Author: Radio Atlas

Kinoorgel Babylon

Made in 1929 to accompany silent movies, with 913 pipes and 66 registers, it was the biggest cinema organ in Germany.

But the organ’s grandeur wasn’t celebrated for long. Soon after its construction, sound film took over and the Babylon’s instrument became superfluous. Now, almost a century later and thanks to a dedicated team, Kino Babylon in Berlin Mitte has become a haven for lovers of silent film.

But it takes more than outdated technical equipment to experience this fading art in an authentic way. It requires quick fingers and the ability to improvise in real-time with a myriad of keys and buttons. A rare skill – and one that Babylon has found in the organist Anna Vavilkina.

Featuring Timothy Grossman, managing director of Babylon, and the organist Anna Vavilkina. Recorded in November 2018.

Phoebe McIndoe and Marta Medvešek are audio producers from the UK and Croatia, living and working in Berlin. They love producing creative, cutting-edge documentaries as well as poetic sound meditations. Most of all, they like to play. They say that collaborating helps them remove the pressure and allows them to have fun in the process.

My Mother’s Words

‘My Mother’s Words’ (‘Les Mots de Ma Mère’) tells the everyday life of a woman who loses her words. By her side, her three children, each in their own way, watch over her, set the tempo and organise her daily life. To move her out of the house she has lived in for 40 years would break her down. She carries inside her layers of a story, of a territory. Her house, the barn, the little river, the trees are the last landmarks of a space which shrinks a little more everyday.

This feature won the 2016 ‘Archives de la parole’ Phonurgia Nova prize and received a Special Commendation at the Prix Europa in 2015.

Aurélia Balboni is an author, editor and producer of radio documentaries and fictions. She also teaches radio documentary in Belgium (IAD – Institut des Arts de Diffusion). She founded Cineke in 2014 to conduct workshops and produce films and radios with a group of independent authors – Sonia Ringoot, Nicolas François, Pascale Brischoux, Celia Dessardo. Her latest documentary “Brothers”, was co-directed with Nicolas François.

‘My Mother’s Words’ features the voices of Françoise Gibert, Florence and Raphaël Balboni, Ismaël Gomih and Laurence Courtois.

Editing: Mathieu Haessler, Christophe Rault, Aurélia Balboni.
Sound editing: Philippe Charbonnel
With the support of the radio creation support fund of the Wallonia-Brussels federation and the « Du côté des ondes » programme fund of the RTBF.
In co-production and with the help of the creative radio workshop and Cinétroupe asbl

At the Foot of the Bed

Max-Lena Vanden Eynde’s grandfather grew up in a family of fifteen children. In 1940, the two eldest sons – Pol and Louis – were called up as reserve recruits. Only one of the two brothers returned home after the war. Any clue to Louis is lost. Together with the third son – her grandfather – Max-Lena goes looking for him. Since his disappearance, the family has been silent. His name is not spoken, nor the grief surrounding it.

Featured at IFC AudioDocs 2022

Credits:
Max-Lena Vanden Eynde: researcher, interviewer, editor
Brecht Mertens: music composer
Wederik De Backer: editor-in-chief
Simon Kremar: mixer
Pieter Serrien and Geert Lecompte: historical researchers

Max-Lena Vanden Eynde is a radio documentary maker. She works as a maker and editor-in-chief for the production house The Podcast Planet. You can follow her work on her personal Instagram as well as The Podcast Planet.

The True Crime of Your Frozen Death

Story by Ross Sutherland

Translated by Cristina Marras

Performed by Cristina Marras and Ross Sutherland

Additional voice acting by Andrea de’Cesco, Gianfranco Bitti, Fausta Laddomada

Original music by Jeremy Warmsley

Produced by Ross Sutherland

Consider supporting Imaginary Advice!

Make a monthly donation: www.patreon.com/rossgsutherland

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For further listening on a similar theme, listen to Cristina’s story “Games We Play in the Dark”

www.imaginaryadvice.com

The Voice of Jackal

Plunge into the sonic landscape of the jackal, as they stalk around a human settlement. Listen as voices from the Anthropocene emerge from busted radios, talking into the night.

Directed by Saška Rakef

Script by Saška Rakef and Tina Kozin

Music by Bojana Šaljić Podešva

Sound Design by Matjaž Miklič

Dramaturgy by Pia Brezavšček

Field recording, ambience and effects by Matjaž Miklič and Martin Florjančič

Expert collaborator: Petra Veber

Thanks to Sebastijan Lamut, MSc; Miha Krofl, ScD and Tomaž Grušovnik, PhD

Produced by RTV Slovenia, Radio Slovenia, Program Ars and Društvo Za Umetnost Avgus, Ljubljana

Heralds of Rain

For ‘City of Fables’ six people were scouted in the city of Bruges, each of them with a remarkable story about an encounter with an animal. These interviews were the starting point for six pieces in which the animals get a voice of their own throughout each episode. In Celtic and other animistic traditions, an encounter with an animal is never without meaning. Ruben Nachtergaele and Eva De Groote used this as a ‘red thread’ throughout the episodes. Subsequently connecting to the wisdom and playfulness brought by a running deer, a dead fox, a love bird, a bee and a bunch of frogs. The animals get the final say. This is the second episode of the podcast: ‘Heralds of Rain’.

‘Heralds of Rain’ won the FearLess Audio prize at HearSay International Sound Arts Festival 2021 in Ireland and was nominated at finalist at Third Coast International Audio Festival 2021.

City of Fables was realised with the support of Concertgebouw Brugge and KAAP

Eva De Groote: interview, script, text, voice

Ruben Nachtergaele: editing, bruitage, fieldrecording, music

Special thanks to Herman, Jacqueline and Sara Prové for their frog story

After training as an architect Ruben Nachtergaele took on several shapes as a sound artist and musician. As a composer and performer of electro-acoustical music, Ruben has collaborated with several live arts companies such as C.R.E.W. , Stevie Wishart, Ultima Thule and Tuning People. A recent solo performance is the audio ritual ‘Dust to Dust’.

Eva De Groote is a writer and audiomaker. Together with Ruben Nachtergaele she forms Audiobrewery Selkie, creating sound works in the form of podcasts and audio-experiences. In ‘Eardoor’ people living in the same street were portrayed, it turned out they had more in common than presumed. In ‘City of Fables’ remarkable encounters between people and animals are revealed.

I Remember His Look

In the summer of 2021, dozens, and later hundreds, of people started illegally crossing the Lithuanian border from Belarus every day. As a result, Lithuania reinforced its border protection, building a metal fence and a barbed-wire barrier and assigning troops to help the border guards. 

Lithuania and the European Union say that this is a “hybrid attack” orchestrated by the Minsk regime, which has taken advantage of the desire of thousands of people to reach Western Europe and have a safer and better life there.

This is the story of two people – one guarding the border, the other crossing it illegally – and the circumstances that have led to the intersection of their lives.

I Remember His Look: The Story of a Soldier and a Migrant won the Gold Award for Best Documentary at Third Coast International Audio Festival (2023) and was presented at IFC Audiodocs 2022

Produced by Sigita Vegytė.

Editors Vaida Pilibaitytė and Adomas Zubė.

English translation by Ieva Žvinakytė

Sigita Vegytė is a Lithuanian radio journalist and documentary producer. She has worked as a news reporter and produced and presented programmes on foreign affairs and science for the Lithuanian national broadcaster LRT. In 2019 she joined an award-winning team producing radio documentaries for LRT RADIJAS.

To hear more work (with subtitles) from LRT visit their website here.