Hearspool

Presenting Hearspool 25, Knock Knock, the latest in a series of radiophonic experiments from Momus. Direct link to mp3 here. List of previous Hearspools here.

The new Hearspool is called Aspects of the Night. Revisit previous Hearspools here.

We proudly present Hearspool 23: Walkaway. Experimental radio collage from Momus, also available as an mp3. Previous Hearspools available here.

The new Hearspool (Hearspool 22) is Half-Baked Lazarus (mp3, 60 minutes).

Hearspool 21: My Secret Deeds (mp3 file, 60 mins). Previous Hearspools can be heard here.

Hearspool 20: Coco Chanel (mp3, 60 mins.)

Back in 2013 I made a series of 18 experimental radio collages for BasicFM entitled Hearspool. Although BasicFM no longer exists, I thought I’d make a new episode, just because I enjoyed making the old Hearspools so much, and established a kind of genre with them which isn’t quite like anything else I do. Here, then, is Hearspool 19: Obscene Drawings, a sort of irrational exploration of “the questing beast”, the artist who goes beyond the limits of propriety and shocks —or merely tries to shake — the bourgeois order. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno Hearspool 11: My Father Hearspool 12: A Strange Emotion Hearspool 13: Frank Hearspool 14: Ink and Velvet Hearspool 15: The Great Reversal Hearspool 16: A Hewed Man Hearspool 17: The Overman Hearspool 18: A Weeping Willow

Hearspool 18: A Weeping Willow is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast on Basic.FM and available here as an mp3. In it you hear spiritual guru Eckhart Tolle, Howard Devoto, my mother Jo Currie reading Saint Augustine, excerpts from ghost films The Innocents (Jack Clayton) and Whistle And I’ll Come To You (Jonathan Miller), an improvised story I made in 1993, the folksongs of Rambling Syd Rumpo (performed by Kenneth Williams, written by Marty Feldman and Barry Took), some swirls of Georges Auric, an art critic talking about Joseph Beuys, and an extract from A Case For Doctor Morelle, a 1950s radio series.' Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno Hearspool 11: My Father Hearspool 12: A Strange Emotion Hearspool 13: Frank Hearspool 14: Ink and Velvet Hearspool 15: The Great Reversal Hearspool 16: A Hewed Man Hearspool 17: The Overman

Hearspool 17: The Overman is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast on Basic.FM and available here as an mp3. This is an hour “with” Friedrich Nietzsche, David Bowie, Robert Louis Stevenson, Franz Kafka, Robert Wyatt, John Cage, Joulia Strauss, Tim Piggot-Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch, William Shakespeare, Toog, Ivor Cutler, The Beatles, Nathalie Sarraute, Mamoru Fujieda and Cole Porter. Plus, of course, a certain Mr Momus spinning the scrapbook, spool tools, glue pot and scissors. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno Hearspool 11: My Father Hearspool 12: A Strange Emotion Hearspool 13: Frank Hearspool 14: Ink and Velvet Hearspool 15: The Great Reversal Hearspool 16: A Hewed Man

Hearspool 16: A Hewed Man is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast on Basic.FM and available here as an mp3. In this episode we hear Miju Lee drawing, Christopher Tolkien talking about his father, Professor Eric Hawkins talking about Lorca and Nazi Germany, Sun Ra talking about not being human, excerpts from Pinter’s The Lover and Chesterton’s The Club of Queer Trades, vocabulary from a 1940s documentary about the English language, and music from Satie, Duane Pitre, Delaware, Joe Hisaishi and David Sylvian. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno Hearspool 11: My Father Hearspool 12: A Strange Emotion Hearspool 13: Frank Hearspool 14: Ink and Velvet Hearspool 15: The Great Reversal

Hearspool 15: The Great Reversal is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast on Basic.FM and available here as an mp3. This episode focuses on Peter and Alison Smithson, as seen in BS Johnson’s BBC documentary about Robin Hood Gardens, the last project they built in Britain. The episode is also available, unusually, as a film. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno Hearspool 11: My Father Hearspool 12: A Strange Emotion Hearspool 13: Frank Hearspool 14: Ink and Velvet

Hearspool 14: Ink and Velvet is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast today on Basic.FM at 2pm UK time or available here as an mp3. This episode mixes Pimsleur language-learning exercises with the ghost scene from Satyajit Ray’s Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Lavinia Greenlaw’s verse take on Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Serge Gainsbourg in Morocco, documentaries on the Silk Road and the burning of the great library of Alexandria, an interrupted newscaster, a troglodyte musician, and the music of ancient Greece. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno Hearspool 11: My Father Hearspool 12: A Strange Emotion Hearspool 13: Frank

Hearspool 13: Frank is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast today on Basic.FM or available here as an mp3. This episode mashes up the soundtrack of Walerian Borowczyk’s 1975 film The Beast with Arte Radio productions about pregnancy and bathing in Japan, economics documentaries by JK Galbraith, and the Fluxus-style choral work of Tomomi Adachi, Paul Lansky, Dominique Petitgand and Nobukazu Takemura. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno Hearspool 11: My Father Hearspool 12: A Strange Emotion

