beneath the stream – Details, episodes & analysis

Around the world there are over 100 human names that mean ‘The Sun’; perhaps the clearest evidence of us humans being inspired by, and acknowledging the significance of, a 4.5 billion-year-old yellow dwarf star, a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core.

Its benevolence and its destructive capacity affect all aspects of our being, our cultures, our artworks, and take The Sun away and Polar Night makes us sad, detached, without energy, struggling to concentrate, struggling to stay awake. Give us too much of it and we cannot survive its power.

 

With music from Colin Williams

 

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Equinox

Rush

2001 A Space Odyssey

Richard Strauss ‘Sunrise’

Sun Studio

RKO Pictures

Isla Santa Catalina

Helios

U2

Kiribati

Hopi

New Mexico

Mexico FIFA 1986

Serotonin

The Road - Cormac McCarthy

Carrington Event

Svalbard

Carl Nielson

A high tide coming

Will eat the land

A tide no breakwaters can withstand.

Act 1 Scene 1 Peter Grimes, Op. 33 Benjamin Britten, libretto Montagu Slater

On a cold winter's day, we go down to a river that becomes the sea and, in an exploration of the complex human relations with the tide, we go with the ‘ebb and flow’, feel the currents, watch the high water mark and study what gets cast up. We are waiting to see what the tide brings and what it takes away; especially at this time in human history. 

With music from Colin Williams.

‘JUST AS THE TIDE WAS FLOWING’ BY JON BODEN. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST https://www.jonboden.com 

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

River Alde 

Benjamin Britten 

Corhampton 

Svalbard 

Moby Duck

Wild Man of Orford 

Wadden Sea 

Just as the Tide was Flowing 

Isle of Iona 

Dunwich

Woodhenge 

Doggerland 

Cockles

Julius Caesar; William Shakespeare

Food can be about more than taste, it can be about the gathering and that when you ‘spend a lot of time in Nature you have another relationship with it’. In this episode we learn much, especially about the uses of Arctic plants, from a joyous conversation with Eva Gunnare, who has made her home in Jokkmokk, a place that is the heart of indigenous Sami culture in Sweden. 

Unlike may of us, the Sami have had a different connection to the land: they use it but do not own it and work together to make a living. Indigenous peoples can have deep-rooted traditions of using plants for medicine and food - a tradition where the difference between survival food and base food is knowledge, knowledge that can be lost but can also be kept alive.

Eva guides tours and gives ‘taste performances’ and you can find out more at her website. Eva's 'Rose' song: 

"My rose, my lily, I would like to share every day of my life with you. When I have become gray, I have spent every day of my life with you".   A love song that I usually dedicate my life in Jokkmokk with plants, people, forests and all.

INTRODUCTORY MUSIC BY EVA GUNNARE. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST

All other music by Colin Williams

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Sámi  Jokkmokk  Stockholm  Kvikkjokk  Mountain Sorrel  Padjelanta National Park  Goahti turf hut  Alpine Bistort  Wild Angelica   Rowan  Birch  Rosebay Willowherb  Reindeer  Scots Pine  Cloudberry  Arctic Bramble  Bilberry  Bog Bilberry  Joik   Noiadi / Shaman  Nettles   Dandelion  Meadowsweet  Glögg 

“Only the mountain has lived long enough to listen objectively to the howl of a wolf”, Aldo Leopold. Prejudices, storytelling, popular culture and medieval demonisation populate the landscape we have created for the wolf; one that often bears little resemblance to the harsh and diverse landscapes they actually call home.

However, it is as a non-human creature that can seem all too human in its habits, that we humans seem to struggle the most. In this podcast we ponder the history of our relationship with wolves, the detail of how they live and where, the motifs we have created and how they live alongside us, and increasingly so. What is our future alongside wolves? What is the wolf’s future alongside us?

