Transmissions
Shine A Light On The Darkness (In French, English and German)
Candice Savoyat (FR, 2025)
Candice Savoyat (FR, 2025)
53 min
80 years after the end of World War II, what remains?
Candice Savoyat retraces her family’s footsteps. First to Chemnitz, Germany, where her maternal grandmother was born to a Polish Jewish father, before fleeing to France. Then to Mauthausen, Austria, where her paternal great-grandfather, who had joined the Resistance, was deported.
By connecting these two family histories, she brings them into dialogue with the present, gathering the voices of strangers met along the way.
An intimate and universal journey, to be listened with headphones.
Producer by: Candice Savoyat
Music by: Amédée de Murcia
Mixing: Jules Wisocky
Translation: Céline Gay A Stim Matter production With the support of the City of Geneva, the FSRC, the Loterie Romande, and Phonurgia Nova as part of its annual support program for radio and sound projects
The Random Kindness of Strangers
Mairi Johnson (UK 2024)
Mairi Johnson (UK 2024)
27 min
A non-narrated piece which tells the story of a refugee's escape from Iran and journey to the UK in the early 1980s, focusing on the random kindness of strangers (and sometimes the lack thereof) encountered during the journey. This piece was originally conceived in the 'In the Dark' Audio course, 2024.
Produced by Mairi Johnson
Offleash
Terry Halbert (US 2025)
Terry Halbert (US 2025)
7 min
A woman walks 20 different dogs in a big park. None of them are leashed. She controls them with her voice, and tells why. Reveal at the end.
Produced by Terry Halbert
XMTR Festival Selects: 1001 Stabs
Lina Prestwood (UK, 2025)
Lina Prestwood (UK 2025)
8 min
To be born in Gaza is to be born already bleeding.
Before you take your first step, a blade is pressed gently, precisely, against your soul, the first of 1001 stabs
Produced by Lina Prestwood
Written in August 2025 by F. (Gaza)
Read by F. and Lyana Mansour (USA)
With thanks to Fatima Zahra Gahzli (Turkey)
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: Moving House, Moving Kitchen
Lucy Dearlove (2023)
Lucy Dearlove (2023)
35 min
This clip is a new mix from oral history recordings from 2013, Mary Hooper made for 'Last Station' a large scale Touring Project looking at the cultural history and legacy of UK Floating Lightships, devised by herself and Elise Liversedge .
Produced and presented by Lucy Dearlove for the podcast Lecker
XMTR Festival Selects: County Lines | Episode 1 | Their World
Phoebe McIndoe (UK 2024)
Phoebe Mcindoe (UK 2024)
41 min
This powerful and highly personal series investigates how criminal networks systematically exploit vulnerable young people, transforming them from ordinary schoolchildren into drug dealers through manipulation, violence, and trauma. An estimated 50,000 children in Britain have been groomed into county lines drug trafficking, yet their stories remain largely hidden.
In this first episode, Phoebe McIndoe hears from those caught in the web of county lines. Between the promise of quick money and the reality of extreme violence, we reveal how Britain's drug trade is being built on the backs of traumatized children, and why the system often fails to protect them.
Presented by Phoebe McIndoe
Produced by Redzi Bernard and Phoebe McIndoe
With original music by Phoebe McIndoe
A Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4
XMTR Festival Selects: Lightning Refuge
Kristina Loring (US 2025)
Kristina Loring (US 2025)
4 min
What are the gems that lie beneath the wounds? Ruha's family escaped violent riots in Colombo, Sri Lanka, in 1983, just three months before she was born. They were targeted because they were Tamil, the minority. Their successful survival could be seen as a string of coincidences, the result of deep human connections. Or was it the result of supernatural intervention?
This piece was created for The Golden Tape project by Kristina Loring, a mixtape of human essence where artists share their secretive and beloved pleasures, grief, ritual, and desires that they want to keep hidden from AI commodification.
Producer by: Kristina Loring
Voices: Ruha Devanesan and AJ Devanesan
XMTR Festival Selects: Transition
Kalli Anderson (US, 2023)
Kalli Anderson (US, 2023)
10 min
A multi-voice, experimental documentary featuring excerpts from SIMULA, an 8.2-channel sound installation by apè Aliermo and mixed and mastered by Rose Bolton. This composition includes sound recorded during three anonymous births and electromagnetic sound recorded in a hospital during one of the births. The voices you hear speaking are Redzi Bernard, Becky Kenna, Amy Macfarlane and Andrea Gummo.
Produced by Kalli Anderson, apè Aliermo and Rose Bolton
Edited by Eleanor McDowall
XMTR Festival Selects: Making Utopia
Mitra Kaboli (US 2025)
Mitra Kaboli (US 2025)
39 min
Making Utopia is an experimental oral history about Mount Lebanon in upstate New York. This story explores a single tract of land that has repeatedly drawn communities seeking to create their own perfect world.
The narrative weaves together the stories of five individuals from different eras and communities connected to this remarkable place. While Mount Lebanon is most famously known as the central ministry for The United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, more commonly known as The Shakers, the mountain's story extends far beyond this well-documented chapter.
Through these interconnected histories, Making Utopia investigates a compelling question: What mysterious qualities draw idealistic communities to this particular place, generation after generation?
Producer & Reporter: Mitra Kaboli
Production Manager & Editor: Jess Shane
Additional Editorial Support: Jackson Roach, Liza Yeager, and Signal Hill
Singers: Annabel Lee, Fiona Feng, Jacqui Cornetta, Kira Josefsson, Rider Alsop, Carly Richman, Savannah Strenz, Hanna Johansson, Sanna Samuelsson
Archival Audio Courtesy of Soundings Mindful Media archive, by Dean & Dudley Evenson.
Making Utopia is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.