Slow
Given my lack of activity recently, returning with a blogpost on slow radio seems entirely apposite.
A new wave of slow radio arrives on the back of BBC Radio 3 promising a more rigorous commitment with a raft of commissions that will provide listeners with “a chance for quiet mindfulness and a consideration of the world from another angle.” This promise, which follows on from similar ideas over at BBC Four, sounds like a promising one, and future programmes will include a variety of recordings from an evening at the zoo, to the sounds of Durham Cathedral, and then on Christmas Eve a three-hour walk through the Black Forest with writer Horatio Clare.
The first programme in this series (I think) comes from composer Iain Chambers whose contribution sees him work with “six major European museums to document the huge change within our acoustic landscape”. Apparently, his “hoerspiel for Westdeutscher Rundfunk was a finalist in the 2016 Prix Palma Ars Acustica” which would probably sound impressive if I had any idea what it meant.
Anyway enjoy, and keep an ear set for further programmes in the series.
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Earlier volumes of Speechification can be found here Vol.001, here Vol.002 and here Vol.003, and further episodes of BBC Radio 3’s previous series into this more sedate approach to radio currently live here.
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Tags: 2016 Prix Palma Ars Acustica, BBC Four, BBc Radio 3, Christmas Eve, Durham Cathedral, Horatio Clare, Iain Chambers, Radio, Slow, Slow Radio, Speechification, Westdeutscher Rundfunk
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Concretism
I was intending to do some exploring last weekend however a viral infection of my upper respiratory tract meant that my time in deepest darkest Sherwood Forest and its environs was somewhat short-lived. I did manage to make it into Nottingham to shuffle around in the rain for a few hours, where I picked up a number of very handsome cards by Paul Farrell from his Brutal is Beautiful series.
In further brutalist news, if you remain unconvinced by Paul’s assertion that the brutal can indeed be beautiful then I should point you in the direction of John Grindrod’s latest book How To Love Brutalism. It’s an impossibly handsome publication with some grand illustrations from The Brutal Artist and it comes highly recommended to you regardless of your love for all things concrete.
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Tags: Brutal Is Beautiful, Brutalism, How To Love Brutalism, John Grindrod, Nottingham, Paul Farrell, Sherwood Forest, The Brutal Artist
Myth Or Legend
Whilst Mrs Weir was elsewhere celebrating (somewhat) the beginning of the end of Le Professeur, Mrs Weir Snr. and I travelled the short distance required to see Damien Hirst at Houghton Hall.
Although I wasn’t entirely convinced by what was on offer from the UK’s richest living artist (I’m sure he’ll struggle on regardless) there were some high-points. Myth and Legend, the two sculptures sat directly outside the house looked particularly good against the brilliant blue sky (although that isn’t always part of the show) and Observe, Identify, Reason, Analyse, Measure, Modify and Reproduce / Space, Time, Form, Matter, Substance, Change and Motion, two pieces of kinetic sculpture found inside the Stone Hall were entertaining if somewhat reliant on their inspiration from the bingo halls of Britain.
The highlight of our visit for me wasn’t anything by Hirst but, as ever, James Turrell’s Skyspace which is one of the permanent fixtures at Houghton and worth the price of admission on its own.
Filed under: Art | 2 Comments
Tags: Bingo, Damien Hirst, Houghton Hall, James Turrell, Legend, Mrs Weir, Mrs Weir Snr., Myth, Skyspace
Speechification Vol.003
If you’ve missed Speechification Vol.001 and Vol.002 then further context can be found elsewhere. I won’t repeat myself for a third time because that may alienate the few people who still pay an (intentional) occasional visit.
So here are three pieces of radio (and one additional piece of music), two from BBC Radio 4 (albeit one via a repeat on BBC Radio 4 Extra) and one from BBC Radio 3, and all I hope, firmly in the spirit of the original Speechification site.
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Target Practice
Sometimes everything seems connected.
Following a brief conversation with Mr Maxim Griffin in relation to his intended expeditions to Donna Nook – a salt marsh just South of the mouth of the Humber used by the Royal Air Force for bombing practice – I made a decision to visit a similar set up that can be found at Gedney Drove End (just twenty or so miles from Weir HQ). It’s one of those places that’s in easy striking distance of home but somehow it’s somewhere that I’ve always succeeded in failing to visit.
That same day this documentary about RAF Holbeach was broadcast – RAF Holbeach is an academic air weapons range (no me neither) that’s located at Gedney Drove End, albeit that there’s very little physical evidence of it.
A couple of days later I remedied my failure to visit by travelling through the mists that had hung around all week to investigate these literal edgelands, to find that Maxim’s assertion that the location was “deep weird” remarkably accurate. It’s a disarmingly (although I suppose appropriately so) remote location, and once you’re stood on the sea-wall looking out into the Wash a bafflingly alien landscape. Throw in an occasional pillbox, a distant control tower and signs warning of unexploded ordnance and it doesn’t get any less weird. Well worth a visit though, and somewhere I shall return to when the weather is more forgiving.
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As a further aside Maxim is currently looking for support over on Unbound for his new book, Field Notes “An illustrated voyage into the depths of time, space and Lincolnshire. It contains Werner Herzog, sausages and mild peril.” Needless to say, I can’t recommend this to you enough.