MUSIC BY COLIN WILLIAMS

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Yellowstone National Park Theodore Roosevelt Aldo Leopold David Mech Doug Smith Jim Halfpenny Dan Hartman Red Hot Chilli Peppers Rudyard Kipling Nunamiut Inupiat of Alaska Blackfoot Confederacy Pawnee Zuni Fenrir Lupa romana Little Red Riding Hood Aesop’s Fables Three Little Pigs Big Bad Wolf  Of Wolves and Men - Barry Lopez The Great American Wolf - Bruce Hampton The Grey - Liam Neeson Werewolves of London - Warren Zevon The Colour of Money Sasquatch An American Werewolf in London Rietschen  Trophic cascade E O Wilson Ed Bangs

“Long ago when animals could speak …”. In this episode we explore the boundary lines between non-human species and ourselves, boundary lines that many indigenous peoples - and our ancestors - did not see, and the ability, or not for communication to pass across that boundary. Today, for western society, it is only in children’s novels that animals can speak and be heard.

So much is invested by animals in the biology of communication and we can teach creatures about human communication but is it inconceivable that they have an ability to speak to us in their form? In maintaining scientific distance do we only allowed artists and musicians to show us that other species have ‘language’ and we should not treat the non-human as less than ourselves?

 

THEME MUSIC BY DAVID ROTHENBERG. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST http://www.davidrothenberg.net 

TOGETHER WITH ADDITIONAL MUSIC IN THIS EPISODE BY DAVID ROTHENBERG

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Sitting Bull https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sitting_Bull  Tales from Ovid - Ted Hughes https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tales_from_Ovid  Chaser - border collie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaser_(dog)  Kanzi - bonobo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanzi  Raven https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raven Greater Honeyguide https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_honeyguide Red-tailed Hawk https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_hawk  Watership Down https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watership_Down  The Jungle Book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle_Book  The Chronicles of Narnia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chronicles_of_Narnia  John Masefield https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Masefield Sperm Whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sperm_whale  Orca or Killer Whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale  Blue Whale https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale  Corky https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corky_(killer_whale)  David Rothenberg http://www.davidrothenberg.net Thousand Mile Song https://www.theguardian.com/books/2008/jun/07/scienceandnature Birds Why Birds Sing https://www.theguardian.com/books/2005/dec/10/featuresreviews.guardianreview5  Bug Music https://www.bugmusicbook.com  Eisteddfod https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eisteddfod  Jim Nollman https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Nollman  Dolphin Dreamtime http://www.doyletics.com/_arj1/dolphind.htm  Kamchatka https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamchatka_Peninsula  Henry Beston https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Beston  Tree networks https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-whispering-trees-180968084/  Plants and sound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plant_bioacoustics  Himalayan Balsam https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impatiens_glandulifera  David Abram https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Abram Becoming Animal https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/318/becoming-animal-by-david-abram/  Prince Charles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles,_Prince_of_Wales  Real Magic - Dean Radin https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/551604/real-magic-by-dean-radin-phd/  Day of the Triffids - John Wyndham https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_of_the_Triffids  Evelyn Glennie https://www.evelyn.co.uk  Monica Gagliano https://www.monicagagliano.com  Plant Consciousness https://www.plantconsciousness.com  Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal World - Stephen Harrod Buhner https://www.stephenharrodbuhner.com/about/  Kurukindi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZ77sYSqD6o 

The human and the non-human claim rivers as their own. By the banks of the River Kennet we conjour with our thoughts and experiences of rivers waters, along with those of a diverse cast of that includes: Roger Deakin, Bruce Springsteen, Norman Maclean, Masuru Emoto, Feargal Sharkey, Icy Sedgewick, Lewis Mumford, Michael Harner, Bedřich Smetana and Joseph Conrad.

We take in the travels, contours, myths, creatures, stories and spirits of rivers such as the: Awash, Tigris, Indus, Yellow, Nile, Danube, Amazon, Alde, Namada, Volga, Boyne, Crystal, Laxa, Congo, Moldau, Tana, and Everglades. We fight over them, deify them, we use them and misuse them, and yet what runs through them, because of us and despite us, is the the lifeblood of our world.

