#nsota

[usmaradiomagazine]

ON AIR - Thursday 20 March 2025 at 7:00pm (CET) - usmaradio.org 𝐒𝐏𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐄𝐐𝐔𝐈𝐍𝐎𝐗 𝐈 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓 𝐓𝐎 𝐄𝐀𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐇

A sonic almanac from the New School of the Anthropocene

NSOTA is a radical experiment in alternative education, away from marketisation and arcane specialism towards co-sensing systems change through creative practice This is an ecological transmission of DIY ethics, non-hierarchical structures, radical networks, interconnected sensing through sound, text, voice, spoken word, human and more-than-human collaborative practice, patchwork group thinking, and radio art.

This episode is created for the March equinox, a time where northern and southern hemispheres experience equal amounts of dark and light, night and day, before tipping towards or away from the sun. The piece is curated and produced by Stephen Shiell and composed using original and borrowed material from NSOTA scholars.

Scholar contributions:

Stephen Shiell radio dowsing composition, playing with EVP Hannah White ‘Equal Breath’, a text score for the equinox David Lea Harringay Nocturne: An Ultrasound Medley - performed by Common Noctule, Lesser Noctule, Serotine, Daubenton’s Bat, Common Pipistrelle and Soprano Pipistrelle. Recorded in Harringay, London Chris de Sel Spring Radio from Vauxhall City Farm with India on a train, a collection of recordings from 2014 and 2025 Stephen Shiell composition of bike and dome bells, ringing in the Spring Sk.ye cut up poem snatched from various texts Venetia Allen ‘We don’t even know’ an elegy for the world we are losing Rhona Eve Clews ‘Weirdos in the same ways/ his cobra move’ voice note from Fiona  Hannah White toning the ‘Equal Breath’ score Pascal Sleigh Earth to Earth, composed on Lossenham Farm. The kind work of the people there and the resources they so thoughtfully shared enabled this music-making to happen. This composition is generously played by: Hugh Webb - harp, Melanie Henry - flute, Nick Cooper - cello, Sam Bailey – piano Rhona Eve Clews climbing the stairs of Bidston Observatory Artistic Research Centre (BOARC), whilst in Liverpool, thinking about the comings and goings of winter and spring Rhona Eve Clews ‘Bells of Oda Park’ audio recording, Netherlands, recalling birdsong Naomi ZP Three moments of Kama Muta Simon McClelland Morris The Church of Matt Johnson, following on from the Neon Valley concept album No Boundary, a sonic response to the idea of the parish boundary, The Church of Matt Johnson speaks instead of freeing the confinement of a boundary (under the guise of a god). Instead offering us the idea of a church to anything and all that captivates our spirit and invigorates the heart. https://theneonvalley.bandcamp.com/album/post-poetry-blues Rhona Eve Clews ‘My first ever snog’ voice note from Sarah Rhona Eve Clews feet descending the stairs, BOARC Hannah White “Co-sensing with Radical Tenderness” a reading from Vanessa Machado de Oliveira’s ‘Hospicing Modernity’ Stephen Shiell Tocante drone, powered by light and moisture from my skin Rhona Eve Clews ‘Latvia melts’, water as it passes through melting icicles and gutters, Riga Michelle Watson Wonderest Manifesto, written by Moksha Poetess (Michelle Watson) performed by Moksha Poetess and Tommy Calderbank, music production by Massimo Fiocco Stephen Shiell field recording of Festival de Santa Maria, Giari di Gesturi, Sardinia Rhona Eve Clews me recording a natural spring on the borders of Wales Blanc Sceol recording of ‘Equal Breath’ with harmonicas and parakeets

[usmaradiomagazine]

ON AIR - Saturday 21 December 2024 at 7:00pm (CET) - usmaradio.org ‘I want to eat the earth’

A sonic almanac from the New School of the Anthropocene

NSOTA is a radical experiment in alternative education, away from marketisation and arcane specialism towards co-sensing systems change through creative practice.

This is an ecological transmission of DIY ethics, non-hierarchical structures, radical networks, interconnected sensing through sound, text, voice, spoken word, human and more-than-human collaborative practice, patchwork group thinking, and radio art.

This episode is created for the December solstice, a time of extreme dark or light in either direction, a hunkering down in the wet earth or a baking out in the hot sun. The piece is composed by Stephen Shiell using original material from NSOTA scholars.

Scholar contributions:

Stephen Shiell - with guests Rina and Laura

A piece created as part of Camp FR’s ‘Free Radio Pyrenees’ residency, including Stephen's field studies from Mount Agnes (Stephen P McGreavy BBB-4 VLF receiver), hydrophone recordings from the River Garbet and the town pond (David Rothenburg hydrophones), field recordings of a water viaduct (Lom Geofon), a duet with a thyme bush full of pollinators and a bullroarer, exploring the vibrations of this early transmission device, a nighttime thunderstorm (Lom Usi-Pro omni-directionals).

Rina sounded the ski lift using a geophone with personal interactions, and Laura mixed found sound from a tourists camping trip or the area, with voice and synth.

Rhona Eve Clews chats symbolic teeth, mouths and lipstick dreams with artist friends, plays ukulele on Christmas eve, recalls a Fijian airport in December, and completes the solstice session with the OOO of fireworks in Montreal.

Stephen Shiell field recording of a pile of wood ants, Dartmoor

Chris de Sel ‘Cold War Autumn Regime’ - on a walk from Battersea to Blackfriars bridge, from angst about a climate crisis to a preoccupation with geopolitical power struggles. 

Sk.ye recites ‘a extract from ‘Notebook’ a work in progress, and plays a clarinet rendition of a fragment of music composed by Rahsaan Roland Kirk

Lu(Lu)Lu ‘There was beauty to their strange distortion’, a piece inspired by the shifting balance in darkness and light at this time of year

Blanc Sceol (Stephen Shiell & Hannah White) ‘We go on together’, a melancholy lament for our times born of collective and personal grief

Stephen Shiell field recording of frogs, beetles, larvae, boatman, caddis fly, plant photosynthesis from a pond Saint-Aignan in France

Clare Whistler recites her poem ’52 Accords’ from ‘Accord’ an Eco Body collective project

Michael Timmerman creates a sonic space where technics, the world of insects, birds, rain, thunder, searching and fleeing human steps and the poetry of Paul Celan interact in ways that is unlikely to provoke a unified response. The opening chord progression may be just that – a kind of hope for progress. But it is also melancholic. Unfinished. Not progressing, just fading. There is possibly also horror, dismay. The sax just repeats as if it could move on to a melody or something else uplifting. That initial note may be all we have.Simon McClelland Morris ‘Beating the Boundary’ is a sonic response to the idea of the parish boundary – a semi-fictitious territory that acted as a demarcation line for the church and head family in the parish, and a way of control and extraction from people within the boundary line