Walking Home: Opera North's sound journey

Published: 13 August 2020
Reporter: Vera Liber

Abel Selaocoe Credit: Tim Dunk
Alice Zawadzki Credit: Tim Dunk
Martin Green Credit: Tim Dunk
Maya Youssef Credit: Tim Dunk
Khyam Allami Credit: Tim Dunk

Walking Home is a series of five 'sound journeys' commissioned by Opera North and composed and recorded by musicians during lockdown, which will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6 Music and available for download 15–28 August 2020.

Five artists, spanning jazz, folk, Middle Eastern and African traditions, classical and contemporary music, have created the new works specifically to be listened to on headphones while walking as part of BBC Arts and Arts Council England’s Culture in Quarantine initiative.

The contributors are cellist and composer Abel Selaocoe, qanun virtuoso Maya Youssef, oud player and composer Khyam Allami, vocalist, violinist and songwriter Alice Zawadzki and accordionist and experimentalist Martin Green of the folk trio Lau.

“The spark for these commissions came from the strange alchemy we found between walker, place and music that was powerfully evident in the sound journeys that Opera North has made for the Humber Bridge and River Tyne,” said the company’s Head of Projects Jo Nockels.

Alan Davey, Controller of BBC Radio 3, said, “Opera North’s new sound journeys designed to be listened to whilst walking show how radio can be a companion and a source of comfort wherever we are, whilst connecting us to our surroundings”.

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