THEME MUSIC BY DAVID ROTHENBERG. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST http://www.davidrothenberg.net 

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

 

The River Kennet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Kennet  Water Crowfoot https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranunculus_aquatilis  Water Vole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_water_vole Grass Snake https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grass_snake  Reed Bunting https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_reed_bunting  Brown Trout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_trout Brook Lamprey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brook_lamprey Crayfish https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austropotamobius_pallipes Mayfly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfly Caddisfly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caddisfly Awash River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Awash_River River Tigris https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigris River Indus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indus_River Yellow River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_River River Nile https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nile River Danube https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danube  River Amazon https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_River River Alde https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Alde  Emperor Claudius https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claudius  Boudicca https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boudica  Pied Kingfisher https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pied_kingfisher  Water Monitor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asian_water_monitor  Lewis Mumford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Mumford  River Namada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narmada_River  River Volga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volga_River  Isis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isis  River Boyne https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/River_Boyne  Kelpie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelpie  Morgan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgen_(mythological_creature)  Personhood for rivers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_personhood  Animism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animism  Roger Deakin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Deakin  West Indian Manatee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Indian_manatee  Crystal River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_River,_Florida  The Salmon of Knowledge https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salmon_of_Knowledge  Laxa https://www.nat.is/laxa-river/  Kushtaka, Tlingit https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kushtaka  Selkie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Selkie  Amazon River Dolphin https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_river_dolphin  The Grindylow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grindylow  Icy Sedgewick http://www.icysedgwick.com  Peg Powla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peg_Powler  Hamish Henderson https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hamish_Henderson  Goðafoss https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goðafoss  Michael Harner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Harner  Mircia Eliade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mircea_Eliade  Achuar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Achuar  The Fighting Temeraire https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fighting_Temeraire  Heart of Darkness https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_Darkness  River Congo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_River  Apocalypse Now https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apocalypse_Now  Bruce Springsteen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Springsteen  The River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_River_(Bruce_Springsteen_album)  Bedřich Smetana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bedřich_Smetana  River Moldau https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vltava  Baiji https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiji  Masuru Emoto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masaru_Emoto  Chlorpyrifos https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorpyrifos Chalk streams https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chalk_stream  Feargal Sharkey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feargal_Sharkey  River Tana https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tana_(Norway)  Everglades https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everglades  Okavango https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okavango_Delta  Daintree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daintree_Rainforest  Cantabria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cantabria  Norman Maclean https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Maclean 

How do we each respond to the environmental alarms that are being sounded by climate, nature, youth and the ocean? In this episode we feature interviews with Roger Hardy and Rhett Griffiths - wave-tossed thoughts from the tideline of the North Sea - plus a recording of Rhett’s epic poem ‘The Tipping Tide’.

Artists suggest different ways of seeing the world and, in response to these issues and as part of Siren Festival in 2019, artist and sculptor Roger Hardy created a powerful installation and multiple figurative sculptural piece on Aldeburgh beach entitled ‘Time and Tide’. He also created ‘Lookout’, a human figure gazing out at the sea from the South Beach Lookout. Here was also installed - in written form and in audio recoding - ‘The Tipping Tide’, a poem by Rhett Griffiths.

With extracts of Colin singing ‘Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy’, we explore what the sea says to us.

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Rhett Griffiths

poem - The Tipping Tide

Roger Hardy 

Siren Festival   Roger Hardy’s ‘Time and Tide’  Roger Hardy and Rhett Griffiths’ 'Lookout' and 'Tipping Tide'   Lancaster  Dawlish   Aldeburgh Festival  Suffolk  Devi Singh   Heathcote Williams   Benjamin Britten  South Beach Lookout   Greta Thunberg   School strikes   Mudlarking   Felixstowe 

An archetype, a creature that we impose human ideas, ideals, values and characteristics upon. An unknowable, untouchable creature of the dark, whose call provokes fear and awe. A silent, surreptitious, living breathing feathered predator, whose beyond-human abilities allow it to master the night and span almost every habitat on Earth. Which of these is Owl for you?

