Transmissions
2025 Selects: Marsification: A Tale of Planetary Grief
Lily Sloane (US 2024)
Lily Sloane (US 2024)
49 min
Today we are being increasingly bombarded by the idea that humanity can and should expand to Mars. Coined in 2020 by the art collective Bureau of Linguistical Reality, the neologism Marsification critiques the idea that we can reset civilization by escaping to “Planet B”.
Marsification: A tale of planetary grief is a concept album audio artwork that unsettles seductive astro-colonial fantasies of leaving a damaged Earth for an uninhabited Mars. These 16 vignettes are designed for individual experiences and community dialogues as we process this interplanetary moment in all of its dissonance. Marsification:
A tale of planetary grief weaves together textured soundscapes, spoken dialogue, satire, hyper pop, whimsy, humor and heartache, non-fiction and science fiction, science and poetry, fantasy and history, with travels into inner and outer space. How can we examine assumptions about the future? And how do we listen properly to the ghosts that haunt the present?
Written and created by Lily Sloane and Zara Zimbardo
Narration and voice acting by Lily Sloane, Zara Zimbardo, and Chelsea Kigano
Audio production, music and sound design by Lily Sloane
Editorial support from Keisha TK Dutes;
Sound consultation from Adriene Lilly
2025 Selects: I Dream Of Water: The Well, The Bay, The Sea
Susanne Lambert (UK 2025)
Susanne Lambert (UK 2025)
7 min
This is part of a body of work is about people's relationships with water, based around a set of audio recordings from various people Suzanne knows. She asked contributors to share something about a place of water they have strong memories of, or connections to, and to say something about what feelings are evoked in the place.
Susanne set the audio messages within new compositions (including found sounds and field recordings) in different ways to create a series of pieces. She has combined improvised open passages (drums/clarinet/piano/synth) with more considered and formulated sections, in an attempt to echo, mirror and juxtapose the words, and build imagery around the stories shared.
The series will eventually also include factual information, alongside the personal connective elements, as an opportunity to examine the diverse and sometimes contradictory elements of our human relationship to water.
Produced by Susanne Lambert aka Suzi Lamb
Glittering Prospects
Anna Bertmark (UK, 2025)
Anna Bertmark (UK, 2025)
20 min
Set on Brighton Beach in 2098, an local metal detectorist records search-reports for the Council's new Portable Foundle Department; a new requirement since mysterious artefacts have started appearing on the beach...
Glittering Prospects is an immersive audio drama exploring humans' relationships with changing coastal environments through treasure hunting and local folklore. This 20 minute peice weaves together Brighton Beach’s hidden histories, environmental mysteries, and the stories of those who search its shores. Inspired by cinematic interview techniques, found audio recordings, and through interviews with metal detectorists, wildlife and folklore experts, the piece presents a compelling fictional documentary drawing from the world of treasure hunting and local coastal history and superstitions. Through the power of place-based storytelling, this immersive listening experience explores how lost artefacts buried beneath our feet reveal meaningful stories.
Written and Produced by Anna Bertmark
Performed by Rachel Capell
Funded by the National Lottery.
XMTR Festival: Tom’s House
Jacob Dwyer (UK/NL 2025)
Jacob Dwyer (UK/NL 2025)
51 min
Tom’s House is a one person performed audio-drama. It incorporates voice, live foley, field recordings and an original soundtrack composed by K.Freund, Kareem Lotfy, Jacob Oostra and Zuza Banasińska.
In Tom’s House, we listen to the diaristic meanderings of someone who’s returned to the UK for the first time in 15 years. Walking up Haddon Drive he spots the house of an old friend, Tom. The front door is open, so he goes inside. Wandering around the empty Tudor cottage –making cups of tea, rearranging CD collections and zoning in on the minutiae of domestic space– he ruminates on ideas of emotional intimacy, friendship and grief.
Jacob Dwyer is an artist based in Amsterdam working with audio, moving-images and writing. His work often centres around personal encounters that could equally be seen as fables or heresy. He has presented in art spaces and music venues, including Cafe Oto (London), David Dale Gallery (Glasgow), Good Children (New Orleans) and De Appel (Amsterdam). In 2022 he released The Devil Museum on vinyl with Mana Records and has since published Notes on Devils with Building Fictions. Most recently he has released his new audio drama, Tom's House, on South of North.
Written, recorded and produced by Jacob Dwyer
XMTR Festival: Radio Limbo Live From St Leonards-on-Sea
Pete Hazell/Limbo Tapes (UK,2025)
Pete Hazell / Limbo Tapes (UK, 2025)
47 mins
Radio Limbo returns to St Leonards for another guided audio-trip — an unusual quest through original music, collage, soundscapes, and disembodied voices. The show celebrates radio as a shape-shifting portal to other worlds, a wilderness of its own, and its unique qualities of companionship. Join Pete for this curation and performance of surreal scenes and sonic experiments, using local intrigue and lost histories as the jumping-off point.
Pete Hazell is a music and audio artist based in Bristol. His various projects fall under the ‘Limbo’ umbrella, known for their signature blend of curious music, sound design, storytelling, and collage. His cassette label Limbo Tapes focuses on releasing music, monthly residency on Bristol’s Noods Radio is both a mix of new , and in 2024, Pete self-produced and released the audio series Limbo Calling as a podcast, expanding the Limbo universe through character, voice work, and surreal audio fiction.
His latest focus is performance — bringing Limbo sonics to a live audience.
Limbo Tapes
Written, recorded and produced by Pete Hazell
patreon.com/radiolimbo
limbotapes.bandcamp.com
soundcloud.com/limbotapes
instagram.com/limbo_tapes/
XMTR Festival Selects: Posidoniaceae
Giacomo Bagni + Veronica Lugaro (IT 2024)
Giacomo Bagni + Veronica Lugaro (IT 2024)
5 min
In this episode of Botanismi, winter leads us into the sea, where Posidonia oceanica sways in the currents. Once a land plant, it found its way back to the water, weaving vast prairies beneath the surface. A hidden world, fragile and alive, waiting to be heard.
Written, recorded and produced by Giacomo Bagni and Veronica Lugaroy
XMTR Festival Selects: In A Cowshell
Miri Berlin (DE 2025)
Miri Berlin (DE 2025)
9 min
The electroacoustic composition „In A Cowshell“ is based on field recordings that capture the sonic microcosm of a cowshed, interweaving and abstracting its sound world. It follows the course of the milking process — from the magical stillness as the cows enter and take their places, to the rhythmic drive of the machines, drawing you in — gradually giving way to calm again as the milking ends. Finally, the cows leave the barn, guided by the farmers’ calls back to the pasture — marking the close of the piece.
Produced by Miri Berlin
I Dream Of Water: The Well, The Bay, The Sea
Susanne Lambert (UK 2025)
Susanne Lambert (UK 2025)
7 min
This is part of a body of work is about people's relationships with water, based around a set of audio recordings from various people Suzanne knows. She asked contributors to share something about a place of water they have strong memories of, or connections to, and to say something about what feelings are evoked in the place.
Susanne set the audio messages within new compositions (including found sounds and field recordings) in different ways to create a series of pieces. She has combined improvised open passages (drums/clarinet/piano/synth) with more considered and formulated sections, in an attempt to echo, mirror and juxtapose the words, and build imagery around the stories shared.
The series will eventually also include factual information, alongside the personal connective elements, as an opportunity to examine the diverse and sometimes contradictory elements of our human relationship to water.
Produced by Susanne Lambert aka Suzi Lamb
The Box
Oliver Morris (UK 2025)
Oliver Morris (UK 2025)
4 min
A thought and sound experiment. Initially a blueprint for a shelved audio drama, the piece explores how the sound field could be used to add and take away colour from a scene. The piece consists of a short rambling voice note to the writer by the sound designer, complete with diagetic music and sound, that has then been filtered to add to the emotion of the scene. This is the box.
Produced by Oliver Morris
The Farage Files
Fin Kennedy (UK 2025)
Fin Kennedy (UK 2025)
18 min
An AI-assisted comedy podcast series featuring a voice clone of Reform UK leader Nigel Farage in conversation with Applied Stories' artistic director Fin Kennedy. Note: some content NSFW or under 16s!
Written, produced and edited by Fin Kennedy