the influence that his new hometown of LA has had on his sound and the importance of Jelly in his early musical explorations. Bobby also discusses his role as a producer with artists such as Goldfrapp and Father John Misty.

The grime MC, rapper and songwriter on the power of positive attitude.

Miles Davis' drummer and nephew Vince Wilburn Jr discusses his uncle's legacy.

Celebrate Black History Month with rapper, producer and writer Testament.

We explore the Heavy Metal music scene in India with Sitar Metal. Sitar Metal are the world's first (and possibly only) sitar metal band. As in they shred hard on sitars. After making waves in the home country, the band came to our attention and we want to know more. We caught up with band leader Rishabh Seen to ask what the scene is like in their home town, who their biggest influences are and the history of metal in India.

Tru Thoughts was established in Brighton in 1999 by Robert Luis and Paul Jonas. The label began life as a way for Robert and Paul to showcase the exciting music being produced by the regular guests at their Brighton club nights, After a slew of 12inch releases, they dropped their first album, which was the debut LP from Bonobo and the rest as they say, is history. 20 years later, the label is still independent and still being run from the seaside splendour of Brighton.

DJ and major record collector DJ Shadow on interpreting the world around him through his music, and finding the right collaborators for his new record.

Writer Sabrina Mahfouz is this month's Slow Readers Book Club. She'll be discussing her latest play at the Royal Court - A History of Water in the Middle East Sabrina, who is British Egyptian, grew up with ambitions of being a spy but was turned down by MI6. After turning her attention to writing she has won numerous awards and has recently been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Sabrina is the editor of 'The Things I Would Tell You: British Muslim Women Write' and is currently editing a new creative anthology Smashing It: Working Class Artists on Life, Art and Making It Happen which includes contributions from the likes of Riz Ahmed and Maxine Peak and a children's poetry anthology Poems From a Green and Blue Planet both of which will be out in early October. She is also currently writing a biopic of the legendary 'Godfather of Grime', Wiley.

The neuroscientist and author Dr Julia Jones otherwise known as Dr Rock, looks at the effect of music on our mental wellbeing. Her area of study looks closely at the use of music in the treatment of Dementia and she is a core part of BBC Music Day's Music and Dementia initiative. The initiative is now working with over 80 organisations, including the NHS, to help bring music to everyone living with dementia by 2020. The initiative has inspired over 800 events across the UK, from pop-up nightclubs and raves at care homes to inter-generational singing sessions, all celebrating the power of music to change lives.

The iconic label is celebrating its 40th anniversary with a major new show in London. Use Hearing Protection: FAC 1 – 50 / 40 takes place at the Chelsea Space in the capital and celebrates the history and on-going influence of Factory Records, supported by rare and unseen materials from personal Factory archives. Curated by Jon Savage and Mat Bancroft, the Factory exhibition is being featured in this year's London Design Festival and runs from the 13th September until Friday the 25th of October 2019 Image: Detail from Fac 1, Poster 1978, Design Peter Saville

Mary Anne is joined by Norwegian experimental songwriter and novelist Jenny Hval. Jenny presents a 3 Minute Epiphany on the practice of love. The title of this 3 Minute Epiphany is also the title of Jenny's latest album and Valie Export's 1985 film of the same name, which in part inspired the record. We asked Jenny about the exploration of love in art in poetry and as a way of broadening her own writing practice. Using the pop song format to attempt to make sense of what love and care actually mean, Jenny explores Love across her new record, saying of the album “Love as a theme in art has been the domain of the canonized, big artists, and I have always seen myself as a minor character, a voice that speaks of other things...But in the last few years I have wanted to take a closer look at the practice of otherness, this fragile performance, and how it can express love, intimacy, empathy and desire.”

We have a 3 Minute Epiphany from US based musician and producer, Salami Rose Joe Louis. Her new album 'Zdenka 2080' was released via Brainfeeder on the 30th of August 2019. The album draws it's inspiration from film, literature, art, and music, and was heavily influenced in particular by a series of apocalyptic sci-fi novels by Octavia Butler and Gene Wolf. Salami Rose Joe Louis. (real name Lindsay Olsen) says that the books: "inspired me to explore the realms of fantasy as a means of illuminating concepts and truths about our own society and humanity.” As a result 'Zdenka 2080' describes a future dystopian Earth in the year 2080 that has been mis-managed by unethical governments and corporations. An initiative by greedy big business to capture solar energy to power a super-sized spaceship, results in a rapidly cooling Earth, and the elite escape via the spaceship to colonize another distant planet. The earthlings left behind find themselves fading with the cooling sun.

