Prix Nouvelles Fictions sonores 2021

Mehdi Bayad, Rouge Vif
65’23, autoproduction, Belgique

Dans un studio insonorisé, deux hommes enregistrent un podcast. Mais de curieux événements interrompent bientôt l’expérience.  
Un huis clos radiophonique jouant avec les frontières du réel. Cette fiction est librement inspirée d’un essai de Jacques Rancière : Le spectateur émancipé.« Comment transformer le spectateur en être agissant ? C’est la question qui traverse en substance l’essai philosophique de Jacques Rancière. Arracher l’auditeur à sa passivité en le rendant acteur et maître de l’œuvre qu’il écoute, voilà ce qui a motivé la conception de cette fiction. Faire en sorte que l’auditeur s’approprie les codes d’une fiction, et plus généralement d’un podcast dans son processus de création, afin de pouvoir les déconstruire minutieusement et proposer lui-même la morale ou le sens à donner à l’histoire. De façon implicite, l’enjeu qui sous-tend une telle démarche est d’esquisser un parallèle entre le fait d’être actif dans l’écoute et dans notre propre existence : cette fiction se veut une injonction à la révolte, au refus des normes et des limites qui codifient nos vies et prétendent les gouverner. » Mehdi Bayad

Mehdi Bayad est tout à la fois l'auteur, le preneur de son, le monteur, le mixeur et l'unique comédien de cette fiction sonore. Cette création est librement inspirée d'un essai de Jacques Rancière : Le spectateur émancipé. Mehdi Bayad est l'auteur et réalisateur des fictions radiophoniques Lumière Noire, Bisou à demain et Rouge Vif.

Mehdi Bayad_Rouge Vif

yield

Je me suis découvert des pouvoirs magiques, ceux de transformer la bande-son du monde, afin qu'il fasse meilleur y vivre...

1er prix dans la catégorie formes courtes au Grand Prix Nova Romania 2023
3e prix dans la catégorie formes courtes à l'UK international radio drama festival 2023

La magie des ondes

Poem text and context: https://www.themarginalian.org/2023/02/12/meditation-in-sunlight-may-sarton-amanda-palmer

POEM TEXT / CONTEXT

"Meditation in Sunlight" by May Sarton (read by Amanda Palmer)

Experience Liz Johnson Artur’s work with the ear and body. How does sound change how you see the works? What pulses through you when you see the images, braille and thread?

Interludes: Black Balloons is a new soundscape by Shade Podcast and Axel Kacoutié, responding to Artur’s display Time don’t run here. The piece references Artur’s Black Lives Matter protest images and works from her ongoing Black Balloon Archive documenting people in Africa, and of the African and Caribbean diasporas.

The soundscape features the voices of Liz Johnson Artur, artists Imogen Faires and Jamel Alatise from Theatre Peckham, and Research and Interpretation Artist Resident, Marie Smith. The soundscape includes extracts from Poetry as Protest, Protest as Poetry, a poem by Faires and Alatise responding to the display and performed live at Tate Modern in April 2023.

Interludes is an ongoing sound collaboration between Lou Mensah of Shade podcast and the audio artist Axel Kacoutié.

Interludes: Black Balloons 2023

letgazalive.com

An 11 hour audio recording of all 7,208 names of martyrs in Gaza, as reported in the 212 page report by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. These voice recordings serve as a poignant resource for solidarity initiatives such as protests, vigils, marches, art, and education.

Let Gaza Live - Audio Memorial

Not Like Us (Kendrick Lamar remix)

When James Baldwin died at his home in the South of France in December 1987, the world lost a towering intellect and one of America’s literary giants. He was buried in New York a few weeks later. But what remained in France, and still to this day, are thousands of personal and professional effects connected to Baldwin. Journalist Tony Phillips travels to Provence to discover why these items are stored in an Englishwoman’s home on the Côte d’Azur.

Produced by Tony Phillips and Axel Kacoutié
Sound Design by Axel Kacoutié
Original TX: 30/07/2024

BBC Sounds

The Lost Archives Of James Baldwin

How did we become disenfranchised from our voices? Why do so many of us stop singing and lose trust with our voices? 

This first episode breaks down how colonial narratives of the sex/gender binary, as well as Eurocentric vocal practices, tarnish many people’s relationship to their voice. The podcast focuses on how queer people, especially trans and gender non-conforming folks, are disproportionately excluded from the rigidity of many vocal spaces. Through interviews, soundscapes and meditations, this episode offers routes to decolonising the voice outside of whiteness, elitism and ableism in order to find more embodied states of being.

