The Trees of Saunders Park

Claire Sabel and Alex Lewis (US, 2025)

34 min

The Trees of Saunders Park presents stories about trees and why people feel connected to them. It is centered on profiles of residents who have planted individual trees in Saunders Park, the main public green space in the West Powelton neighborhood of Philadelphia, a part of the city that has experienced considerable displacement and gentrification for decades. Though each tree story is unique, the piece explores connecting threads between them: the ethos of DIY planting, neighbors confronting gentrification, connecting to the earth in urban environments, communal joy in spite of neighborhood change and loss..

Written & hosted by Claire Sabel
Produced by Alex Lewis

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Live or Dye

Maria Conterno (IT, 2024)

Kaleidacoustics · Live or dye

11 min

Four women talk about life, ageing, and accepting (or not) their ageing body. And the role society plays in that. Four different perspectives, four voices telling four stories that diverge, overlap and end up in the same bold choice: not dying their grey hair.

Produced by Maria Conterno

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GROW

Cristina Catania Flores (UK, 2024)

Cristina Catania Flores · GROW: Audio Documentary

46 min

This audio-documentary wanders through the soundscapes of Sadhana Forest, a reforestation and zero-waste project in Tamil Nadu, India. Weaving interviews with over 20 community members, ‘Grow’ explores compassion, conservation and community living

Produced by Cristina Catania Flores
Music by Cristina Catania Flores
Sound Design by Cristina Catania Flores
Mastered by Ahmed Rezaie

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Kumbha Mela 2025 and Planets Aligned

Bhavisha Patel (UK 2025)

Epochally · Kumbha Mela 2025 and Planets Aligned

10 min

Kumbha Mela 2025, a spiritual festival observed in India, was the world's largest gathering, it also coincided with the planetary alignment. This is a soundscape, featuring recordings from pilgrims and NASA recordings of the planets.

Produced by Bhavisha Patel 

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XMTR Festival: Habitual Rituals

Stellaria Media (UK 2025)

10 min

A composition made from the sounds recorded by participants of The Habitual Rituals Workshop at XMTR Festival, paying attention to habits and routines of how we open doors, walk across a room, use kitchen implements, pour water and other everyday moments. Participants recorded themselves repeating familiar actions, along with descriptions of what they were doing to create a a generative, multi-speaker sound installation that allows rhythms of existence to emerge and interact.

Stellaria Media are based in South Devon and within two community radio stations, Soundart Radio (Totnes) and Skylark (Dartmoor). Our background as artists means we are always exploring, listening, responding and creating together with communities

Produced by Lucinda Guy and Alice Armstrong

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The Lido Cafe

Produced by Charlotte Petts (UK 2024)

Milk Bottle Productions · Stories from the Lido Cafe

32 min

Charlotte has been intrigued by this place ever since she and her dog took refuge there from the wintery Worthing seafront to have a steaming hot pot of tea and a tunnocks tea cake. With its metal grills over the windows and a heavy door to strain open, it almost always looks closed, except for a little neon red 'Open' sign glowing in the gloom. Inside, there were mainly older people, sitting alone. It's part of an old lido complex, with a bandstand built in the 1920's jutting out into the sea, almost like a mini pier.

The tablecloths are chequered, you can get breakfast for a fiver and despite sitting separately, everyone seemed to know each other. One lady leaned over and chatted to her about her dog. It was just... friendly. She wanted to spend more time there, see what is was like in the warmer months and spend more time with the people that go there and the people that run it. And so she did. And she took her recorder with her.

Produced and presented by Charlotte Petts

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We Are Not Alone

Produced by Oliver Sanders (UK 2024)

27 min

In 1980, Prestonwood Mall in Dallas contacted the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) with a unique request. It was the opening weekend of The Empire Strikes Back, and the mall’s marketing team wanted an additional attraction. Sensing an opportunity, John P Timmerman, the owner of a family air-conditioning business in Ohio and a dedicated volunteer at CUFOS, packed his car with an eye-catching collection of UFO photographs and embarked on a cross-country journey for the weekend.What began as a simple photography exhibit turned into a 12year research expedition across the malls of America.

In front of plexiglass panels, between the skylights and shiny floors, Timmerman interviewed curious shoppers with stories to tell. What he captured on his small tape recorder was the “raw material of ufology” - candid, first-hand accounts of strange lights, silver discs, and close encounters. Between 1980 and 1992, Timmerman recorded 1,179 witness reports across 120 tapes that cover every aspect of the UFO phenomena.

The collection is considered one of the largest ever put together by a single investigator.John P Timmerman spent years travelling far from his quiet family life in the Midwest searching for insights into our place in the universe. What he found, among the hum of escalators and muzak, was connection - or ‘contact’ - with thousands of ordinary people, all searching for the same thing.

Produced, Edited & Sound Designed by Oliver Sanders
Archive Digitisation & Co-Production by James Timmerman
Executive Producer: Lucia Scazzocchio

Special thanks to Dr Mark Rodeghier, Dr Michael Swords, Dr Michael West, The Center For UFO Studies, The Timmerman Family, Dominic De Vere, Francesca Thakorlal, Ben Plumb, Hannah Kemp-Welch

A Social Broadcasts production for BBCRadio 4 and BBC Illuminated Podcast

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Kaizen

Carlo Patrão (PT 2024)

5 min

改 善 Kaizen is a radiophonic sound collage of North American "tech speak" and "corporate jargon" that overuses the Japanese term Kaizen, meaning continuous improvement, as a form of control and shield against listening, responsibility, and reparation.

Produced/Collage/Music by: Carlo Patrão

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In The Dark What’s New: Nuisibles

Ka-Young Park and Dimitris Roidis (FR 2023)

13 min

This work combines two worlds: a vermin exterminator in Paris and stories of the oppressed youth. After a police union’s public statement on 30th July, these two worlds suddenly intersect.

Producers - Ka Young Park and Dimitris Roidis during the Louis Lumiere Sound Documentary programme, taught by Frédérique Pressman

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Keys to an Unlocked Door

Audio Flux - Megan Tan (US 2023)

3 min

Audio Flux is an open collaboration, fueled by short audio works that respond to a set of rules established with a different creative partner each time.

The inaugural circuit is partnered with writer and artist Wendy MacNaughton (New York Times, How to Say Goodbye, Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat).

Six producers were invited to create three-minute “Fluxworks,” that:
Include some manifestation of the theme: letting go
Include previously unshared personal archival tape
Take inspiration from one of three illustrations by Wendy (keys, gas station, person reading)

Megan Tan merges two stories - one person is looking for the keys to life and another has the keys to life.

Production - Megan Tan

More about Audio Flux

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