Category: Documentary

“Deno’s Wonder Wheel” for KCRW’s 24-hour Radio Race

On August 19th to August 20th, KCRW‘s Independent Producer Project kicked off its 5th edition of the 24-hour radio race. Radio producers from all over the world had one day to write, record, and edit a nonfiction radio story. We produced a story about Coney Island’s iconic landmark The Wonder Wheel and the journey of its owner Deno D. Vourderis, a Greek immigrant who bought and restored the ferris wheel in the early 80s. This piece is narrated by his grandson Deno John Vourderis, who continues the family tradition of maintaining and running the wheel with his father and brother. This story was made possible with the help of Amanda Deutch from Coney Island History Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to record, archive, and celebrate the oral history of Coney Island.

The only thing about America that interests me is Coney Island.
Sigmund Freud

Kay Kyser And His Orchestra ‎– Dreamland (1947)

Credits:
Produced by Carlo Patrão and Erica Buettner
Music by Dana Boulé.
Thanks to Deno John Vourderis and Amanda Deutch

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Throw that banjo! – The story of the Brooklyn Banjo Toss

April 30th, 2017 – It’s early afternoon on a Sunday when a small group of people starts to gather around a jug band playing near the Smith–Ninth Street subway station exit. Eli Smith, the co-founder of the Brooklyn Folk Festival and long time banjo player, welcomes everybody to this year’s edition of the Banjo Toss Competition, one of the most anticipated events of the three-day folk festival. The jug band leads the parade from the corner of Smith-Ninth Street to the Gowanus Canal, a federally designated Superfund site also known as the Brooklyn’s nautical purgatory. The rules are simple: whoever throws the banjo the furthest is the winner. But for everyone attending this ritual, throwing the banjo into the canal feels less like a competition and more like a moment of catharsis. Nevertheless, the banjo toss champion wins a brand new banjo. As a precaution, plastic gloves are provided to each participant to avoid contact with the polluted waters. Next, the banjo tossers test their throwing techniques, evaluate wind conditions, the jug band sets the rhythm, and the banjo finally makes its dive into the waters of the Gowanus Canal.

Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn
Gowanus Canal, Brooklyn

In this radio piece, Eli Smith guides us through the Banjo Toss, explaining its origins and mythos. Smith is a banjo player, writer, radio host, researcher and promoter of folk music. You can find more about his work and music here. Or visit the Brooklyn Folk Festival and the Jalopy Theatre & School of Music.

Brooklyn Folk Festival 2017

FM Exhibition: Dreams, unconscious states & radio

Monday, January 16. from 6.20pm (88.8FM)

rc_wolfmoonZepelim’s radio piece Down The Royal Road will be broadcast at the FM exhibition wolFMoon by radioCona FM (88.8FM) from the Institute for Contemporary Arts Processing in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  For eight nights in a row (12 – 19 January 2017) radioCona will tune in every evening at 6:20PM, at the time when day turns into night. More info – Flyer – Live Stream

 

This FM exhibition will focus on dreamscapes and the slipping between the conscious and unconscious states, coming and going from wakefulness to abandon, laying on the liminal zones of consciousness, or interrogating cognitive processes – from dream narratives to the unheard sounds of the sleeping bodies, from streams of consciousness to exploring listening as a psychoanalytical tool.

Curated by Elena Biserna, Irena Pivka, Brane Zorman and Anna Friz/ Konrad Korabiewski

Artists: Ximena Alarcon, Dinah Bird, Stéphane Claude, Richard Crow, Delia Derbyshire, Leif Elggren, Anna Friz, Mario Gauthier, Fernando Godoy, Magz Hall, Olivia Humphreys, GX Jupitter-Larsen, Konrad Korabiewski, Samo Kutin, Brandon LaBelle, Francisco López, Tumi Magnússon, Michael McHugh and Noizechoir, Mikel R. Nieto, Maria Papadomanolaki, Carlo Patrão, Boštjan Perovšek, Luka Prinčič, Jean-Philippe Renoult, Francois Tariq Sardi, tobias c.van Veen, Mark Vernon, Tao G. Vrhovec Sambolec, James Webb, Jana Winderen, Emiliano Zelada, Brane Zorman.

