Incantation for Restoring Democracy
(for when the people’s voice has been silenced by concrete and steel).

Ingredients:

· Three pieces of glass from a broken window from the 3rd precinct (as evidence of broken trust between people and power);

· One voter registration form destroyed because the address was incorrect (for proof of systematic voter suppression);

· A piece of concrete saved from BLM Plaza (for authenticity of ground zero resistance);

· Three bullet casings collected at the intersection of East 34th Street and Portland Avenue in south Minneapolis (for tangible evidence of federal bullets that silenced a mother's voice);

· The stethoscope that an ICU nurse used to care for veterans (to capture democracy's final breath);

· A chant whispered in German, Italian, and Sardinian, muttered in despair (for international solidarity with the fight).

Instructions:

1. Stand tall and proud with your feet planted on the concrete, preferably in defiance.

2. Place all ingredients on the nearest barricade, in front of you but just out of reach, so that it is difficult to grab them without stretching the system.

3. Raise your fist in salute and recite the incantation with a sense of gravity and revolutionary contempt:

By barricades deep and wide,
Democracy we shall revive,
Destroy the lies, restore the rule,
Join hands with us, renounce the fool
No more darkness no more shame
Justice and humanity shall prevail.

To encourage democracy to come back, you can create following sound effects:

RATTLE: scrape the broken glass on the concrete to simulate the voices that have been taken away;

DISTORT: crumple the voter form next to your ear to simulate the muffling of the people’s will;

AMPLIFY: cup your hands around your mouth while speaking to simulate the sound of someone calling for help while being shot by federal officers.

Now collect all the ingredients in a small, desperate pile and let them marinate in your frustration for at least one hour, during which you will check again all the back channels, secret meetings and encrypted messages.

Add one last sound effect: the hollow sound of immoral politicians who have been enabling the rambling of a sick mind, followed by a sigh that gradually fades to the sound of democracy that refuses to die.

--

The protest sound at the end has been recorded on 9th January 2026 in Minneapolis - protest sounds 09jan2026 minneapolis ice by stevevader101 -- https://freesound.org/s/841767/ -- License: Attribution 4.0

Didn’t You Ask for Kids? is a political satirical piece about the relationship between Jeffrey Epstein and Donald Trump, all based on the misunderstanding arising from the fact that the word kids means both children and young goats. The piece starts with a weird phone call in which Epstein is informed that the kids ordered are about to be delivered to his island, “just in time for the party with my friend Donald”

but when the kids arrive, Epstein is very disappointed, while Trump will still able to find a silver lining.

The Biannual Sonic Dash is always a great opportunity to dive into another of those magic moments of high-pressure creation: you have until Sunday to come up with a two-minute audio addressing the prompt emailed to you on Friday. The catch is that you cannot use any pre-existing material, so you have to compose the music and make up the sound effects (if you use any). The prompt for this latest round was “those meddling kids”, yes, the Scooby-Doo catchphrase. I was lucky to have a small, dedicated team (Roman Lillian Uras-Garvin and Romeo Maria Minutolo), and together we brainstormed, wrote, and produced our piece.

I’d like to share a bit about our process. We agreed that we wanted something original (so we immediately put aside anything related to Scooby-Doo), humorous but also poignant, ideally making a comment on something important.

I think our Didn’t You Ask for Kids? hit the mark. This time, we didn’t make it to the 10 finalists, but we love it as it is: completely self-produced (keep an ear out for the sound effects created with doorbells, an air fryer, and a hair dryer), absolutely current in its content, definitely original (verging on the absurd), and we find it unquestionably humorous.

I hope you enjoy listening as much as we loved creating it!

A woman's perfect new home begins to feel inhabited by presences she can't quite see. In the corner of her eye, they move. When she turns, they vanish. A psychological tale of perception, paranoia, and the fine line between reality and imagination.

This piece is partly autobiographical, and partly an homage to Giorgio Manganelli's masterpiece Centuria - 100 Romanzi Fiume (Centuria: One Hundred Ouroboric Novels), a book consisting of one hundred very short absurd, enigmatic, and dreamlike stories that I read at a very young age and that had a huge impact on my artistic practice.

I created A Polished Tale as part of All The Best Radio's 24h Race, an exciting annual event, a creative challenge that gives producers 24 hours to conceptualise, record, and produce short stories on a specific theme, this year it was 'mirrored'.

If you have never taken part in a radio race, I encourage you to: it is so much fun, and, at least with All The Best, it is completely free to participate.

Enjoy the ride!
Reply on Bluesky

Stuart Fowkes, creator of Cities and Memory, published a call asking artists to re imagine a curated selection of field recordings from 36 countries around the world to develop brand new compositions on the theme of sustainability, equity and well-being in cities. The project launched at the C40 Summit in Buenos Aires in October 2022. I had the honour to be one of those artists.

