Not quite music, not quite talk

You can listen to the radio, and depending what you’re tuned to, you’ll hear people talking – delivering or exchanging information – or music. Most of the music on the radio is delivering or exchanging information too, though. And that always gets me thinking: what’s the big difference?

As a listener, and as a sound maker, I’m really excited by the free space you have to work with. Usually two (stereo) channels of sound, related or unrelated. Time, pitch, complex tones and space. Movement within and between those, too. Repetition and recurrence. Untrue sounds and super-true ones.

I’ve tried to put together a handful of episodes – stories, pieces, sounds, whatever you want to call them – that make good use of those things, and which break from what you can generally expect to hear in most popular podcasts. (I wish I could add some songs to this, too; songs that really tread some super interesting territory as far as ears and voices are concerned.) How else can you impart a feeling, share information, communicate through making sounds or hearing them?

Jon Tjhia is a radio maker, musician, writer and editor. His work includes the podcasts Paper Radio and Better Off Dead, and he works as digital manager at Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre.