Podcasts about Late Junction

"I'd done a lot of clay-making...you can spend a lifetime and only get good at one technique!" Jennifer Lucy Allan joins me to talk about her second book, CLAY: A HUMAN HISTORY (White Rabbit Books). After Jennifer's exploration and writing about sound in The Foghorn's Lament (White Rabbit Books), Jennifer has, quite literally, turned her hand to a more physical and enduring substance in clay. From Japanese Tea Ceremonies, to humans making their own image, to life on Mars, clay is seemingly everywhere. Jennifer is also a presenter on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction.  Rippling Points 1.20 - How Jennifer's early experience with clay led to her enchantment of it and then writing this boundless history 6.04 - How the book on clay differs to Jennifer's previous book on foghorns 10.30 - Ephemerality of sound and permanence of clay - the writing challenges. 13.40 - Clay: its history compared with human history 15:15 - Who is Marija Gimbutas, and why is she important 21:15 - Language and touch 24.40 - Climate change and how it's revealing more about clay 28.00 - How clay becomes an object Reference Points Marija Gimbutas. Ladi Kwali Maria Martinez    

Novelist Jonathan Coe joins book historians Roland Allen, Prof Lesley Smith and Dr Gill Partington and presenter Lisa Mullen. As Radio 3's Late Junction devotes episodes this September to the cassette tape and the particular sound and way of recording and assembling music which that technology provided, we look at writing. At a time when there's a lot of chat about AI and chatbots creating writing, what does it mean to write on a page of paper which is then printed and assembled into a book. The author Jonathan Coe's many books include The Rotter's Club, What a Carve Up! Mr Wilder and Me and his latest Bournville is now out in paperback Roland Allen has worked in publishing and has now written The Notebook: A History of Thinking on Paper Gill Partington (with Simon Morris and Adam Smyth) is one of the founding editors of Inscription: Journal of Material Text, which brings together artists, book historians, and academic theorists. After editions looking at beginnings, holes and folds, the new issue coming soon looks at touch. Lesley Smith is Fellow and Tutor in Politics at Harris Manchester College, Oxford and has chosen a selection of handwritten documents from the collections of the Bodleian Library published as Handwritten: Remarkable People on the Page. Producer: Ruth Watts

One hundred years of the BBC. Juliet and Terence with: a BBC themed quiz; where the BBC could improve; and finally, why the BBC is such a precious asset. {Late Junction revisited}

We spoke to Joey Burns on the eve of Calexico's recent European shows in Brussels and London. Calexico play bigger venues in Europe than they do on their home turf, despite inventing a sound that conveys that land so evocatively. Indeed, it was music journalist Fred Mills who captured the band's sound so perfectly with just two words: “desert noir”.  What a cool subgenre to have invented. Since most music writers lazily throw in all the various tex mex music flavours in describing Calexico's sound, Joey is happy to clarify:“We are connected more with mariachi and cumbia than say tex mex or tejano or norteño which has a different connection to a different tradition. For the most part we are mariachi, cumbia. I've never felt like I've mastered anything, but I'm lucky enough to play with some of those that have”. Calexico is touring as a septet, with Burns and partner/drummer John Convertino accompanied by Sergio Mendoza, MARIACHI LUZ DE LUNA, upright bass virtuoso Scott Colberg and the brilliant guitar player and singer Brian Lopez. The set combines magical mariachi of the highest possible standard, yet when the band chooses to (as on the thrilling Then You Might See) they jam out extended plays of true sonic power in the style of Radiohead or James. In combining those elements the band's singularity is astonishing. I can usually pinpoint exactly how I discovered a new band of longevity and for Calexico it was a recommendation from the late, erudite Robert Sandall, BBC Radio 3 presenter of Late Junction and one time Head of PR for Virgin Records. He told me I must listen to Feast of Wire three times. He was very specific about it. I remain entirely grateful to Robert. There is nothing quite like a recommendation that sticks. Not only did that one tether me to Calexico for life, but the ‘listen three times' rule is something I have adopted as a tactic in my own recommendations. I implore you, thrice discerning listeners. It is well-known that beautiful things often come in threes. Support the show

