credit: Words

Between the Ears in miniature returns with new short works themed around Midsummer Dreaming. Airing in the run up to our dream-like night of adventurous radio, featuring treasures from the BBC Radio 3 archives from sunset until sunrise on the summer solstice.

Even the sun stands still. In a world designed constantly to produce, where we’re exposed to the daily paralysing effects of doomscrolling and healed by the small joys of the everyday, producer Axel Kacoutié invites us to reflect on how the Sun’s movements can remind us to slow down.

Featuring Georgina Walker, Emily Lucienne and Sol, Aaron Edwards, Mary Letera, Buitumelo Kotekwa, Shadé Joseph, Tiwin Aji, Makella Ama Kededzi, Paul Nataraj, Keyari Page, Eleanor Penny, Baudelaire Ceus, Tasneim Zyada, Fabien Maturin and Somatic Space-Holder, Folk Wizard and Freedom Companion, Jae Gibbs.

Produced by Axel Kacoutié
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 3

Modern | Smooth | Cool | British English | French

~ Commercial Demo

~ Natural Read, Conversational, Radio

~ Audiobook (Children) #1 – English

~ Audiobook (Children) #2 – French

~ Audiobook (Adult)

Video

Ecce Homo (Narration)

Grace Dent | Comfort Eating Live (Announcer)

A Mother Tongue (Documentary, Narration)

Upon my Skin (Poem, Narration)

“Could we create in a community rather than an industry? Could we truly be free, where we are liberated from content production, deadlines and profit margins? Could we rewild audio making, where we no longer produce a dominant crop but symphonies that are good for you?”

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“As a young man in Birmingham, dealing with the violent, racist and oppressive realities not only of the UK government but also the National Front, he refused to turn the other cheek. Instead he declared that ‘self-defence is no offence’ – a slogan made popular during the fight against the Front in the early 1980s – in his reggae album Back to Roots (1995). This moral and philosophical clarity enabled him to embody a political rage that didn’t fade with age.”

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Artists and writers remember ‘the people’s poet’, whose prolific career foregrounded the power of the pen in engaging meaningful social commentary

It’s not always in a romantic relationship where a heart can break.

How do we grieve in a culture that champions one love over the rest?

Axel Kacoutié attempts to language loss after reuniting with the person who inspired this documentary. Guided by the thoughts and wisdom of friends and an end-of-life practitioner, we hear what happens when we let grief speak.

Featuring the voices of Claire Galligan, Ivor Williams, JN Benjamin, Tej Adeleye, Weyland McKenzie-Witter and Zachary Cayenne-Elliott.

Special thanks to End of Life Doula UK, Tony Phillips, Natasha McAnea-Hill, Jeff Monteen and Maz Ebtehaj

Artwork: Erin Tse
Development Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Sound Design, Music and Mixing Production: Axel Kacoutié
Produced by Axel Kacoutié

A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

A memoryscape of fatherhood woven between three generations.

From the Fatherhood Episode. Series 33.

Curated by Axel Kacoutié, Eleanor McDowall and Andrea Rangecroft
Produced and mixed by Axel Kacoutié
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

“Somewhere between the narrow entry of Who I am and What I seem to be, lies a vast and nameless place.”

In this transmission, Axel Kacoutié discovers a new sense of self in the cosmologies, concepts and realities of queer and indigenous folks. What are the links between gender expression and our relationship with the Earth? How does it destabilise colonial and capitalist imaginations of what we’re told a gender binary is meant to be?

Featuring the voices of:
Opaskwayak Cree Nation Professor at the University of Saskatchewan, Dr Alex Wilson
Artist Buitumelo Kotekwa
Afro-Taino Two-Spirit change-maker Cleopatra Tatabele
Scholar and Research Assistant Karyn De Freitas
Transmasculine, non-binary scholar and Founder of the Free Black University, Melz Owusu.

Artwork by Erin Tse

Development Producer: Eleanor McDowall
Assistant Producer: CA Davis
Additional Recording: Heidi Chang and Israel Ramjohn
Sound Design, Music and Mixing Production: Axel Kacoutié
Produced by Axel Kacoutié
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Listen & subscribe to the whole podcast series

Interludes is a collaboration between Shade Podcast and Axel Kacoutié featuring six contemporary artists: Amy Sherald, Ming Smith, Phoebe Boswell, Rahima Gambo, Nnena Kalu and Cassi Namoda.

Framed by the question “What does healing sound like?”, these podcasts offer a visceral connection with the artists’ work. In each episode we weave the artists’ reflections through Axel’s original soundscapes, as a collaborative exploration of their creative experience.

Interludes opens an alternative space. The aim is to soften our tendency to intellectualise artwork, and instead create a sonic texture that is more intimate in its connection with the artist.

Concept & Production by Lou Mensah
Created by Axel Kacoutié

Supported by Hauser & Wirth
Artwork by Erin Tse
Animated by Luke Dye-Montefiore

Supported by Frieze Membership