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Melissa Harrison’s Listening Chair

Elizabeth Alker presents eclectic ambient music, and novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison sits in the listening chair with a piece that transports her to another place.

Elizabeth handpicks the best new ambient, electronic, and post-classical music and revels in the spaces between. This week she invites the novelist and nature writer Melissa Harrison to sit in Unclassified’s Listening Chair to describe a piece that transports her to another place. Melissa has been in and around dance music for the last 30 years, increasingly turning towards ambient sound worlds. Her writing - including the award-winning novel All Among the Barley - connects deeply to the English countryside, and her Nature Notebook column in the Times is an evocative diary of her encounters with the natural world. Her Listening Chair selection comes from the Canadian artist Ian William Craig - known for using broken tapes in his compositions - and Melissa describes how the lack of control this brings has been an inspiration for her.

Elsewhere in the show, Elizabeth plays a track from Manchester greats The Durutti Column’s album A Paean to Wilson, which gets a deluxe reissue on coloured vinyl. And there's new music from the Polish cellist Resina.

This episode was first broadcast last November.

Produced by Rebecca Gaskell
A Reduced Listening production for ±«Óătv Radio 3

1 hour

Last on

Thu 10 Feb 2022 23:30
±«Óătv Radio 3

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Ambient Inspirations at the London Jazz Festival

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Unclassified Live

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Music Played

  • TWO LANES

    Another Time (feat. Kwesi)

    • Another Time.
    • bitbird.

  • Mary Lattimore

    We Wave From Our Boats

  • Eve Adams

    La Ronde

    • Metal Bird.

  • Animal Collective

    Prester John

    • Prester John.
    • Domino Recording Co.

  • µţÂáö°ů°ě

    Saint

    • Utopia.
    • One Little Indian.

  • Kelly Lee Owens

    Unity

    • FIFA Women's World Cup 2023.

  • Kelly Lee Owens

    Melt!

    • Inner Song.
    • Smalltown Supersound.

  • Group Listening

    Sunset Village

    • Sunset Village.
    • PRAH Recordings.

  • Ian William Craig

    On The Reach Of Explanations

    • A Turn Of Breath.
    • Recital.

  • Venus Ex Machina

    Avril

    • Lux.
    • AD 93.

  • The Durutti Column

    Duet With Piano

    • A Paean To Wilson.
    • Kooky.

  • Resina

    Mercury Immersion

    • Mercury Immersion.
    • 130701.

  • Woo

    Tonto

    • Play The Blues.

Broadcasts

  • Thu 18 Nov 2021 23:30
    ±«Óătv Radio 3
  • Thu 10 Feb 2022 23:30
    ±«Óătv Radio 3

What is unclassified music?

What is unclassified music?

Elizabeth Alker introduces five of her favourite 'unclassifiable' pieces of music.