I started from the idea that the organisation of the city and its meeting spaces have a profound impact on society.

I then collected real and existing examples of hostile architecture, bringing them to the extreme, the worst possible scenario, where no type of aggregation is allowed if not linked to consumption.

"The fight against poverty is won by physically eliminating the poor" this the slogan of the time of terror framed, through a narrative device, in the past, a time as different as possible from a much more harmonious and inclusive present.

Check out all tracks included in the album and check also the C40 Summit: Global & Smart Cities Talk that brought together the mayors of global and regional cities, business leaders, philanthropists, campaigners, youth leaders, scientists and residents, to share bold ideas, showcase innovative solutions and stand together to create a sustainable, prosperous and equitable future.

A woman writes a message during her daily tram commute to work. Seemingly insignificant details, like selling a table or a couch, hide a deeply personal story about love, and the fragility of the hope for new beginnings. In these small, fleeting moments between home and work, she is rewriting her story, while the ordinary tram ride becomes the extraordinary vessel navigating the delicate space between now and tomorrow.

Just before leaving was created for Cities and Memory's Autumn Project, reimagining the sound of a Melbourne tram.

The tension is palpable: the writer furiously pounds the keys of the typewriter searching for the perfect setting for the story she wants to tell, but inspiration is slow to come. Yet with every attempt, the environment becomes vividly clear, if only the phone would stop ringing!

Immerse yourself in a cinematic sound tour de force, and you too will feel as if you are there, on a warm, humid night filled with cicadas, peeking over the shoulder at what the fingers are tapping on the keys of the old typewriter.

Created for Audio Flux 06 [creative tension].

Photo by Sarah Yessenbayeva on Unsplash

Variations in Memory Flat [bilingual Italian and English - links to translated videos below], is a quiet reflection on childhood memories, caught in a kitchen between big moments of joy and small, unexpected sadness.

This is the final outcome of my participation in THE ECCO, unveiled at the ((XMTR)) Festival.

Slippery memory, the theme chosen for THE ECCO’s second cohort, was more than a concept, it was a sensation that speaks to those memories that slip away and hide just as you try to grasp and describe them.

I tried to translate this fleeting quality into sonic impressions, guided by the fragmented recollections of an ever-unreliable narrator.

This piece represents a pivotal moment in my creative journey: an intimate investigation that wants to open a doorway into what remains with us and what time quietly erases.

The project is shaped by the interplay of languages and memories, softened by the patina of recollection, a gentle coating that sweetens even those moments that, when they occurred in the past, left us grasping for meaning.

I am profoundly grateful to Jasmin Bauomy, founder of THE ECCO, for giving me the opportunity to be part of this group and for the vision and the guidance that were pivotal in bringing to light what I didn’t even know I needed to express.

I am grateful to the group of European audio producers of THE ECCO, who have become my friends. We spent some incredible days in our Tuscany retreat, writing, playing, cooking, eating, talking, feeding the fox, crying, and laughing. We shared experiences, doubts, and ideas, forging bonds that are difficult to articulate.

This has been an amazing experience of growth and discovery.

I invite you to listen closely, to immerse yourselves in these fluid, slippery memories, to discover reflections of your own stories within, and to embrace the beautiful ambiguity of what slips through our fingers yet lingers in our minds.

Text, editing and voice: M. Cristina Marras
Producer: Jasmin Bauomy
Additional sound engineer: Jesse Lawson

Video with English subtitles
Video with Italian subtitles

Was passiert, wenn eine Uhr, die früher an der Wand hing, nicht mehr funktioniert und weggeworfen wird? Und warum fühlen wir uns gezwungen, eine Streichholzschachtel zu schütteln, selbst wenn wir sie nicht benutzen wollen? In diesem Werk finden Sie keine endgültige Antwort auf diese Fragen, aber ich lade dich trotzdem ein, zuzuhören – für eine ruhige Erkundung der beständigen Gewohnheiten unseres Gedächtnisses, dessen, was nach dem Verschwinden von Menschen und Gegenständen aus unserem Leben bleibt, und wie der Klang ihres Lebens lange nach ihrem Verschwinden nachklingt.

Diese Geschichte habe ich für Small Audio Art erstellt, eine von Phoebe McIndoe gegründete Gemeinschaft von Künstlern und Audiomachern, die in einer zerstreuten Welt Zusammengehörigkeit suchen. Das Thema für dieses Audio war "Uhr".

Listen also in English

Bildbearbeitung des Fotos von Abiodun Ageh bei Unsplash