All-American Ruins: Sunset Town

Blake Pfeil (US 2024)

6 min

A multimedia travelogue where Blake Pfeil recounts experiences exploring abandoned spaces across the United States and reimagines them through multimodal storytelling.

The cornerstone piece of the project is abandoned: The All-American Ruins Podcast, an award-winning audio series which guides listeners through immersive sonic fantasies, recreating experiences exploring abandoned spaces across the United States and around the world. Along the way, the show asks critical questions about American history and culture, community, capitalism and economics, the environment, and mental health while encouraging folks to activate their imaginations as a tool for healing.

The show was recently featured as an Official Select at On Air Fest in Los Angeles, California. The finale for season two is the most personal journal yet. In the episode, which takes place at an abandoned brewery in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Blake reflects on his journey to sobriety, and how his spiritual connection to abandoned places pulled him through the darkest time in his life

Produced by Blake Pfeil
Music by Jakob Ahlbom, Anna Dager, Hanna Ekström, Sarah, the Illstrumentalist

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Dimetapp

Olga Gonithellis (US 2023)

Olga Gonithellis Composer & Songwriter · Scoring for Podcast Story Score: "Dimetapp"

2 min

A young child can't resist the sweet grape flavor of Dimetapp cold medicine, and nearly overdoses. This autobiographical short story, written by Janet Lawrence, is revisited through a comedic lens, and told through the perspective of the young child.

Produced by Olga Gonithellis
Music written by Olga Gonithellis

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Crush Tango

Eloïse Bertil (UK, 2024)

4 min

A story about a crush at a rooftop bar during a solo trip. This short audio piece explores romantic body language cues, examining the intricate choreography of a girl-meets-boy scenario and its translatability across cultures. Blending personal experiences with fictional elements, the narrative contemplates flirting as a universal language, where every gesture (or move) carries significant meaning—or at least, one hopes it does.

Produced by Eloïse Bertil around a field recording from the Cities & Memory sound database for their Spring Project.

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XMTR Radio Hour Ep30: Ed Baxter (Resonance FM)

Produced by Social Broadcasts (UK 2024)

60 min / Episode 30 of 30

This XMTR (Transmitter) Radio Hour is a conversation with Ed Baxter who has recently stepped down as Resonance FM creative director after being at the helm for over 22 years. Ed has selected a number of audio works that he initiated, directed or produced during this time, with a common theme of 'creating the conditions for something to happen'. These radio experiments are a wonderful example of what occurs when this medium is stretched and contorted,  allowing for the unexpected whist setting out imaginative parameters.

Works included are:
Score for Open-heart Surgery on Charlie Watts
Shut Your Eyes to Art
SpeedDataRadio
The Exeter Whisper
Fifth Sketch for Ascent and Descent
Intimacy and Distance
Millions Flee as California Burns

XMTR Radio Hour Produced by Lucia Scazzocchio

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The Ecco: Red of Visibility

Phoebe McIndoe (DE 2024)

7 min

Growing up I went to a catholic primary school where the school emblem and colour was red. We had a visiting doctor who would see us in the head mistress' study without our red uniforms on. In this red space I had my first experience of bad touch. Or as I now call it, sexual assault. This piece is an attempt, years later, to explore and reclaim the colour red.

THE ECCO is an international non-commercial initiative designed to tug at the boundaries of the world of audio storytelling, journalism, and documentary work. We bring together talents in different parts of the world — journalists, sound designers, audio producers, sound artists, & writers— all united by a common goal: to push themselves and each other out of their work-related comfort zones and explore the different shapes audio documentaries can take, where they may intersect with art and what the impact of such playful exploration can have.

This was made during an immersive retreat where a curated group of talents collaborate, experiment, and support each other in crafting audio projects that are as diverse as they are profound

Produced by Phoebe McIndoe

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The Ecco: Wasting Time

Yannic Hannebohn (DE 2024)

9 min

Yannic’s biggest fear is to relax at home. And so he did the impossible.