As a family of birds, owls are all of these and more, and we explore their role in human culture from 30,000 years ago to the present day, as well as sharing tales of owl encounters around the globe. Evil messenger and harbinger of Death? Wise councillor and friend from childhood literature? Owl can be what each of us bring to it but is also master of its world.

THEME MUSIC BY DAVID ROTHENBERG. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST http://www.davidrothenberg.net 

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Forest Eagle Owl  Sinharaja, Sri Lanka  Pliny the Elder Tengmalm’s Owl Florence Nightingale Pablo Picasso Winnie the Pooh Bagpuss   Tawny Owl   Eric Hosking   Ural Owl   Sir David Attenborough   Hawk Owl   Saariselkä, Finland Little Owl   Chauvet Cave, France   Eurasian Scops Owl   Athena   Harry Potter   Western Screech Owl   Hopi   Sokoke Scops Owl, Kenya Aztec god of death   Cider with Rosie, Laurie Lee   Barn Owl   William Wordsworth   Tlingit   Egyptian Book of the Dead   Great Horned Owl Seminole Apache   The Secret Life of the Owl, John Lewis-Stempel   Great Grey Owl Barred Owl   Minnesota, USA   Eurasian Eagle Owl   Eurasian Pygmy Owl   Pel’s Fishing Owl   Blakiston’s Fish Owl   Snowy Owl Twin Peaks, David Lynch   The Messengers, Mike Clelland   Whitley Strieber   Owlman, Cornwall   The Mothman Prophecies, John Keel   Mark Twain   Elf Owl   Short-eared Owl Denmark   Öland, Sweden   Goldcrest “In a hole with an owl” The Fast Show  

“What avail are forty freedoms without a blank spot on the map?”, said writer Aldo Leopold, and in this episode we revisit what the human concept of wilderness means and where we might find it. Unmodified, unspoiled, on the edge? When in our history was the point when humans changed their view of wilderness?

With incidental music from Colin, we consider how wilderness means many differing things to different people - it is ‘home’ for some and hostile for others - and discuss what our view of it says about us. Is our definition derived from an International Union for the Conservation of Nature edict, or is it reflect - or even imposed - by the human approach to the way we make art? Ultimately, is wilderness still a valid notion or is it beyond our reach, beyond our gift to bestow, at a time when perhaps we need it more than ever?

THEME MUSIC BY DAVID ROTHENBERG. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. USED BY KIND PERMISSION OF THE ARTIST http://www.davidrothenberg.net 

Some of the ideas and references we make in this podcast can be found here:

Jane Smith  Darren Rees  Kitty Jones Chris Wallbank Julian Hoffman Beauchene Island, Falklands Bay of Biscay, France & Spain Pasvik Valley, Norway Unst, Shetland Spitsbergen Hoo Peninsular, England Dan Richards IUCN wilderness definition 1B Xia Gui - master chinese painter   Old Testament Paleolithic art Sicily rock art caves   Shan shui - master chinese painter    Thomas Moran The Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone (painting) The Sublime (artistic movement)   Sewell Newhouse (trap maker)   Industrial Revolution Snow Storm: Hannibal and his Army Crossing the Alps (painting by J. M. W. Turner) Smithsonian, Washington DC Aboriginal Australian art Shoshone Ansel Adams   BBC Planet Earth John Muir Bushcraft Aldo Leopold Annie Dillard Edward Abbey   Kvitøya Island, Svalbard Barry Lopez   Of Wolves and Men Jordan Bedouin All Things are Quite Silent (English folk song) Franklin Expedition  

The Sea ~ a prelude 

Summoning the spirit of a forthcoming full podcast on The Sea, we tease with Rhett Griffiths reading an extract from his poem ‘The Tipping Tide’ (more of the poem and an interview to come), Colin singing ‘Adieu Sweet Lovely Nancy’, plus wave-tossed thoughts recorded by the sea-washed shingle on the tideline of a grey North Sea.

All in rather lively STEREO by way of a change. Enjoy.