Slow Radio
An antidote to today’s frenzied world…
by Frederik Bjørn
Have you ever imagined yourself on a night train, riding through the winter landscape of Ukraine between Ivano-Frankivsk and Odessa? Listening to the steamer train whistle blowing into the emptiness of the black night, the announcement calls over the loudspeakers at cold, desolate village stations, and the symphonic hymns of snores from your fellow passengers?
Or what about taking a trip through the snowy forests of Lapland with a herd of reindeer? Their bells chime gently as their hooves press into the fresh, untouched snow, while the crisp Arctic air whispers around you, carrying the quiet hum of the vast northern wilderness. Get a glimpse into the secluded life of a reindeer mother—from her sporadic contact with humans to her everyday life on the fjeld.
Or even embarking on a voyage through the sounds of the three Port-of-Spain gardens on the island of Trinidad. The chirping of exotic birds—green parrots and streaked xenops—cascades around you in a cacophony of rhythm and atmosphere, a stark contrast to the gentle trickling of water from the nearby streams.
Would you like to be transported to an unknown world by sound alone? Step back, let go, immerse yourself—it’s time to slow down...
…
Welcome to the world of Slow Radio.
Start Slow
And how to do so.
Boasting the slogan "An antidote to today’s frenzied world…", Slow Radio is an escape—a portal into a calming, peaceful world.
In this modern age, everything moves at a high pace. Our attention spans shrink with each passing decade, and sometimes, it feels like the future of media will be nothing but ten-second videos and short sound bites. Radio features, like action movies, are expected to get straight to the point - aquickly, efficiently, and with no room for silence.
In late 2017, BBC's Radio 3 introduced its latest offering: Slow Radio, the cure for all this noise and haste.
It presents an the polar opposite approach - one that embraces quiet moments, long pauses, and the subtle sounds of nature.
From the gentle rustling of leaves to the rhythmic crashing of waves, Slow Radio transports listeners into a slower, more contemplative space, where the rush of the world fades into the background.
Here, there are no fast-paced jingles clamouring for your attention. Instead, the focus is on immersion, inviting you to take a step back and simply listen. Each episode creates an auditory landscape, allowing the mind to wander freely.
Releasing one to two episodes per month, Slow Radio features sound designers and storytellers from all over the world. And I do mean all over—from Hindu temples to markets in the Levant, from the streets of New York City to Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe, from the steppes of Kazakhstan to the Arctic tundra… and beyond.
How are these soundscapes created?
Like how the TV show, Our Planet, has pushed the boundaries for the field of photography and videography of animals in the wild, so to as Slow Radio, shown us a plethora of experimental and ground breaking techniques for capturing the ambience and essence of a given place.
One such technique is binaural audio, also known as 3D audio, a way to create an immersive listening experience by mimicking how humans naturally perceive sound.
Imagine a human head with microphones placed inside the ears. The microphones pick up the subtle differences in sound as it travels from one ear to the other, shaped by the contours of the head. This slight delay and the way sound is filtered by the ear structure create an incredibly realistic spatial effect, tricking the brain into believing the listener is there.
This is different from traditional stereo recording, which simply captures audio from two omnidirectional microphones without accounting for human auditory perception.
Binaural audio is just one of the many techniques that make Slow Radio such an immersive experience.
SLOW Samples
Artistic freedom in abstract compositions.
What makes Slow Radio unique is the creative freedom given to the producers.
Unlike traditional radio formats, where structure and pacing can be dictated by guidelines and structure, Slow Radio allows sound artists, field recordists, and composers to fully explore their creative instincts.
Episodes unfold as documentary-like journeys, with an almost musical oriented quality, weaving natural sounds with abstract compositions, more resembling a piece of ambient music, than a podcast. Let’s get our hands dirty, with some of my favourite examples of slow radio.
Different episodes take different forms.
Some focus on capturing the mood of a place—often evoking nostalgia, even for places you've never been.
‘A journey through Ramallah’
An example of this would be there episode, ‘A journey through Ramallah', where the Palestinian electronic artist 'YA Z AN’, takes us on a trip though the city, observing, music for a post-wedding ceremony, the relaxed dinner chit-chatting in his home, the market Al-hisbeh and so much more.
Some episodes are scientific in nature, giving listeners access to recordings originally meant for research and analysis.
‘The glacier in retreat’
An example of this would be the episode, ‘The Glacier In Retreat', a stunning recording of the Kongsvegen Glacier on the Arctic island of Svalbard, approximately 650 kilometers from the North Pole. In this episode, Oslo University researcher Uno Nanni and field recordist Clovis Tisserand document the sounds of the glacier—cracking ice, shifting snow, and the subtle, eerie groans of a world in flux. These sounds aren’t just beautiful; they’re also valuable for studying seismology, glacial earthquakes, and the thawing of permafrost.
Slow Radio - The Glacier in Retreat - BBC Sounds
For more information about Uno’s work, please visit : https://noisevariationsen.weebly.com/ .
To showcase the more musical qualities of slow radio, here is an example which uses post-processing manipulations to explore a sensory and unreal world, just like this city portrait.
‘Berlin’s Hidden Soundscape'
Take Berlin’s Hidden Soundscape, a unique episode crafted by Uruguayan sound artist Kirap. Using a technique called bitmap conversion, Kirap transforms images of Berlin into sound.
These abstract, digital tones are then blended with ambient field recordings from the city, creating an audio portrait that captures both the chaos and community of Berlin.
The result is almost like musique concrète, where everyday sounds become part of a rich, surreal composition.
Go Slow
Not as daring as you might think.
As the world grows ever more chaotic, Slow Radio offers a chance to escape, to embrace stillness, quiet, and deep listening.
At first, stepping into this unhurried world may feel daunting. But by the end of your journey, you’ll have traveled to places you never imagined, guided only by sound.
So take a breath, slow down, and listen.
About the author:
Frederik Bjørn // Sound-design consultant and Jr. developer at Hindenburg Systems
Frederik Bjørn has been dissecting audio software since a young age, drawn to sonic textures, ambient atmospheres, and interactive music composition. With a BA from Sonic College in South Denmark and an MSc from the IT University of Copenhagen/Reykjavík University, he has spent the better part of a decade exploring everything from creative audio phenomena to Human-Computer Interaction in audio technology.
“If something is boring after two minutes, try it for four. If still boring, then eight. Then sixteen. Then thirty-two. Eventually one discovers that it is not boring at all.”
― John Cage
It is intuitive, easy to use, and FAST when it comes to editing, and at the end of the day, I am able to produce 23 hours of quality radio content every week. Don’t let the simple controls fool you.
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