Transom offers up a new work, about a man struggling with obesity, which perhaps stretches the definition of what is an "audio" production. I mean that only for the purposes of this site. They actually call it multimedia but the sound rich production and de-emphasized and choppy (but brilliant) animation and the piece's aurally innovative, sound-driven nature does make this piece an audio doc to me. Maybe. At any rate, that's really neither here nor there. It is really cool and it comes from Transom so, it gets posted.
From the site: "explores a forgotten chapter in the history of South African music-the role of punk rock. Originally broadcast in the Czech Republic, the audio documentary Waking The Nation sketches out the fascinating and often overlooked story of punk rock, ska and post-punk music as it played out against the background of the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa in the late '70s and 1980s."
Lots of music in this one.
In honor of 09/09/9 -- The longest Beatles song. Rumored to reveal John saying "turn me on dead man" when played backward. Here is a link to the backward track and some background from a website called beatlesnumber9.com. You be the judge.
A vintage doc about New York at the tail end of a now bygone era. The doc's sounds were recorded in time square in the early nineties - before Disney and Giuliani got to it, before 9-11, before the precipitous drop in crime, before the lawn chairs... An amazing, sound-rich doc about the religious zealots in the square.
Saltcast (the audio blog of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies) features a story about a producer doing a story about swingers - yep, those swingers. To use or not to use "graphic" audio...
Hearing Voices recently featured a piece from this series:
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Mixing music, dialogue from soundtracks, press conferences, sound effects and other sources, shortcuts has presented a wide variety of themes over the past thirty years, including programs on growing up, growing old, going crazy, being afraid, alone, in love; shows on music, space, race and politics from Watergate to Whitewater, plus retrospectives featuring the major events of each passing year. Recorded and mixed digitally, shortcuts features no narration, it's message evolves from the careful juxtaposition of the various elements.
Producer Ronan Kelly leaves the bleachers during a match, to find who else has paid to go in, but isn't watching the big game…
– Audio Documentary London Bureau
INFO
Playtime: 15 minutes 29 seconds
Fox hunting on horseback, with hounds, is alive in cold, wet Ireland. The Irish Times have produced this engaging audio slideshow on the Waterford Hunt.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau.
INFO
Playtime: 2 minutes 59 seconds
A Radio New Zealand tale of motorcycles, romance, and reflexology. Plus ghosts.
The weekly documentary Spectrum profiles a woman who moved from a trailer in Australia and and her corporate job, to New Zealand and a life in alternative therapies.
This story goes many places – all via one woman.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
INFO
Playtime: 23 minutes 30 seconds
An old sofa, and an upholsterer who is a powerlifting world champion. Mighty Mac won a Special Award at the Prix Europa in 2009. An engaging, endearing and vivid documentary, with strong accents.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
INFO
Playtime: 42 minutes 15 seconds
Britain's most renowned natural sound recordist, Chris Watson, has been to Antarctica. In this enhanced podcast, he provides just enough details to set the scene – and then lets the sounds bring you there. Some of the most engrossing audio you'll hear.
– Audio Documentary London Bureau
INFO
Playtime: 50 minutes 21 seconds
Anecdotes, character, a sense of the buses in North London's Hackney. Mixed speech, music and sound from the Hackney Podcast.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
INFO
Playtime: 14 minutes 18 seconds
A rich feature in the European tradition, blending vérité, drama, and music. A lake in the Norwegian mountains. Fish, family, friends, strangers.
- Audio Documentary London Bureau
(Photo: Martin Williams)
Elizabeth Hauke's documentary 'The Sound of Disease "examines the use of sound in the diagnosis of disease, and features the ground-breaking work of Prof Dan Lloyd, who converts the data in brain scans into music to identify otherwise 'invisible' diseases."
Elizabeth Hauke is an independent radio presenter and producer of Short Science (www.shortscience.co.uk), a weekly science radio show and podcast. She also makes freelance packages and documentaries.
