Sound Stories: Series 4

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Audio links will appear once the programme is broadcast.

Programme 1: THOUSAND MILE SONG - September 2nd 2008

Luke Clancy explores our experience of sound. This Week: Jazz composer and writer David Rothenberg explains how the 1970 LP, "Songs of the Humpback Whale", launched three decades of whale conservation and changed the image of the whale from "scary, underwater beast to beautiful, intelligent, singer". Also David explains how his book on the subject, Thousand Mile Song, derives its title from the sounds of the Fin Whale, whose low frequency song can carry for thousands of miles in the ocean's "deep sound channel".

Programme 2: DUMBSTRUCK - September 9 2008

This week: We look at the unsettling effect of the disembodied voice. Steven Connor, author of Dumbstruck: A Cultural History of Ventriloquism, recalls the activities of Hugo, an alarmingly active ventriloquist's dummy in the film, Dead of Night. Mike Harding, co-founder of Touch Records describes his record release Ghost Orchid, an audio history of the Electronic Voice Phenomenon (EVP), containing recordings that EVP enthusiasts believe to be voices from the afterlife.

Programme 3: STAMPEDE OF THE MILLIPEDE - September 16 2008

Nature recordist Chris Watson plays a selection of his "acoustic close-ups", focusing on the sonic signature of various insects and the authentic "bluegrass" music of Kentucky crickets. Chris presents his recording of Matabele Ants in celebratory form after a raid on a termite colony and tells a grisly story about the discovery of giant earthworms in Australia - and the alarming slurping sounds they make as they retreat into their underground burrows.

Programme 4: ALTERNATIVE ORCHESTRA - September 23 2008

Luke Clancy tunes in to a symphony of unconventional instruments: from the Thai Elephant Orchestra to the Car Horn Organ - a hybrid instrument developed by Wendy Mae Chambers to perform possibly the world's most eccentric cover version of New York, New York. Playwright Melissa Murray explains how the inventor of the Theremin, Leon Theremin, gave lessons to Lenin on the instrument, and explains how the instrument was viewed as a symbol of the revolution. Drew Daniel of American electronic duo, MATMOS, describes using the instrument to more eccentric ends, developing the world's first snail-activated Theremin. Philip King describes how Tom Waits makes use of buckets, bull-horns and even a barn door in his recordings. And we hear Japanese musician Cornelius employ a printer to musical ends in his piece, Toner.

Programme 5: SOUNDS YOU CAN'T HEAR - September 30 2008

Sound Recordist Chris Watson explores the outer ranges of sound - from the infrasonic rumbles of the African elephant to ultrasound generated by computer screens and the mysterious world of sounds we can't hear. Chris tells the story of the late Vic Tandy, an engineer who theorised that all ghost "sightings" are illusions caused by the effects of low frequency sound on our senses of sight and hearing. And Chris speeds up a selection of his recordings, such as those made of grasshoppers and a lightning strike, so as to render all of the details we don't normally hear.

Programme 6: ABOUT THE HOUSE - October 7 2008

Presented by Luke Clancy. The diverse and unexplained sounds of home, from mysterious creaks in the attic to domestic disturbances in horror and science fiction. An Irish mother describes a mystery creak upstairs, wrongfully assumed to be the sound of her son returning home from the disco. Playwright Melissa Murray explains how domestic sounds are used in fiction, such as in the short stories of Ray Bradbury. And we explore the acoustics of the home where singer and fiddle-player Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh makes her music, in the company of the Steve Larkin, who as Project Architect for Donaghy and Dimond architects, designed the house as an ideal place for fiddle and voice to reverberate.

Programme 7: MIX-TAPE - October 14 2008

A mix-tape of our favourite sounds and music featured in the series from the music of Helios and Max Richter to the magnificent wildlife recordings of Chris Watson to a few new sounds, including a recording of Bjork at a press conference, offering her own theories about love and death.