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Radio Fluxos – 4 Documentaries on Sound for Antena 2, RTP

Radio Fluxos on Antena 2, RTP
will broadcast Sunday 5, 12, 19, 26 June 2016, 2pm
More info: http://goo.gl/A9VmWG

Radio Fluxos is a series of 4 documentaries about sound and listening produced for the portuguese national radio station Antena 2, RTP. The series is divided into four chapters: Ether, Earth, Man, and Cosmos. Each show features personal testimonials from scientists, philosophers, historians, authors and sound artists. You will hear antarctic glaciers, waves bouncing off stars, sounds of insects and bats, the sounds of extinction and the darker tones of sound used during modern warfare.

Radio Fluxos invites you to join a community of seekers whose research in the world of sound reveals codes, messages, stories, and discoveries. There is a whole world waiting for us. All we have to do is listen.

Ep. 1 – Sounds of Ether – Listen here
Featuring voices of Luís Loureiro, João Baltasar, Vitor Cardoso, José Tito Mendonça, Pedro Machado, Rui Moreira, Filomena Oliveira.

Ep. 2 – Sounds of the Earth – Listen here
Featuring voices of Janet Sternberg, Carlos Augusto, Ana Salomé David, Jorge Palmeirim, Jorge Paiva and Peter Cusack.

Ep. 3 – Sounds of Men – Listen here
Featuring voices of João Lourenço, Arnaldo Mesquita, Juliane Braeur, Suzanne Cusick, Alfredo Caldeiras, Anabela Duarte and Domingos Abrantes.
Original music by Dana Boulé.

Ep. 4 – Sounds of the Cosmos – Listen here
Featuring voices of Fernando Coimbra, Vitor Cardoso, Mário Monteiro, Pedro Machado, Rui Agostinho, Carla Sofia Carvalho and Nicolas Becker.

Credits:
Produced by Carlo Patrão
Presented by Diamantino Guedes
Voiceover by Eduarda Maio
Production support by João Piedade
Logo by Patrícia Rodrigues
Special thanks to everyone at Academia RTP, Rita Leonor Barqueiro, Ricardo Mariano, Erica Buettner, Dana Boulé and Dennis Shafer.

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Down The Royal Road: New radio piece commissioned by Radio Arts (UK)

Radio Arts


Description: Freud described dreams as the royal road to knowledge of the unconscious – a pathway to the essence of wishes and desires of the human mind. This radio piece presents an intimate portrait of a group of dreamers trying to salvage information from their dreams by recalling transformative dream experiences. Also, a group of five psychotherapists share their views on dreams and how they can be helpful in the clinical practice to gain a deeper understanding of the patient. Dream debris, free association, and dream theory float through the ether of radio waves, exploring the concept of newness in dreams and the bridge between the unconscious and waking life.

Credits:

In order of appearance:
Dreamers: Pierre Faa, Tiago Saga, Helena Espvall, David Monteiro and Derek Moench.

Psychotherapists: Dr. Angel Morgan, Dr. Conceição Almeida, Dr. Clara Soares, Dr. António Pazo Pires and Dr. Miguel Estrada.

Music composed by Helena Espvall (Cello & Electronics)

Special thanks to Erica Buettner and Zed Boulé.
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This radio work is a Dreamlands’ commission for Radio Arts (UK), funded by the Arts Council England and Kent County Council. More info at www.radioarts.org.uk

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“Down The Royal Road” has been broadcast by Resonance FM (London, UK); Borealis Festival (Bergen, Norway), Radiophrenia, a temporary art radio station broadcasting live from Glasgow’s Centre for Contemporary Arts and Wave Farm (formerly free103point9) (NYS, USA).
Resonance FM
Radiophrenia
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Bergen's 2015 Borealis Festival

Down The Royal Road : A Dreamlands Commission by Radio Arts

Radio Arts UK

Down the Royal Road is a new radio piece commissioned by Radio Arts (UK) as part of a series of works for radio on the theme of “Dreamlands“. Freud described dreams as the royal road to knowledge of the unconscious – a pathway to the essence of wishes and desires of the human mind. This radio piece presents an intimate portrait of a group of dreamers trying to salvage information from their dreams by recalling transformative dream experiences. Also, a group of five psychotherapists share their views on dreams and how they can be helpful in the clinical practice to gain a deeper understanding of the patient. Dream debris, free association, and dream theory float through the ether of radio waves, exploring the concept of newness in dreams and the bridge between the unconscious and waking life.

Listen on Resonance FM, 9pm, April 15th, 2015

Here’s a small excerpt:

 
 

Duration: 00:28:00