XMTR #21: Samuel Robinson's audio world

XMTR Radio Hour

This Transmitter Radio Hour is a selection of audio works chosen by sound artist, musician and audio maker Samuel Robinson who joins Lucia in conversation as they discuss what audio works bring him joy, as well as unpacking some of the current podcast tropes, listening in on some heart- felt conversations and joining some dots between Sam’s life in the US and the UK through sound.

1. Captain Maurice Seddon - May i explain explain my situation?

In the words of william english “captain maurice seddon was a highly unusual and inventive person who took an uncompromising stance on life”. he was the inventor of heated clothing, and made many media appearances in the 1980’s to promote them.

Seddon recorded his phone calls, this piece is one of 12 from the collection ‘the seddon tapes vol. 1’ put together by his friend William English in 2017 and released on paradigm discs.

2. Emily Naylor - Untitled

This is a piece a friend (Emily) sent me a while ago and recently remembered. Emily made it while doing a radio masters at Goldsmiths.

3. The onion - A very fatal murder (episode 1)
It’s such a clever send up of the true crime ‘genre’ of podcast spawned by the success of serial. it nails it. I listened to this first in 2018 (i think when it came out) and yet despite it feeling so played out then i’ve noticed the production of podcasts with the approach of this podcast is parodying only increase!

4. Everything is alive - Grain of sand (inspector sands clip)
This clip is taken is an interview with a grain of sand called chioke. each episode of EIA (or those i’ve heard) has an intermission of sorts that features a short segment that is tangentially linked to the primary interview. in this episode the link is the ‘inspector sands’ announcement used at train stations to alert staff to a fire without scaring the public.
Hosted by Ian Chillag, produced by Jennifer Mills
Listen to the whole episode

5. Samuel Robinson - Driving to the airport with Larissa
Very few people make me really laugh but Larissa is one of them. in 2021 she gave me a lift to the airport and started talking to the GPS which made me laugh. I wanted to capture the moment, to document our friendship and its dynamic. I started recording on my watch (i think), and a few months later when home I cut it up and paired with a piece of music i’d made at some point.

6. Raw sounds podcast (cultural exchange segment)

In early 2019 i worked with a group of people at raw material’s raw sounds project to develop their creative audio production skills. It was pitched to me as a podcast course, but there’s so many different types of podcasts, and this group had disparate interests and needs. I chose to work to each week support them to develop skills with interviewing, recording, editing, music production, critical thinking, scripting, ideation, etc. we would record what we did each week with the view to edit it together ultimately to create our own podcast. I have a very good friend who worked as a teacher in Sonoma county, California with a group of younger people with varying special needs. i proposed we do a ‘cultural exchange’, in which members of each group would ask and answer each others questions — the results of which i edited together and assembled over a piece of music composed by someone in my group.