Sound Stories: Series 1

Click on a date to listen to the show.

Programme 6: 22nd October
Sing Along With Barney - Sound and the Military
Author and journalist Jon Ronson talks about his book The Men Who Stare at Goats, part of which details the use of musical torture in Guantanamo Bay and in Iraq. Ronson explains how the US army played I Love You (the theme from the children's TV show Barney) on a loop to disorient prisoners at a detention point in al-Qa'im, Iraq;

Programme 5: 15th October
Freddie and Laura -  Sound Design in Film.
In this scenario we follow Luke's story of two imaginary film students, Freddie and Laura, as they listen to their tapes of famous sound designers, searching for wisdom on the art of film sound. Walter Murch describes his sound work for Apocalypse Now and Oscar-winning re-recording Mixer, Tom Johnson, explains the complex dialogue editing in the film, Quiz Show. Also two writers, Michael West and Garry Duggan take up the soundtrack challenge, writing a narrative to match an atmospheric piece of music.

Programme 4: 1st October
Living Doll - A  Spoken Word Special
Presenter Luke Clancy looks at the music of spoken word, including the performances of recording artists Laurie Anderson and Ken Nordine. Also Nerys Williams, Lecturer in American Literature at UCD, explores a surprising connection between the poetry of Sylvia Plath and Cliff Richard's Living Doll, while New York band The Books describe how they make music from their vast database of spoken word samples, on tracks like Be Good to Them Always and It Never Changes to Stop.

Programme 3: 24th September
Glacial Chatter - The Art of Nature Recording
Sound Stories this week presents an extended interview with Chris Watson whose many recordings capture the sounds of nature and the wild, from Icelandic glaciers to spotted Hyena in the Kenyan grasslands.

Programme 2: 17th September
Eavesdropping with Scanner
In this programme Luke Clancy tunes into the music of conversation with Sound Artist Robin Rimbaud a.k.a Scanner whose early recordings mix ambient music with mobile phone conversations he has captured on a radio scanner. Scanner also talks about his installation for a morgue at L'Hopital Raymond Poincare in Garches near Paris, a soundtrack designed to support relatives of the bereaved.

Programme 1: 10th September
From Noise to Music
Luke investigates how we deal with unwanted sound, from uncontrollable street noise to music performances in which "noise" plays a key role. In this programme, Luke tells a story about the noisy performances of teenagers in his neighbourhood; Sound Recordist Chris Watson describes a mysterious voice that appeared on his recordings in a train station in Chihuahua, Mexico. Iarla Ó Lionáird describes an ancient noise from Irish mythology, the Dord Fiann - a "wild drone" used by The Fianna to gird themselves for battle. Also Matthew Herbert talks about his politico-foodie album Plat Du Jour, in which the sounds of the food industry are captured, processed and manipulated to delicious effect.