During a residency at Full of Noises (Barrow-in-Furness) in September 2021, I built a series of antennas to pick up the Earth’s natural static. In this piece, I use Dan Tapper’s recipe for a hoop antenna and listen for lightning and atmospheric disturbances around Cumbria. This project was support by a DYCP grant from Arts Council England.

Searching for Sferics

The final episode of the Tape Letters documentary series explores generational differences between today’s British Pakistani community and those who migrated and settled in the UK between 1960-1980. We also look at the loss of cassette tape value over time as people have recorded over cassettes, as well as the shifts and evolution in languages, identities, and experiences across generations (e.g., Tape Letters’ next generation of cassettes now feature
English accents). We also look more widely at the loss of cassette tapes entirely as a mode of communication as technology continues to develop.

Tape Letters - Episode 6 of 6 - Generations On Tape

Episode 5 looks at the origins, characteristics, and generational evolution of Pothwari, an oral-only language with no written form.

You’ll also delve deeper into some of the hierarchy and class differences that are associated with Pothwari when compared to Urdu or Punjabi. Including the dilemma of modernisation and preserving the ‘mother tongue’.

“There were letters too” – hear about some of the struggles of letter writing for those who could not read or write in Urdu. Cassette tapes offered a more efficient and personal solution, while also providing an insight into the traditions of an oral culture.

Tape Letters - Episode 5 of 6 - Spoken And Unwritten

In episode 4, interviewees of the Tape Letters project remember their experiences of leaving Pakistan and migrating to Britain, a country they had never seen before.

Common jobs taken up by migrants were mainly in mills and factories, and often based in northern areas of the UK where there were greater opportunities at the time.

You’ll also hear more about the reasons for the early migrations to the UK, which might not quite be what you expect.

Individuals also recall the desire to share their new lives and surroundings with their families back in Pakistan through cassette tapes. Interestingly, tapes were also used by those in the UK to dream of and imagine their homeland, one they missed and hoped they might one day return to.

Tape Letters - Episode 4 of 6 - Migration From Pakistan To The UK

Episode 3 looks at families living apart being brought closer by messages on tape. The episode features a special story of a soon-to-be-married couple, who got to know each other more deeply and fell in love entirely through sending cassette tapes to each other between Pakistan and the UK for over 5 years. Telephones were usually expensive and not private, which is why cassettes were their chosen method of communication. We also discuss the
retention and loss of cassette tapes, and therefore stories, over the years as people either held onto tapes for sentimental or evidential reasons or threw them away as they simply looked to do some spring cleaning.

Tape Letters - Episode 3 of 6 - A Cassette Tape Love Story

Alguien que se duerme en una sala de cine despierta cuando la película termina. ¿Era una película de "suspenso"?

Siesta en 35 mm

Residents of Southampton listen to community gardens via headphones and share their experiences. For some, sounds trigger memories; field recordings from across the globe illustrate their stories.

Workshops delivered in collaboration with movement artist Gabriel Galvez, for the Voices in the Gallery project in partnership with John Hansard Gallery.

Listening Memories

First recording released of my instrument The Ootwo - a 16 stringed rotating harp played with bow- Invented and made in 2018 but only now have practiced enough to want to release

OOTWO 1

'Handsworth Songs' is a seminal film by the Black Audio Film Collective, produced in 1986. The film deals with the racially motivated riots of the 1980s in London and Birmingham alongside archival footage of early Windrush migrants from the West Indies arriving in the UK.

'slow emergency siren, ongoing' is a project that aims to make this film more, and differently, accessible through the production of an audio description track and creative captions. In 2022, I was commissioned by Dr Sarah Hayden, working with LUX, to produce an audio documentary that captures the complex process of making artists' moving image work accessible.

'[voices surface]: An audio-documentary about accessing Handsworth Songs' centres the process of audio describer Elaine Lillian Joseph speaking over the film’s soundtrack, looking for words to describe the rich imagery for visually impaired and blind audiences. It includes interviews with Trevor Mathison (founder member of Black Audio Film Collective responsible for 'Handsworth Songs’ distinctive soundtrack) and captioner Anita Wolska-Kaslow of Care-fuffle (a disabled-led experimental film and art working group) about capturing the film’s emotive sound in text. 

The audio documentary was launched at MAC Birmingham and released on the LUX website in June 2023, with spacial and colour captions by Care-fuffle.

[voices surface]: Accessing Handsworth Songs

Robert Peters is a history tour guide on St Helena, South Atlantic.

An incredibly friendly man I met on the day Tim Wonnacot came to the island to do an episode of Antiques Roadshow for the island's media. Robert had brought his grammophone to the market place in Jamestown.

Robert's Gramophone

Eye to the Sky - the UFO synopsis Guest: John P. Timmerman

UFO Paranormal Radio Network

Oliver Sanders is an award winning audio producer, sound designer and editor. Beginning his career as the sound recordist for the feature length documentary A Story Of Bones.

His audio work focuses on maintaining an empathetic approach to the subject, striving to produce work that is intimate, personal, experiential and photographic. 

Audio production work includes the Audio Production Awards 2023 winner Tape Letters, ARIA 2023 Winner The Second Elizabethan Age, Iron To Iron and The 2023 Lovie Award Winner Retold, leading the sound design and audio production on all.

As a sound archivist he has worked with The Museum Of Saint Helena and The British Library Sound Archive.

Robert's Gramophone

Memorial Bench

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