This week we were joined by Jennifer Lucy Allan, author of one of the most peculiar and moving non-fiction books of the year. The Foghorn's Lament is one woman's quest to uncover and understand the booming, lonely machine that soundtracks the oceans. Buy The Foghorn's Lament here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781474615037/the-foghorns-lament Browse our online store here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/15/online-store/16/bookstore Become a Friend of S&Co here: https://friendsofshakespeareandcompany.com * Jennifer Lucy Allan is a writer, journalist and broadcaster with a PhD in foghorns. She has been a journalist for over a decade, writing on underground and experimental music for publications including The Guardian, The Quietus, and The Wire, and was previously The Wire's Online Editor. She is a presenter on BBC Radio 3's Late Junction, and wrote and presented Life, Death and the Foghorn for BBC Radio 4. She also runs the archival record label Arc Light Editions. THE FOGHORN'S LAMENT is her first book. * Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Buy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-time

"Before there were books there were stories". Salman Rushdie's opening words in his collected Essays from 2003-2020. In one of them he reveals that Alice in Wonderland made such an impression on him as a child that he can still recite Jabberwocky. So Free Thinking brought him together with the literary historian Lucy Powell and with Mark Blacklock, who has studied literature about the fourth dimension, for a conversation about the power of dreams, the place of logic and irrationality and the truth of maths - inspired by the new exhibition about Alice in Wonderland on at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Matthew Sweet hosts the discussion. Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser runs at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London from 22nd May 2021 Salman Rushdie's Essay Collection is called Languages of Truth. You can find him discussing Uncertainty and his novel The Golden House in a previous Free Thinking. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09784ld Lucy Powell is a New Generation Thinker whose research has included looking at birds in fiction. You can find her discussing birds with Helen MacDonald and Professor Tim Birkhead in a Proms Plus discussion https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06fw7db Mark Blacklock is the author of a novel called Hinton which explores the thinking of Charles Hinton about the fourth dimension. You can find him discussing that in a Free Thinking episode called Alternative Realities https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000hftd He also shares his knowledge about HG Wells in a programme called Wells' Women https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p04b4r1x Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 has been asking people to send in their dreams to the artist Sam Potter. He's created an AI programme dream machine which morphs these into texts which composers have then worked on. If you tune into Late Junction on Friday nights BBC Radio 3 11pm throughout June you can hear the dreamlike results https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006tp52 Producer: Luke Mulhall

The Cities and Memory #StayHomeSounds project was featured on the BBC's flagship experimental music show Late Junction on BBC Radio 3 on 18 April 2020. Here's the first of two clips from the show, discussing the project and playing two recordings from New York and London.

Roger Bolton asks the BBC News Editorial Director if the BBC should have termed events in Christchurch "terrorism", PM editor Owenna Griffiths discusses coverage of Brexit, and listeners give their views on cuts to Radio 3's Late Junction. Recent BBC coverage of the Christchurch attack in New Zealand has sparked criticism from some listeners who take issue with the language used to describe the events. Others were frustrated by what they saw as disproportionate coverage and still more were annoyed when the BBC chose to name the alleged shooter in news bulletins. Roger puts these comments to the BBC News Editorial Director, Kamal Ahmed, and asks whether the BBC should have termed the atrocity a "terrorist attack". For 20 years, Late Junction has been the home for experimental music on Radio 3. However, it's being reduced from three nights a week to one extended show on Friday nights. Late Junction listeners call on Radio 3's Controller to reverse the decision. And, has Brexit begun to exhaust journalists and audiences alike? Owenna Griffiths, Editor of Radio 4's PM, tells Roger what she thinks she could be doing better and explains what she sees as her programme's unique role in approaching the story. Presenter: Roger Bolton Producer: Robert Nicholson Executive Producer: Will Yates A Whistledown production for BBC Radio 4

Joining Tom Jackson to discuss the postcards from their pasts are paper-puppetry performing comedian BEC HILL(Dara O'Briain's Go 8 Bit, The Dog Ate My Homework, Sam & Mark's Big Friday Wind-Up) and broadcaster FIONA TALKINGTON (BBC Radio 3 Late Junction). In this episode we experiment with the joys of sliding down banisters, pitch a Shetland pony-based disaster movie, and discover the best way to have your music played on Radio 3. It's always sunny in the Thames Valley, so - all aboard the community bus. Wish you were here? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Nick Luscombe heads out for a late night trip across ‘sleepless town’, Tokyo’s ancient entertainment district, known for it’s bright lights, late night drinking dens and seedy back streets. Armed with his recorder and a local friend for guidance, Nick captures the sound of an all night batting range, late night video game parlours, robot restaurants and Tokyo’s underground as well as the odd character of the night. Excerpts of this recording were originally broadcast on Late Junction on the 24th April 2018.

