The Night Watchman

Fatherland

A daughter writes an audio letter to her father as she unfurls a story of his life. By Amelia Umuhire for Deutschlandfunk Kultur (2018)   “There’s a picture from a time when you are wearing a short-sleeved striped shirt and with a plastic cup in your hand are toasting with a friend. You’re smiling and … Continue reading "Fatherland"

Pointing at Canopus

By Arif Mirbaghi for Constellations (2020) Pointing At Canopus was composed by Arif Mirbaghi and edited by Michelle Macklem and Jess Shane. It was made with the voices of over a dozen friends. Special thanks to Michael Eckert for his pedal steel improvisation and Parva Karkhaneh for her patient guidance. The tortoise, you know, carries his house on his back. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot leave home. – The Anvār-i Suhaylī or Lights of Canopus Arif writes: Pointing At Canopus is a meditation on the nature of home, not in the brick-and-mortar sense, but the broader idea: a place of rest. Children of immigrants often separately compartmentalize these ideas. Home is a place we live but heritage is a space we occupy. There is a daily pivot between the cadences of interaction with our family and those of our friends or co-workers. Inevitably the lines blur, and as individuals we find ourselves on different points along a gradient. Coming to Iran reversed this pivot for me. The language of my home life suddenly spilled out in the streets, flooded my conversations, my day to day. For the first time I was utilizing Farsi beyond the comfort of my family home— I became a Farsi speaker. At the same time, English became a place of thoughtful saudade. I would be lulled to sleep by audiobooks. The meter and ornamentation of the language felt familiar but distant like a kind of reverb— I became an English listener. Pointing At Canopus explores the waxing and waning of home and heritage. I hope to evoke in listeners a sense of transit. A feeling neither here nor there. The idea that home is the pivot, not the point. Sounds of moving vehicles. Extra-lingual umms & ahhs while a speaker connects sentences. ‘Here’ is a space, but ‘there’ is a mythology, a fable. We orbit our fables like atoms around a nucleus. Wherever we go, there we are again. https://www.instagram.com/arif.mirbaghi/?hl=en is a Canadian-born composer & arranger based in Tehran. He has performed with dozens of ensembles throughout the world, in styles varying from folk, jazz, progressive rock, and beyond. His work explores the relationship of disconnection and reconnection for communities in the diaspora. More from Arif on his https://soundcloud.com/arif_mirbaghi/ and on https://open.spotify.com/artist/6Wb83U4p7eQ7zaKovAW6cU.

When I Touched the Ground

A woman tells the story of her own birth. By Nyurpaya Kaika Burton and Caddie Brain (2019) Nyurpaya was born deep in the desert of Central Australia. Her mother travelled hundreds of miles barefoot before giving birth alone at a massive desert mesa called Atila – a place which became her spiritual country. Nyurpaya Kaika Burton is a respected and revered senior artist, educator, storyteller and cultural leader. She is also one of the few remaining poetic speakers of Pitjantjatjara, a traditional Indigenous language of Central Australia’s remote Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. There were once more than 400 traditional languages spoken across the Australian continent, but only around 13 are still spoken by children – all threatened by policies restricting Aboriginal people from speaking their languages and the ongoing forces of colonisation. At the age of 70, she decided to share this deeply personal story of her birth, revealing, for the first time, the traditional birthing methods that have helped define her cultural life. Telling this story is part of her continuous work to protect her ancient culture, and to ensure that future generations can speak the language it lives in. The soundscape is binaural, specifically recorded on the country of Nyurpaya’s birth, in one of the most remote parts of Australia. Therefore the piece is best experienced through headphones. Produced by Nyurpaya Kaika Burton Sound, editing and co-production by https://www.caddiebrain.com/ Translation: Linda Rive Producing organisation: https://tjalaarts.com.au/ Supported by the https://www.australiacouncil.gov.au/ and https://www.irititja.com/. With thanks also to https://www.thirdcoastfestival.org/ where it was presented in 2019.

The Night Watchman

A night watchman walks alone through an Anatomic Institute. By Stephen Schwartz for DR (1971) A lonely walk in the dark, skeletons and floating body parts caught in the beam of a flashlight… in the ‘The Night Watchman’, Detroit-born Stephen Schwartz pioneers his landmark interview technique known as the ‘moments interview’ or the ‘full Schwartz’. You can learn more about it https://www.cbc.ca/radio/docproject/blog/the-schwartz-technique-how-to-get-vivid-colour-and-riveting-detail-from-your-interview-1.3938069. Stephen Schwartz was awarded the http://www.rai.it/prixitalia/ for features in 1982 and 1992. He passed away in 2013. Made in collaboration with DR – you can listen to https://www.dr.dk/bonanza/serie/302/montage/72403/nattevaegteren---the-night-watchman and more montages on their http://dr.dk/bonanza/serie/302/montage.

The Night Watchman

A night watchman walks alone through an Anatomic Institute. By Stephen Schwartz for DR (1971) A lonely walk in the dark, skeletons and floating body parts caught in the beam of a flashlight… in the ‘The Night Watchman’, Detroit-born Stephen Schwartz pioneers his landmark interview technique known as the ‘moments interview’ or the ‘full Schwartz’. You can learn more about it https://www.cbc.ca/radio/docproject/blog/the-schwartz-technique-how-to-get-vivid-colour-and-riveting-detail-from-your-interview-1.3938069. Stephen Schwartz was awarded the http://www.rai.it/prixitalia/ for features in 1982 and 1992. He passed away in 2013. Made in collaboration with DR – you can listen to https://www.dr.dk/bonanza/serie/302/montage/72403/nattevaegteren---the-night-watchman and more montages on their http://dr.dk/bonanza/serie/302/montage.