This week’s selection comes from Michele Banal, Audio Project Cataloguer for Unlocking our Sound Heritage. The Kankurang is a Mandinka masked figure from the Senegambia region, associated with male societies and more specifically with boys’ initiation ceremonies. It is a protective figure and an enforcer of rules, but, as masked…

This week’s selection comes from Lucia Cavorsi, Audio Project Cataloguer for Unlocking our Sound Heritage. Between 1978 and 1994 the Institute of Contemporary Arts ran an annual series of contemporary music concerts called MusICA. Among the works programmed were those by Italian-born composer Giacinto Scelsi (1905-1988). Little known and ostracised…

Many of us find comfort in the sounds of the sea, particularly when we’re feeling anxious, stressed or overwhelmed. Though it’s not as easy as it was to just pack up and head to the coast, there are still always in which you can bring the sea to you. The…

This week’s selection comes from Harriet Roden, Digital Learning Content Developer for Unlocking our Sound Heritage. Johnny Doughty was always singing songs about the sea and the shore. Born in 1903, he grew up in a fishing family in Brighton, Sussex. His grandmother took in washing, his uncle supplied the…

Jose Manuel de Prada-Samper is a researcher and writer with an expertise in mythology and folklore. Since 2011, he has been recording and investigating the culture of Afrikaans-speaking Khoisan descendants living in rural areas in the Western Cape and the Northern Cape provinces of South Africa. In March 2018 he…