Hearspool 12: A Strange Emotion is broadcast live on Basic.FM at 2pm UK time today. Since Momus has been out on the road for the past month, this week’s episode is a compilation of excerpts from the previous eleven hearspools. The piece is also available as an archived mp3 here. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno Hearspool 11: My Father

Hearspool 11: My Father is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast today on Basic.FM at 5pm UK time or available here as an mp3. This episode was made in Venice during the biennale, and interweaves Nikolas Montaldi talking about his father, the radical intellectual Danilo Montaldi, with the sound of art installations by Gilad Ratman, Ryan Trecartin, Chia-Wei Hsu, Tino Sehgal and Aurelien Froment, overlapped covers of the ballad Hushabye Mountain by Robert and Richard Sherman, and fragments of a heavily-edited radio essay by Gabriel Gbadamosi. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession Hearspool 10: Adorno

Hearspool 10: Adorno is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast today on Basic.FM at 2pm UK time or available here as an mp3. This time, as well as Theodor Adorno, there are references to composer Harry Partch, actor-songwriter Jacques Palminger, writer Keith Waterhouse, poet Ezra Pound, singer and video-maker David Bowie, DJ John Peel, songwriter Paul Reekie, spy Anthony Blunt, poet Rainer Maria Rilke and artist Omer Fast. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice Hearspool 9: Obsession  

Hearspool 9: Obsession is the latest hourlong experimental radio production from Momus, broadcast today on Basic.FM at 2pm UK time or available here as an mp3. This time we’re on the moon – or is it Antarctica? Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy Hearspool 8: Venice

Hearspool 8: Venice is broadcast live on Basic.FM at 2pm UK time today. The hour-long radiophonic composition by Momus revolves around fantastical travellers’ tales, trips to Kunming, Asmara and Makhachkala, the nature poetry of Marco Polo, and readings from Calvino’s Invisible Cities, with plenty of adultery and hesitation phenomena thrown in for good measure. The Hearspool is also available as an archived mp3 here. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy

Hearspool 7: Kakistocracy is broadcast live on Basic.FM at 2pm UK time today. The hour-long radiophonic composition by Momus mixes up a fairytale told by a South Carolina babysitter with documentaries about a boarding house in Bayswater, Armenia, the Northern Lights, and Francis Bacon. There’s a song about a mammoth preserved in ice, and John Berger’s calls, in Ways of Seeing, for “a world-political view”. The Hearspool is also available as an archived mp3 here. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie

Hearspool 6: The Miracle of Pie is broadcast live on Basic.FM at 2pm UK time today. The hour-long radiophonic composition by Momus mixes up Aldous Huxley’s drug experiences, a war between men and women, the supreme importance of pie, scraps of a German radio documentary about Momus, the entire lyrics of the Marzipan album read up the page instead of down, and the scariest bits of Night of the Hunter. It’s also available as an archived mp3 here. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster Hearspool 5: Fat People

Hearspool 5: Fat People is broadcast live on Basic.FM at 2pm UK time today. The hour-long radiophonic composition by Momus is also available as an archived mp3 here. Previous Hearspools: Hearspool 1: George Apollo Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener Hearspool 3: Come-Along Judy Hearspool 4: Noise Is A Monster

Broadcast live today at 2pm UK time on Basic.FM, we proudly present Hearspool 4: Noise is a Monster. The Hearspool style is establishing itself as an “irrationalisation” via cut-up of the radio output of the BBC, Faber podcasts, documentaries about artists found on YouTube, Japonaiserie, backwards Kate Bush, Ivor Cutler, Viv Stanshall, and imaginary episodes of Sherlock Holmes.Previous episodes (in case you missed them):Hearspool 1: George ApolloHearspool 2: A Humble GardenerHearspool 3: Come-Along Judy

Come-Along Judy is the third Hearspool, made by Momus for Basic.FM. It concentrates on the voice of Judy Golding and Japanese folk songs on vinyl.

Hearspool 2: A Humble Gardener airs live on Basic.fm today at 6am LA time, 9am NY, 2pm London, 3pm Berlin, and 11pm Tokyo. Momus’ magical mystery tour lasts 60 minutes. Well, that was the theory, anyway. Technical issues at Basic mean it’s being rescheduled. Meanwhile, hear it here instead. Listener discretion: if you have an irrational fear of getting an insect stuck in your brain or being confronted by a snake full of clocks, avoid. But if you love weird radio scenery, scrambled BBC productions, Klee-esque blarney, and shepherds making fantastic cross-country ski journeys slithering over dead leaves, it’s all here. The previous episode, Hearspool 1: George Apollo is archived here.

George Apollo is the first episode in a radio series called Hearspool which Momus is making for Basic.FM. Drawing inspiration from the experimental Hörspiel tradition of German public radio as well as eccentric British storytellers like Viv Stanshall, Ivor Cutler and the Sitwells, Momus improvises tales, plays selections from his collection of Japanese folk music, and extends the spooky parallel worlds sketched out in his records and books. Hearspool 1: George Apollo was transmitted on Basic at 2pm (UK) on Thursday January 18th 2013. It’s repeated on January 20th at 8pm (UK). The next episode airs at 2pm on January 31st, with a repeat two days later at 8pm.