British sound producer Tim Hinman has produced a Radio Yak segment that disarms how we listen, with a few of his favourite audio grabs. Image supplied.
Streamed or downloaded, RN listeners can join a fraternity of inspired and inspiring makers who tackle the simple proposition, “How do we listen?” While the question holds within it an obvious biological answer, technology, mobility and societal behavioral conditions have brought forward listening habits to the cutting edge of contemporary living.
‘The Radio Yak series presents conversations with eminent producers from around the world whose work has inspired us,’ said RN’s Radiotonic presenter Jesse Cox.
The series was presented to preview some of the sounds and ideas that have inspired RN’s two new creative programs Radiotonic and Soundproof, but will continue to be produced regularly on both shows.
Julie Shapiro, who heads up RN’s Creative Audio Unit (CAU), said the Radio Yaks are about cluing listeners in to the scope and texture of the aural landscape of radio today by providing guides – “yakkers” – who are themselves producers and creators.
‘We asked each producer to walk us through some of the audio works that have inspired them over the years – basically audio they’re crazy about – and then to explore the inspiration behind those choices.’
The first producers featured in the series included multimedia special projects editor at The Guardian, Francesca Panetta, whom Shapiro describes as ‘a dedicated soundsmith and one of the most interesting thinkers in a new generation of makers.’ She also points to the ABC’s own Robyn Ravlich, who dug back into ABC the archives and explored the rich offerings there. Her Radio Yak includes a range from field recordings in Venice to the late Martin Sharp writing Eternity in Sydney.
Cox pointed out that the Radio Yak series is an opportunity to direct listeners to radio traditions from Australia and right around the world. ‘Every new radio program is informed by the long history of radio that came before it.’
Apart from this sense of history revisited, there is a quirky, probing sense of surprise that underlines the CAU’s programming, which emerges across Radio Yaks.
Tim Hinman, a British producer who lives and works with experimental audio productions in Denmark and is founder of the Third Ear multi-media project, for example, takes an inventive approach starting his segment as a “skype sound-check”. American radio legend Gregory Whitehead sings Soundproof presenter Miyuki Jokiranta into the program to “warm up her voice”, playing the trickster of the airways and disarming the listener with the unexpected.
The Radio Yaks are about thinking about listening, about what has inspired experienced radio producers and why. The point isn’t to over analyse anything, but to give listeners different perspectives on listening, and to invite them to think about how they listen, what they love and why.
Connect with ABC RN and check out CAU’s Radio Yak series, which has aired on both Radiotonic and Soundproof.