Renowned artist, field recordist and environmentalist Jana Winderen has returned to record natural sounds in this area for many years. In this recording you can hear her capture an icy, dripping brook and hibernating tadpoles beneath the snow. Originally broadcast on Late Junction on BBC Radio 3.

Here is a special edition of the Japan Sound Portrait podcast to celebrate a special week-long season on BBC Radio 3 called Night Blossoms, which will explore the mysterious, counter-cultural and unexpected side of Japanese music and arts across the station’s evening programmes, running from 21st to the 27th April. The season will start on Saturday with a special edition of Between the Ears in which Nick will explore the essay In Praise of Shadows - a classic in the field of Japanese aesthetics by Junichiro Tanizaki. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09zmqhd This podcast collects together some echoes from Japan Sound Portrait to accompany some sound-related quotes from the essay, fuller versions of which are available below. Featured music: Nick Luscombe: Monomachi Theme amoeba: Kanzeon Xap Mo Xnok Dub Nick Luscombe & Robin The Fog: Monomachi Theme Remix shinekosei: No Many thanks to the Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation for supporting research into this project. Elsewhere in the Night Blossoms Season, Nick will be busy on Late Junction, with the week's programmes dedicated entirely to music from Japan, coupled with Nick's immersive recordings of the diverse and often unexpected soundscapes of Tokyo late at night. Our recent event at Spiritland will be broadcast on the Exposure programme on Thursday 26th April, and there will be special Japanese editions of all other evening programming throughout the week. ------ Sound-related extracts from Junichi Tanizaki's In Praise of Shadows: “……in a Nara or Kyoto temple…as I have said there are certain prerequisites: a degree of dimness, absolute cleanliness, and quiet so complete one can hear the hum of a mosquito. I love to listen from such a toilet to the sound of softly falling rain, especially if it is a toilet of the Kanto region, with its long, narrow windows at floor level; there one can listen with such a sense of intimacy to the raindrops falling from the eaves and the trees, seeping into the earth as they wash over the base of a stone lantern and freshen the moss about the stepping stones. And the toilet is the perfect place to listen to the chirping of insects or the song of the birds, to view the moon, or to enjoy any of those poignant moments that mark the change of the seasons. Here, I suspect, is where haiku poets over the ages have come by a great many of their ideas.   “…had we invented the phonograph and the radio, how much more faithfully they would reproduce the special character of our voices and our music. Japanese music is above all a music of reticence, of atmosphere. When recorded, or amplified by a loudspeaker, the greater part of its charm is lost. In conversation, too, we prefer the soft voice, the understatement. Most important of all are the pauses. Yet the phonograph and radio render these moments of silence utterly lifeless. And so we distort the arts themselves to curry favour for them with the machines. “   “Western paper turns away the light, while our paper seems to take it in, to envelop it gently, like the soft surface of a first snowfall. It gives off no sound when it is crumpled or folded, it is quiet and pliant to the touch as the leaf of a tree.”   “Whenever I sit with a bowl of soup before me, listening to the murmur that penetrates like the far-off shrill of an insect, lost in contemplation of flavours to come, I feel as if I were being drawn into a trance. The experience must be something like that of the tea master who, at the sound of the kettle, is taken from himself as if upon the sigh of the wind in the legendary pines of Onoe (Hirakawa, Aomori).” “The mysterious Orient of which Westerners speak probably refers to the uncanny silence of these dark places.” ----- Podcast image from Wikimedia Commons: ストリングのれん by Takashi Tomooka

