Show #2573 - Saturday 23rd December 2023
'Peace Transmission Module' a foreword
Listen via BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001tpyw (for 4 weeks from Saturday 23rd December 2023).
PLEASE NOTE: This isn’t an official BBC / BBC Wales post. All words / opinions expressed here are my own.
Happy Christmas / Nadolig Llawen. I hope you’re enjoying the festivities and getting to spend time with your loved ones, however best warms the heart of your Chrimbo cockles.
I’m going to finish the year with two programmes on tape. Not that they are actually ‘on tape’. 6 hours worth of 1/4” reel-to-reel would set you back hundreds of pounds, these days. I know this because last year I chose to try and record a follow up to ‘Afal’ live and to tape, bought myself a secondhand Sony tape machine, and then wore out the only tape I could find (i.e. beg) by being a bit shit.
Perhaps there should be an exam to pass before you’re allowed to use up finite and dwindling sonic resources?
Anyway. These two programmes will celebrate much (but not all) of my favourite Welsh music in two distinct chapters.
Chapter One, this coming Saturday night (23rd December), is a gathering of the more meditative, downtempo and transcendental Welsh recordings I have played on the radio in 2023. I don’t know whether imbuing calm was the intention of any of these artists, in fact, some of the recordings are atonal, challenging and noisy… but a sense of wonder and tranquility is the intended overall effect, if you have an opportunity to listen through.
I wanted to weave together a multi-hued, pan-timbral tapestry of music because I’m bit of a pretentious git, but also because I needed something peaceful to escape into given the plughole the world appears to be trying to force itself down at double quick pace.
More details on that plughole (from my perspective) are here. Approach with caution if you’re Laurence Fox, Andrew Tate or think ‘woke’ is a valid insult, while the world burns around you.
I’m not glib enough to believe that any of the challenges threatening the us are going to be cured or halted by good intentions and / or musical creativity but I am evangelical in the belief that reminding ourselves of the beauty we as a species are capable of, especially in times of horror and powerlessness, can be a relief, and inspirational, even empowering.
No music will stop a missile falling on an innocent family in Gaza, or Syria, or Ukraine, or in a depressing number of other besieged countries, but what will ever stop the injustices some humans feel necessary to perpetrate on others?
‘Peace Transmission Module’ is a secular and sonic expression of the festive maxim “peace on earth, good will to all humans”. It shimmers with world class Welsh music-making across electronics, orchestral instrumentation, acoustics, field recordings, organic tone poems, heartfelt simple recordings, music rescued from historical archives, music so new it can barely walk.
The genres are blurred, with ambient, folk, dreampop, jazz, dub, shoegaze, baroque, experimental, choral, trip hop - and many more - all providing vaguely useful signposts to tempt you in.
It’s the most production intensive programme I’ve ever put together and as close to ‘art’ as I’ll ever get as a radio monkey. There’s a concept about artificial intelligence strung through the broadcast which I may regret - for its archness - in future years. But right now, celebrating human expression through an imagined AI entity seems like quite a good joke. And it may remain funny, until an algorithm that’s less wordy, belligerent and ‘expensive’ (relative to algorithms) takes my job.
Of course the artists responsible for the music we’ll hear are the focus of our worship. ‘Peace Transmission Module’ is a temple to their creativity and gracious humanity, and it’s open to all, regardless of the details that are too often used to polarise us.
Well, it’s open to anyone who has a radio or a BBC log-in.
Chapter Two of my end of year programmes, a Best of Welsh Bangers (I have succumbed to that terrible word!), follows on the 30th December. More on that in due course. Sorry!
Have a good Christmas. Nadolig Llawen.
Thank you for your ears, your eyes, your time and your interest over the last 12 months. Without you, this programme is nothing.
Heddwch x
THIS WEEK’S PLAYLIST
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Diolch o galon,
Adam Walton