Sonic Tapestries x Threads Radio
Sonic Tapestries was born in 2017 as a weekly radio show on the campus student radio at my university. After lectures, labs and libraries had run their course, I enjoyed staying late in the studios alone - dimming the lights and just playing music to an empty space and an invisible audience. At the time I was deep into reading the Tao Te Ching and became fascinated by the essence of Tao and its notion of universal flow. Things just falling into place. Not looking, nor searching, but just observing and acting upon that which is passing through. This was really the idea that inspired the radio show I sought to create - as a way of sharing the music that flowed through me on my path…
Creating and committing to producing a radio show became for me a ritual like practice that helped me to deepen my listening, appreciation and awareness of artists, labels and genres that I encountered. I never wanted to pigeonhole the style of music I played out, like THIS IS THIS... it was just Sonic Tapestries. You get a little bit of whatever came my way at that time… a band I liked here, a song I heard there - like a satellite capture that printed its findings. I took the show to Resonance FM when I started working there as a studio engineer and they programmed me in for a cosy late night spot from 10pm til midnight. Two hours of blissful seclusion, once a month, sat in the small broadcasting studio tucked amongst the South London nightscape. A vigil for those seeking exploration and restoration.
Recording an early Sonic Tapestries episode in the Resonance FM London studios.
As the show grew in popularity and a steady listenership formed, I started recording the shows remotely at home - working to enhance the production with greater control, opening up my creative approach to DJing, editing and sound design. I wanted to move away from the traditional role of the radio DJ/presenter. I didn’t care much for the stop/start nature of radio broadcasts, nor did I want to create a presence that absorbed the listener’s attention toward myself and away from the music. I focused on transitional shifts and blends between tracks that would create an engaging listening experience.
“The effect of recording is that it takes music out of the time dimension and puts it in the space dimension” - Brian Eno
Inspired by these words from the ambient sage discussing his practice of using the studio as a compositional tool, I consider the environment in which we listen to music to have such an inherent and pivotal effect on how we perceive it. What has given me great comfort working with radio as a medium is that it connects you with a community which values listening as an activity. Whether you are tuning in regularly to a favourite show or just casually dropping by - that moment is a coming together of time from two different dimensions - an overlap between the dimension in which you find yourself in and the dimension being transmitted as sound over the radio. It’s like a switching of the lens through which we see the world around us. We settle, we feel, we slow down and suddenly that thought that held us is gone. We just let ourself go enough to tilt slightly out of orbit for a second… and listen. Cosmic stuff.
With Sonic Tapestries, I hope to create a space that people return to for this connection. 69 episodes to date and I’ve had the pleasure of welcoming some wonderful, inspiring guests amongst them - Hinako Omori, House of Mythology, Deptford Northern Soul Club, Vague Imaginaires... if you’re curious, you can find them all by visiting my archive here or via the Sonic Tapestries Mixcloud page.
This year the show enters into its 8th year of broadcasting, and with that, a new relationship with the London based station Threads. It’s a great community project and one that I hope to become more involved with as we grow into 2024.
-This latest episode was broadcast last Wednesday 3rd January 2024 at 21:30 UK time. Check it out below-
If you’d like to share your music with me for airtime or want to propose a guest feature for an upcoming episode - don’t hesitate to reach out:
sonictapestries@gmail.com
🌻🌻🌻
Mat
TRACKLIST
CAT TYSON HUGHES - Roses In The Casement Window (ROSES IN THE CASEMENT WINDOW) - Quiet Details - quiet details
PYUR - Intersections (LUCID ANARCHY) - Subtext Recordings - Lucid Anarchy, by PYUR 03:18
WIL BOLTON - Sandalwood (NULL POINT) - The Slow Music Movement - Null Point, by Wil Bolton 06.40
INFANT - Nest (SIGLA, SONE) - Warm Winters Ltd - sigla, sone, by Infant- 12.50
NIECY BLUES - Soma (EXIT SIMULATION) - Kranky - Exit Simulation, by Niecy Blues -15.50
KLAUS WIESE - Invocation II-I (BARAKA) - Black Sweat Records - Baraka, by Klaus Wiese - *21.42
HANNIBAL CHEW IV - (LOROS LOCOS (SINFON Í AS DESTROZADAS EN TENERIFE) - Discrepant - La Revuelta de los Loros Loros Locos (Sinfonías Destrozadas en Tenerife), by Hannibal Chew IV-27.48
PURELINK - Pinned (SIGNS) - Peak Oil - Signs, by Purelink- 36.08
SLOWFOAM - Playfully Rendered (WORLDING WITH EARTH) - Mappa Editions - Worlding With Earth, by Slowfoam - 42.04
PANGHALINA - Glass Lake (LAVA) - Room40 - Lava, by Panghalina- 44.08
AROOJ AFTAB - Mohabbat (VULTURE PRINCE) - New Amsterdam Records -Vulture Prince, by Arooj Aftab- 49.28
DANIEL BACHMAN - Leaves Lying On Each Side (WHEN THE ROSES COME AGAIN) - Three Lobed Recordings - When The Roses Come Again, by Daniel Bachman- 56.50
SAM DUNSCOMBE - O (TWO FORESTS/OCEANIC) - Black Truffle - Two Forests/Oceanic, by Sam Dunscombe - 1:02:08
NICE GIRL - Take Me Home (LOOK AT THAT THING) - Public Possession - Look At That Thing, by Nice Girl- 1:08:38
DADAWAH - Know How You Stand (PEACE AND LOVE - WADADASOW) - Antarctica Starts Here - https://boomkat.com/products/peace-and-love-271af980-28e0-4dea-b0df-bcadf9f6806c - 1:12:50
HIROSHI YOSHIMURA - Time Forest (SURROUND) - Temporal Drift - Surround, by Hiroshi Yoshimura - 1:22:36