1968 was one of the most seismic years in recent history -- Vietnam, the Prague spring, Black Power at the Olympics and protests on the streets of Paris and London so this evening's programme -- Rana Mitter's extended interview with Tariq Ali -- is part commemoration, part reassessment. What remains of that turbulent time and where can we discern its features in our political landscape today? Rana takes Tariq back to his life as a boy in Lahore - a city where his radical parents regularly hosted the likes of Pakistan's great 20th century poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz and brings him via his first hand experience of wartime Vietnam and his intellectual engagement with the Russian revolution to the present where he offers assessments of the Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn and the US President, Donald Trump. There's time too for a diversion into literature. Tariq shares his love of Kipling and in the longer version of the interview available as one of our Arts and Ideas podcasts - he reads from his novel Night of the Golden Butterfly featuring a character based on the painter, Tassaduq Sohail. Tariq Ali has chosen a mixtape for Radio 3's Late Junction broadcast this week. Producer: Zahid Warley

Fiona Sampson, Daisy Hay, Christopher Frayling and David H. Guston join Matthew Sweet to discuss Mary Shelley's story in film, fiction and the view of AI scientists now.In Search of Mary Shelley: The Girl Who Wrote Frankenstein by the poet and writer Fiona Sampson is out now.Christopher Frayling has published Frankenstein: The First Two Hundred YearsDr Daisy Hay is Senior Lecturer, English Literature and Archival Studies at the University of Exeter and a BBC Radio 3 and AHRC New Generation Thinker who will be publishing later this year a book on The Making of Frankenstein. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley Annotated for scientists, engineers and creators of all kinds edited by David H. Guston, Ed Finn and Jason Scott Robert Late Junction tonight is looking at music and AI, asking can we create a digital version of the ideal Late Junction collaborator using computer code alone?The Radio 3 Sunday feature Select, Edit, Paste presented by Clemency Burton-Hill has been exploring new technologies and the arts. Producer: Zahid Warley

Welcome one and all – Once a month, we need to close the café for a deep clean and refresh. Therefore, on this week’s podcast, don’t expect to hear the normal funky affair. No, this week we are switching to an altogether more relaxed menu. In this session, Creamy dusted down a couple of tunes he’s been playing for a long time from Accadia, Vangelis & The Cinematic Orchestra. There’s a new/ old tune from Pink Floyd, a soundtrack from Craig Armstrong, a couple of tunes from the Late Junction comp based on the Radio 3 show of the same name from Ross Daly and Smith Quartet. There is a reimagining of a tune by the great Erik Satie (no, not that one) by Tamar Halperin, a tune from composer of the upcoming Blade Runner movie, Johann Johannsson, the Adagio Creamy used in his production of the play ‘Mala & Edek’ by Moeran and even a tune from Goldfrapp’s truly stunning (and for Creamy at least, never bettered) debut album, Felt Mountain. We hope this leaves you, cleansed, refreshed and ready to face the week. Normal service to be resumed next week.   Please remember to subscribe, leave a review, share, blah, blah blah…   Keep it on the one. Love Creamy xxx

Ingredients. An impending anniversary of revolution, one of the great films of the 20C, an assembled group of musicians, some professional, some not, a beautifully restored 150yr old cinema, a mastermind or two. Mix the ingredients without any rehearsal or predetermination (in the style of Cardew's scratch Orchestra), screen the film and improvise (with collaboration from the audience). Enjoy. Today we listen to an edited recording from this remarkable event, one of many coming up to mark the centenary of the Russian Revolution of Oct 1917. Originally conceived as part of a cycle of films commemorating the revolutionary events of 1905, Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin recreates in documentary-style the failed mutiny of the Black Sea fleet and the subsequent massacre of the people of Odessa. Innovative cinematography and editing techniques heighten the horrific nature of events. Although banned outright in many countries outside Soviet Russia, the film became an international sensation, and has had a lasting impact on world cinema. The arresting sequence of the massacre of civilians on Odessa’s steps is one of the most celebrated, analysed, and quoted in cinema history. The screening is accompanied by an entirely original soundtrack, devised and created in a direct response to the film. Late Junction presenter Max Reinhardt will lead an instant orchestra of professional and non-professional musicians, drawn from across London, to bring a contemporary response to an extraordinary piece of Soviet cinema. Isotopica will be performing Spectre, a 12 hour live improvisation based around a Morse code rendering of the Communist Manifesto on October 17th as a part of these centenary events on Resonance Extra. Spectre can be heard here  