Presented and produced by margomool | https://www.instagram.com/margomool/ | https://margomool.mailchimpsites.com/
Recorded by margomool and Yuki Nakamaya | https://www.instagram.com/shinjuku.enby/ 
Featuring ellc | https://www.instagram.com/ellcsings/ | ILĀ | https://www.hausofila.com | https://www.instagram.com/hausofila/ | 
Stephen Davidson | https://londontranschoir.com/author/impromiscuous/ | https://www.instagram.com/stephendavidson84/ 
Sound design & mixing by Axel Kacoutié | https://www.instagram.com/axelkacoutie/ | https://axelkacoutie.com/ 
Supported by QUEERCIRCLE | https://www.instagram.com/queercircle/ | https://queercircle.org/whats-on/

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Dorcas Olowoyo - Voices Unheard: An Authoethnographic Study of the Contralto, Black British Voice
Anne Carson - The Gender of Sound
Stephen Davidson - The Transmasculine Voice: A Guide to Vocal Euphoria
bell hooks - The Will to Change: Men, Masculinity & Love
A L. Jones - ‘Singing High: Black Countertenors and Gendered Sound in Gospel Performance
Nina Sun Eidsheim - Race of Sound, Listening, Timbre, and Vocality in African American Music
‘UN experts warn of legal uncertainty and rights implications following UK Supreme Court Ruling’ - https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2025/05/un-experts-warn-legal-uncertainty-and-rights-implications-following-uk
‘Ban on puberty blockers to be made indefinite on experts’ advice’ - https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ban-on-puberty-blockers-to-be-made-indefinite-on-experts-advice
Trans Actual, Trans Lives Survey 2021 - https://transactual.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/TransLivesSurvey2021.pdf
‘Welfare cuts: What are the Pip and Universal Credit changes?’ - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj924xvzrr2o

TRACK LIST
Various recordings from the Queering The Voice course & Trans Chorus workshops at QUEERCIRCLE, 2025
Schumann, De meine Sele, du mein Herz, performed by Helen Walpole
ellc - Key to Your Heart 
TRANS VOICES, ILĀ & Coda Nicolaeff - UN-BOUND

Episode 1: Vocal Disembodiment

What is embodied vocalising and how does it help us to build resilience and autonomy?
						
In this episode, we get into definitions of embodied vocalising and explore how it falls under the wider field of somatics. There will be droning, tapping, breath work, deep-listening vocal improvs and lots of play! We counter ideas presented in the previous podcast, exploring how embodied vocalising is inherently anti-colonial and is practiced by long-standing global majority cultures. It views our bodies as ever-changing sites of knowledge which can guide us, particularly through the hostile living conditions queer and trans+ people have to navigate on the daily. 

Presented and produced by margomool | www.instagram.com/margomool/ | margomool.mailchimpsites.com/
Recorded by margomool and Yuki Nakamaya | www.instagram.com/shinjuku.enby/
Featuring Nishma Jethwa, Healing Justic LDN | https://healingjusticeldn.org/team/nishma-jethwa/ | ellc | www.instagram.com/ellcsings/ | ILĀ | www.hausofila.com | www.instagram.com/hausofila/ | tobi Abebajo | https://www.instagram.com/tobiadebajo/
Sound design & mixing by Axel Kacoutié | www.instagram.com/axelkacoutie/ | axelkacoutie.com/
Supported by QUEERCIRCLE | www.instagram.com/queercircle/ | queercircle.org/whats-on/

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Healing Justice LDN, Movement Medicine Programme https://healingjusticeldn.org/methodology/movement-medicine/
Emotional Freedom Technique  https://eftinternational.org/discover-eft-tapping/eft-resources/
Queer Creative Health 2, MJ Barker, QUEERCIRCLE  https://website-artlogicwebsite0206.artlogic.net/usr/library/documents/main/qch2_web.pdf
Five element healing sounds, Corey Wong https://soundhealingresearchfoundation.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/09/Corey-Wong-Five-Element-Qigong-Sound-Healing.pdf
Sawt al-Shifaa, Fatima Lahham https://fatimalahham.com/#/research-project-sawt-alshifaa/
Likikiri Collective, Sudanese Women’s Story Circle https://www.okayafrica.com/likikiri-collective-uses-storytelling-to-safeguard-south-sudanese-womens-wisdoms/115806
Gods, Gays & the Gospel: How Gay Culture Influence Gospel & Popular Music https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=v3PYdnojMNkjz3Fw&v=hlqcdRcaT0I&feature=youtu.be
Embodied Activism, Rae Johnson PHD


TRACK LIST
Various recordings from the Queering The Voice course https://www.instagram.com/p/DDr7xH6ILcr/?img_index=1 & Trans Chorus workshops https://www.instagram.com/transchorus?igsh=Z29pejNqODhoMjJh at QUEERCIRCLE, 2025
Asfour tal men el shebbak, Fatima Lahham 
Soul Sanctuary Gospel Choir