‘Asyrmatos’ (Mediterradio) is a radio special. Taking its name from the old neighbourhood of Athens – Ασύρματος, literally meaning ‘wireless’ or ‘radio’ – the program sounds out layers of history and Mediterranean relations. Asyrmatos is one of the 1922 settlements of Athens, a place made out of displacement. The neighbourhood called radio is our jumping off point, from which we move across cities, seas, dreams, and futures. The program is a sonic choreography of Athens and its relations to the sea: a sound-cycle, an intercity symphony, a feedback loop. Athens is both transmitter and receiver. We turn the city into a sea and the sea into a radio.
Written and produced by Tom Western, with Becka Wolfe and Kareem Alkabbani (Syrian and Greek Youth Forum).
Painting by Etel Adnan.
A longer version of this piece was first broadcast on Movement Radio on Sunday 30 April 2023.
TRACKLIST
- NIKOS SKALKOTTAS (COMPOSER) / LORENDA RAMOU (PIANO) Island Images
- THE SYRIAN AND GREEK YOUTH FORUM Mediterradio (Alexandria – Nablus – Damascus – Athens)
- TOM WESTERN Aegean Theory (A Sea Poem)*
- NIKOS SKALKOTTAS (COMPOSER) / ICELAND SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (PERFORMER) The Sea
- MIKIS THEODORAKIS Aniliaga Stena
- THANOS MIKROUTSIKOS (TOM WESTERN SYNTH MESS) Esmeralda
- KAREEM ALKABBANI & BECKA WOLFE Haddi Ya Bahr Haddi
- ELENI KARAINDROU (COMPOSER) / CAMERATA ORCHESTRA (PERFORMER) Farewell Theme
- HAILU MERGIA Yefikir Engurguro
* ‘Aegean Theory (A Sea Poem)’ from the tracklist contains references to the article ‘Seaward: The Sound of Eros and an Athenian Avenue to the Aegean’ by Phoebe Giannisi, the essay ‘The Greek Archipelago – A Far-Flung City’ by Spyros Asdrahas, and the book Sea and Fog by Etel Adnan
Undercartographies 