A bank holiday special of material from our recent Japanese Playback event held at Spiritland in London, featuring the one and only Clive Bell. http://www.clivebell.co.uk/ --- CLIVE BELL is a musician, composer and writer with a specialist interest in the shakuhachi, khene and other Far Eastern wind instruments. He has travelled extensively in Japan (where he studied the shakuhachi ­ or Japanese flute with the master Kohachiro Miyata), Thailand, Laos and Bali, researching music and meeting local practitioners. In 2011 he played with Jah Wobble at Ronnie Scott’s and the Glastonbury Festival, and toured the UK with Mugenkyo Taiko drummers (contemporary Japanese drumming). Clive is the shakuhachi player on Karl Jenkins’s album Requiem on EMI Classics, and the final two Harry Potter movies. His shakuhachi playing was featured in a live solo session on Radio 3’s Late Junction, and in 2013 on Radio 3’s In Tune. A musician who regularly joins David Ross, Sylvia Hallett and Peter Cusack in improvisation duos and trios, Clive Bell has a substantial recording history as both a solo artist (his solo album, Shakuhachi: The Japanese Flute was reissued in 2005 by ARC Records) and as a composer for film, TV and theatrical productions (Complicite, IOU, Whalley Range Allstars). Kazuko Hohki, Jah Wobble, Jaki Liebezeit, Harry Beckett, Robert Lippok, David Sylvian, David Toop, Jochen Irmler of Faust, Paul Schütze and Bill Laswell number among Clive Bell’s collaborators. As a record producer, his latest release is Taeko Kunishima’s Late Autumn on 33Jazz (2011). Based in London, he writes regularly for the music monthly The Wire.

Matthew Sweet visits Hull - the city where he grew up - and seeks out Basil Kirchin's sound world, Richard Bean's version of Hull during the Civil War and the re-opened Ferens Art Gallery where he used to spend Saturday mornings.You can hear more of Basil Kirchin's music for films in tonight's Late Junction which follows at 11pm and Radio3 is recording Mind on the Run featuring Goldfrapp's Will Gregory with members of the BBC Concert Orchestra - the event takes place 17th - 19th Feb at Hull City Hall and will be broadcast on Hear and Now on March 4th. The Ferens Art Gallery is displaying Francis Bacon's Screaming Popes until May 1st; Pietro Lorenzetti's panel painting Christ Between Saints Paul and Peter until April. Exhibitions by Ron Mueck, Spencer Tunick's Sea of Hull commission and the Turner prize follow later in 2017.Richard Bean's play The Hypocrite - dramatising what happened in the Civil War when parliament charged Sir John Hotham with denying King Charles entry to Hull - runs from Friday 24th of February – Saturday 25th of March at Hull Truck Theatre, and Friday 31th of March – Saturday 29th of April at the Swan Theatre in Stratford-upon-AvonProducer: Craig Templeton Smith.

I interviewed the novelists David Mitchell and Michel Faber for the Sunday Independent. Mitchell had not long since published The Bone Clocks, and Faber The Book of Strange New Things. ----more----They were old friends, something that was apparent from the moment I met them both at Durrants Hotel in central London. Before the interview proper, Faber asked to speak with Mitchell privately. They had not seen each other since Faber's partner Eva died only a few months before.  Faber would talk about his grief and the effect it was already having on his writing - he was writing poetry rather than prose, and indeed saw fiction, to which Eva was central, as a thing of his past. 'The Book of Strange New Things is my last novel, and we both knew that.' You can hear Mitchell's tender, but firm response in part one of this lengthy conversation. The subjects under discussion also included Mitchell's re-mix and match approach to writing, their differing views to the contemporary world and readers, posterity and poetry. We began by talking music - Miles Davis, playing Bartok, Late Junction, and listening to Krautrock while writing The Crimson Petal and The White.  I hope you enjoy. Part Two will be posted soon.  

Welcome back to Flomotion Radio. How’s your summer been? Nick’s been away making more shows for BBC Radio 3’s Late Junction, and started a new Saturday night DJ extravaganza, check out the flyer above for more details. Then there’s the music. Flomotion Radio is back, with loads more gems to wrap your ears around… Don’t forget, [...]

Here’s some of what Nick’s been listening to recently. Dig in! Nick’s also been presenting his special blend of beats on Late Junction for BBC Radio 3 and headed over to Oslo in search of new music. Needless to say, you’ll be hearing some of that soon… And in case you’re wondering, Nick hasn’t had a [...]