THE ECCO is an international non-commercial initiative designed to tug at the boundaries of the world of audio storytelling, journalism, and documentary work. We bring together talents in different parts of the world — journalists, sound designers, audio producers, sound artists, & writers— all united by a common goal: to push themselves and each other out of their work-related comfort zones and explore the different shapes audio documentaries can take, where they may intersect with art and what the impact of such playful exploration can have.

This was made during an immersive retreat where a curated group of talents collaborate, experiment, and support each other in crafting audio projects that are as diverse as they are profound

Produced by Yannic Hannebohn

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The Ecco: The Vibrator

Allison Behringer (DE 2024)

10 min

What happens when an old woman and a young woman walk into a sex toy shop?

THE ECCO is an international non-commercial initiative designed to tug at the boundaries of the world of audio storytelling, journalism, and documentary work. They bring together talents in different parts of the world — journalists, sound designers, audio producers, sound artists, & writers— all united by a common goal: to push themselves and each other out of their work-related comfort zones and explore the different shapes audio documentaries can take, where they may intersect with art and what the impact of such playful exploration can have.

This was made during an immersive retreat where a curated group of talents collaborate, experiment, and support each other in crafting audio projects that are as diverse as they are profound

Written and Produced by Allison Behringer
Voice performance and script advising by Kelly Elsasser
Advising and story editing by Jamin Bauomy, Luisa Beck, Lena Von Holt, Phoebe McIndoe and Sara Zarreh
Music by Dara Hirsch
Mastering by Jeff Emtman.

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The Ecco: Take an Acorn from Your Past Life and Plant it

Marta Medveșek (DE 2024)

10 min

A piece about nature, and the nature of letting go. In dialogue with Shel Silverstein’s The Giving Tree and Mary Oliver’s Instructions for living a life.

THE ECCO is an international non-commercial initiative designed to tug at the boundaries of the world of audio storytelling, journalism, and documentary work. We bring together talents in different parts of the world — journalists, sound designers, audio producers, sound artists, & writers— all united by a common goal: to push themselves and each other out of their work-related comfort zones and explore the different shapes audio documentaries can take, where they may intersect with art and what the impact of such playful exploration can have.

This was made during an immersive retreat where a curated group of talents collaborate, experiment, and support each other in crafting audio projects that are as diverse as they are profound

Produced by Marta Medveșek
Featuring Hana Medvešek Ujaković, Milena Matijević Medvešek and 참나무. Additional voices Matko Jovanović and Medvešeki.

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The Ecco: This, a Million Times

Colin Shea (DE 2024)

10 min

How much control do you really have over your own mind? A story about OCD, PANDAS, and what happens when a brain changes itself overnight.

THE ECCO is an international non-commercial initiative designed to tug at the boundaries of the world of audio storytelling, journalism, and documentary work. We bring together talents in different parts of the world — journalists, sound designers, audio producers, sound artists, & writers— all united by a common goal: to push themselves and each other out of their work-related comfort zones and explore the different shapes audio documentaries can take, where they may intersect with art and what the impact of such playful exploration can have.

This was made during an immersive retreat where a curated group of talents collaborate, experiment, and support each other in crafting audio projects that are as diverse as they are profound

Produced by Colin Shea

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The Ecco: Margery

Sara Zarreh Hoshyari Khah (DE 2024)

8min

What happens if someone finds your autobiography and republishes only very specific parts? And what if that almost ends up being the only version? A story about a selective monk, a lucky pingpong match and a woman who's not afraid to cry in public.

THE ECCO is an international non-commercial initiative designed to tug at the boundaries of the world of audio storytelling, journalism, and documentary work. We bring together talents in different parts of the world — journalists, sound designers, audio producers, sound artists, & writers— all united by a common goal: to push themselves and each other out of their work-related comfort zones and explore the different shapes audio documentaries can take, where they may intersect with art and what the impact of such playful exploration can have.

This was made during an immersive retreat where a curated group of talents collaborate, experiment, and support each other in crafting audio projects that are as diverse as they are profound

Producer: Sara Zarreh Hoshyari Khah

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