Experimental rockers Battles present their 3 Minute Epiphany on making records in NYC. The band recently released their storming new single Titanium 2 on the Warp record label. The single features No Wave legend Sal Principato from the iconic 80s New York band Liquid Liquid and the track itself is very much a homage to the city. With this in mind, we asked the band how it felt to finally be recording music in their home town after years spent holed up in studios across the USA.

We explore Prom 64: The Breaks. Prom 64 explores the iconic tracks that spawned breaking and formed the origins of hip hop. Performed by The Heritage Orchestra and conducted by Jules Buckley, the concert will feature historic and modern-classic breaking tunes from James Brown, Incredible Bongo Band, Babe Ruth, Herbaliser, Madcon, and Poets of Rhythm, alongside live breaking crew 'Soul Mavericks', UK turntable royalty DJ Switch, singer Alice Russell, and many more. On the show we hear from Jules and the Soul Mavericks crew just ahead of their performance at the Royal Albert Hall.

Producer and DJ Chief Xcel of hip hop duo Blackalicious discusses his career and relationship with rapper and lyricist Gift of Gab.

Involved in sound systems in London for 35 years, Lady Bantam describes why her all-female system adds a unique and important flavour to Carnival.

Best known as Sonic Youth's front woman, Kim Gordon, considers herself first and foremost a visual artist. Kim discusses her creative processes and her new album 'No Home Record'.

Will Holland aka Quantic explores how his surroundings, especially his move to Brooklyn have affected his creativity, and changed his life. Quantic records under many guises as the Quantic Soul Orchestra, The Limp Twins, Flowering Inferno, and Ondatrópica and always delivers quality funk, soul and jazz grooves.

The electronic duo explore the importance of global influences and nature on their sound and how key field recordings are to their music.

Mary Anne has a 3 Minute Epiphany from legendary songwriter and producer, Raphael Saadiq. An R&B polymath, Raphael has written for and produced some of the biggest names in music inc Whitney, Mary J, TLC, En Vogue and was a member of Lucy Pearl. Beginning his career in the group Tony! Toni! Tone!, Raphael toured with Prince, before becoming the go to guy for that original old school R&B sound. For years he has flown under the radar, preferring to work behind the scenes, lending his immeasurable skills to production, songwriting and arranging. He's also worked extensively across film and TV scores and of course proudly held the role of executive producer on Solange's incredible album 'A Seat At The Table'. Now, 8 years since his last solo album, Raphael has returned with an incredibly personal record, which explores drug addiction within his own family and the wider problem with addiction, loss and trauma experienced across the world.

Multi-instrumentalist and producer, Ólafur Arnalds gives us his Three Minute Epiphany

We hear from Stranger Things Composers' Kyle Dixon and Michael Stein on creating music for the hit show.

Jlin explores collaborations, reflecting on her work with experimental musician Holly Herndon and choreographer Wayne McGregor

The Grammy winner has worked with Kendrick Lamar, Stevie Wonder, Erykah Badu and Questlove, Throughout his career, Glasper has won won 3 Grammy's and an Emmy award. He has also worked as a producer on 'Miles Ahead', the biopic film based on the life of Miles Davis. His breakthrough album was 2012's "Black Radio" which won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Album, which was followed by 2014's "Black Radio 2". But Glasper stepped fully into the spotlight thanks to his prominent role on Kendrick Lamar's "To Pimp A Butterfly"

Award winning artist Wolfgang Buttress presents a 3 Minute Epiphany on BEAM. BEAM is a multi sensory, immersive, sculpture, which forms part of this year's Glastonbury festival. BEAM highlights the essential role that honey bees play in pollinating 30% of the food that we eat. The installation includes light and an ever changing soundscape based upon the live sounds from a beehive plus contributions from members of Spiritualized, Sigur Ros, Sunn O))) and other guest artists.

Venezuelan American songwriter and artist Devendra Banhart presents his 3 Minute Epiphany on the importance of saying thank you.

Keith Haring is widely considered one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and the exhibition at Tate Liverpool is the first major UK retrospective of his work. Heavily inspired by graffiti, pop art and underground club culture, Haring collaborated with like minded souls throughout his life, including Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat. He also designed record covers for RUN DMC and David Bowie, directed a music video for Grace Jones and developed a fashion line with Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood. The Matrix 1983 © Keith Haring Foundation on display in Keith Haring at Tate Liverpool. Photo Mark McNulty