Five Folk Tales for Radio (featuring Steffan Cennydd)

Five Folk Tales for Radio (featuring Steffan Cennydd). Voice: Steffan Cennydd. Concept, text, sound design, montage by Ed Baxter. Recording engineer: Michael Umney.

Summer 2022’s monumental Radio Art Zone allowed me the opportunity to work with the best actor of his generation, Steffan Cennydd, who I’d seen on the tv a few times and who luckily was free for a day to record a whole bunch of pieces. These are presented in a sequence here, four in English and one in his native Welsh. The idea in each is not to attempt a traditional radio play nor to produce a classic dramatic monologue. Rather each of these pieces tries to create a psychological object. They are all deliberately elliptical, fragmentary, allusive, but share some underlying themes (obsessions perhaps) and, inevitably, language. Ultimately it’s the actor’s voice that makes them work - you’ll hear that, I think. - Ed Baxter

• The Deserter (27.43)

Commissioned by Radio Art Zone as part of Esch2022 European Capital of Culture.

• Butch Cassidy in Paris (Heart like a Duck, part 3) (27.20)

Commissioned by Hearsay International Audio Festival. Second voice: Willie Carr. Additional recording by Diarmuid McIntyre.

• Ar y Mynydd (On the Mountain) (19.51)

Text commissioned by Benedict Drew. Welsh translation: Ffion Emyr. Guitar loop sampled from a performance by Alasdair Roberts.

• Birdbrain (25.29)

Commissioned by Radio Art Zone as part of Esch2022 European Capital of Culture. Baby’s voice: Ivor Forsyth-Lanceley. Additional recording by Peter Lanceley.

• My Life as Doug Yule (25.39)

Commissioned by Radio Art Zone as part of Esch2022 European Capital of Culture. Additional recording by Trilby Baxter.

Thanks to all involved in these collaborations; to Knut, Sarah, Mathilde and Necef at RAZ; to Daniela Gargiulo; and, for their encouragement, Kersten Glandien, Anthony Moore, Milo Thesiger-Meacham and Jim Whelton.