Cold Art
This second documentary echoes the first with “Louis K Wilson meeting fellow artists who, like her, make work inspired by the Cold War”. In particular, the inspiration is drawn from the architecture of the era with the programme opening (once again with coincidental proximity to where I’m currently sat) at a Royal Observer Corps underground post in North Norfolk.
Like the artist, Stephen Felmingham I was aware of these Royal Observer Corps posts from an early age as a fairly visible example was located on the edge of the village that I grew up in. The record of said outpost, on the excellent Subterranea Britannica, mentions that it’s occasionally opened to the public, which seems to be something that has passed me entirely by – must investigate that further.
Late Junction
This last piece of radio is only an excerpt, but one that adds some further colour to the previous programme. Taken from a recent edition of Late Junction on “the sound of secrets and subterfuge” over on BBC Radio 3, it consists of a number of field recordings made by Freya Hellier (which already feature somewhat in the Cold Art programme above, which she also produced) at the Field Station Berlin, one of the largest listening stations built in the early 1960s by the US, although now abandoned and being slowly consumed by mother nature.
Finally not a piece of radio but a piece of music, albeit one that continues to maintain the theme.
This is the opening track from the new Concretism album, entitled For Concrete And Country, released on the Castles in Space label (who specialise in “limited edition vinyl pressings of new and newly unearthed vintage, alternative pop and electronica”) with artwork from none other than Mr Richard Littler aka the Leader of Scarfolk Council. A copy of the record, on “utilitarian black vinyl” (I missed out on the very limited “nuclear bunker hospital bay” turquoise) should be arriving at Weir HQ in the next few days, and if this is anything to go by it’s going to be very well received.
So if “the cold war is back with a vengeance” at least it can be handsomely soundtracked.
Filed under: Field Recordings, Landscape, Maps, Music, Place, Radio | Leave a Comment
Tags: BBc Radio 3, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 4 Extra, Castles in Space, Cold Art, Cold War, Concretism, Donna Nook, Field Notes, Field Station Berlin, For Concrete And Country, Freya Hellier, Gedney Drove End, Humber, Lincolnshire, Louis K Wilson, Maxim Griffi, Norfolk, North Norfolk, Radio, RAF Holbeach, Richard Littler, Royal Air Force, Royal Observer Corps, Scarfolk Council, Speechification, Stephen Felmingham, Subterranea Britannica Late Junction, Target Practice, Werner Herzog
Mum’s The Word
I’ve been re-watching the second series of Mum as Mrs Weir missed it when it was originally broadcast. If you’ve not stumbled across it then I’d thoroughly recommend seeking it out. And whoever’s responsible for the title sequence, that shows the situation of the comedy as the episodes work their way through the year, deserves a special mention.
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Tags: Mum
North By Northamptonshire*
In recent years whenever Mrs Weir has enquired as to my preferred holiday destination I have usually offered up the Northamptonshire town of Corby as my first choice.
Perhaps unsurprisingly she has failed to take me up on the suggestion. And to be entirely honest I’ve not always been disappointed by that. After all according to the Office for National Statistics people in Corby “are the unhappiest in the country”, the people at MoneySuperMarket tell us it’s “the debt capital of Britain” and whilst it did manage to avoid the top spot it was still named as the third worst place in Britain for women to live by BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour.
I’m sure the town does have a number of redeeming features, however the few hours I spent visiting for the first time last Monday did suggest that it’s a place that needs plenty of love and even greater quantities of money.
One particularly sad sight was what remained of a sculpture originally installed in the town back in 1974 called The Spirit of Corby. The (sadly unnamed) artist’s interpretation of “molten steel coiling down and flowing over limestone into water” (as a homage to the local steel industry) had been relocated having been hidden away in storage for many years, before then being “bent double by the severe weather in 1997” whilst sited on one of the town’s many roundabouts. When the spirit of the town is literally broken by the elements you have to sense that it’s probably not a good omen.
In fact, reading around what’s happened in the town in the intervening years does suggest that not everything progresses as smoothly as would be hoped. The Corby Cube for instance (which the Borough Council’s website insists is ‘iconic’) seems to have had a particularly problematic history given that it was only opened in 2010 – with various reports telling of its ‘dangerous design’, police investigations into the finances surrounding the funding of the building and a continuing story of ongoing repairs.
That said perhaps Corby’s future is brighter than I imagine, given that late last year it won the Great Town category in the 2018 Urbanism Awards, which commented that although only just over half-way through its thirty year growth plan the town is “an excellent example of what can be achieved by following through a shared vision and co-ordinated regeneration framework”.
I hope that Corby’s star is in the ascendence and I’ll return at some point to investigate further (with or more probably without Mrs Weir) because if nothing else it’s probably the only town in Northampton I’ll visit that’s twinned with a Chinese megacity.
*With apologies to Katherine Jakeaways.
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Tags: 2018 Urbanism Awards, Corby, Katherine Jakeaways, North By Northamptonshire, Northamptonshire, Shijiazhuang, The Corby Cube, The Spirit of Corby
