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Simon Armitage's Listening Chair

Elizabeth Alker selects an eclectic range of new ambient and experimental music, and Poet Laureate Simon Armitage is in the Listening Chair to choose a track that transports him.

The UK’s Poet Laureate Simon Armitage has been a major force in British poetry for more than three decades. Much loved for the unflinching honesty he brings to explorations of modernity, Armitage’s portraits of people, places and things are often shot through with a playfully dark humour and offered up in colloquial language. Recent years have seen him take to the stage to deliver lyrics as a member of the bands LYR and The Scaremongers, and Armitage has written extensively about the songs and albums that have inspired and shaped him over the years. Sitting in the Unclassified Listening Chair he introduces a piece of music that transports him to another place.

Elsewhere in the programme, Elizabeth Alker selects an eclectic range of new sounds from the worlds of experimental and ambient music, including a restless horn-led electronic chorale by Ralph Heidel, art-rock lamentation courtesy of The Smile, and Ola Szmidt’s blissfully free-form vocals.

Produced by Phil Smith
A Reduced Listening production for ±«Óãtv Radio 3

1 hour

Last on

Thu 24 Nov 2022 23:30

Music Played

  • Whatever the Weather

    0°°ä

  • LYR

    Winter Solstice

  • Raum

    Restoration

  • The Smile

    Skirting on the Surface

  • Tomotsugu Nakamura

    Poolside

  • Ralph Heidel

    RADICAL MATTER

  • Eyeless in Gaza

    The Eyes of Beautiful Losers

  • Morgan Szymanski & Tommy Perman

    Spruce Wood Improvisation

  • Christina Vantzou, Michael Harrison & John Also Bennett

    Harp Of Yaman

  • Public Service Broadcasting

    Night Mail

Broadcasts

  • Thu 14 Jul 2022 23:30
  • Thu 24 Nov 2022 23:30

What is unclassified music?

What is unclassified music?

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