Uncanny Landscapes

An interview by Justin Hopper with writer, academic and psychogeographer Sonia Overall.

 

Sonia Overall is a writer, academic and avid psychogeographer based in southeast England. She is the founder of Women Who Walk, a network for creatives and academics, as well as the creator of many walking-based projects including Distance Drift, a lockdown-inspired weekly psychogeographic prompt. Her recent book Heavy Time follows a 'pilgrimage' walk through the east of England, exploring the idea of 'thin places' and walking with intent. She speaks to us about psychogeography, hauntings, the dissolving lines between her field and 'new nature writing', women in psychogeography and more.

 

Links:

Sonia has a website here. Her latest book Heavy Time is available from Penned in the Margins, and her Twitter account is the source for Distance Drift on many Sundays. Women Who Walk also has a dedicated site.

 

The music in this episode is by Oddfellow's Casino, the recording project of writer and producer Dr. David Bramwell, and includes work from both the instrumental and with-words versions of their album, The Cult of Water. It's available from the Oddfellow's Casino Bandcamp page. Used by permission of the artists, with great thanks.

 

Host Justin Hopper is on twitter, and has a Link Tree.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

 

Icons by Stefan Musgrove / Firebrand Creative

Uncanny Landscapes #8 - Gary Budden

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with writer Gary Budden

 

Gary Budden is a Kent-born, London-based, writer of weird fiction and also-weird non-fiction. His latest collection of short stories, London Incognita, explores the realities of a fractured capital through tales of the otherwise. His non-fiction collaborations with the artist Maxim Griffin explore his uncanny home on the Kentish shoreline. He speaks with us about Landscape Punk, underground music, birdwatching, Arthur Machen and more.

 

Links:

Gary has a website here; his latest book is available from Dead Ink Books, and his collaborative works are available from the author.

 

The music is by Swedish band Seeds in Barren Fields, from their project, Sånger som rämnar - available via their Bandcamp. Used by permission of the artists, and with great thanks.

 

Host Justin Hopper is on twitter, and has a Link Tree.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

 

Icons by Stefan Musgrove / Firebrand Creative

Uncanny Landscapes #8 - Rich Pell, the Center for PostNatural History

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with artist Rich Pell of the Center for PostNatural History. 

 

Rich Pell is an artist and art professor based in Pittsburgh who founded and operates the Center for PostNatural History - a permanent museum dedicated to the cultural influence on evolution.

 

Links:

The Center has a website, and is also on Twitter. The film Pell made with filmmaker Penny Lane, about the history of Sea Monkeys, is available from her website. And Ian Nagoski's record label, Canary Records, has a Bandcamp including archival birdsong material.

 

The music was (Wo)MenHir, from Building the Goddess Temple, and The Orbenfolk, from Suppertime Seance, by Orbury Common - available from their Bandcamp. 

 

You can support this podcast by purchasing the books we mention from the Uncanny Landscapes Bookshop mini-shop. 

 

Host Justin Hopper is on twitter, and has a Link Tree.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

 

Icons by Stefan Musgrove / Firebrand Creative

[NOTE to subscribers: Due to a technical glitch this episode was briefly removed, edited, and is now uploaded a second time - which is why you may have two notifications, etc.]

Uncanny Landscapes #7 - Kate Davis

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with poet Kate Davis. 

 

Kate Davis is a poet, performer, artist, swimmer, taxidermist and more based in the Furness peninsula of northwestern England. Her book The Girl Who Forgets How To Walk (Penned in the Margins) examines a lifelong relationship to that landscape as affected by childhood polio. 

 

Links:

Kate Davis is on Twitter; her book is available from Penned in the Margins. The film of The Girl Who Forgets How To Walk, made with Julia Parks, is available online via the Zebra Poetry Film Festival from 13-22 November, and afterwards via Julia Parks’ website. 

The music was Undertow by Richard Skelton, on the album The Complete Landings, available from Bandcamp. 

You can support this podcast and its interviewees by purchasing Kate’s book and many others mentioned from the Uncanny Landscapes Bookshop mini-shop. 

Host Justin Hopper is on twitter, and has a Link Tree here.

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records
Icons by Stefan Musgrove / Firebrand Creative

Uncanny Landscapes #6 - Gareth E. Rees

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with writer Gareth E. Rees. 

 

Gareth Rees is an author whose books explore modern myths and folklore of place. He has previously published 2013’s Marshland, about Hackney, and 2018’s The Stone Tide, before becoming nationally known for 2019’s Car Park Life. His new book is Unofficial Britain, about the 'first shoots of future folklore emerging from an urban Britain that ... remains very strange indeed'.

 

Links:

Gareth Rees runs the Unofficial Britain website, and can be found on Twitter many days. 

 

Music included ‘Save My Soul’ by Rees’ band The Dirty Contacts, and Church of Ferles by musician, writer and artist Matthew Shaw - available from his Bandcamp. All music courtesy the artists.

 

Host Justin Hopper has a website, too; twitter, even.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

 

Icons by Stefan Musgrave / Firebrand Creative

Uncanny Landscapes #5 - The Belbury Poly

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with musician and record-label head Jim Jupp. 

 

Jim Jupp records music as The Belbury Poly, and releases his own music as well as that of many others via the Ghost Box Records label he operates with designer Julian House. His latest record, The Gone Away, is a concept album based on fairy lore and touching on ideas of ephemerality and memory in landscape and life. 

 

Links:

The Ghost Box website and twitter feed provide info on Jupp and the label. 

 

Host Justin Hopper has a website, too; twitter, even.

 

Music and title sounds all by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

 

Icons by Stefan Musgrave / Firebrand Creative

 

 

Uncanny Landscapes #4 - Stein Farstadvoll

 

An interview by Justin Hopper with archaeologist Stein Farstadvoll. 

 

Stein Farstadvoll is an archaeologist of the contemporary world working in arctic Norway and based at the University of Tromso. His work images vestigial and out-of-place objects that contribute to uncanny places: from an abandoned landscape garden to the military ruins of the area’s World War 2 German fortifications. 

 

Links:

Stein’s instagram and twitter feeds are full of images and information.

 

You can read about the Boxgrove, West Sussex, horse butchery archaeological site on the BBC News site, here.

 

Host Justin Hopper has a website, too; twitter, even.

 

The music is Behind the Spiderweb Gate by Alison Cotton, from her new album Only Darkness Now, available from bandcamp.

 

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

 

Icons by Stefan Musgrave / Firebrand Creative

An interview by Justin Hopper with photographer Roei Greenberg

 

Roei Greenberg is an London-based Israeli artist whose photographs explore borders and boundaries, whether they are the ‘hot’ political borders of his home on the Israel-Lebanon border, or the subtle, implicit boundaries of the English picturesque. We spoke about his projects English Encounters and Along the Break; about contested landscapes; and about the ghosts that haunt our places, fighting for the chance to be seen. 

 

Links:

 

Roei Greenberg’s website - and, in particular, the projects English Encounters and Along the Break

His photographs ‘Grazing Area, the Ruins of the Arab Village of Kedes’, ‘Syrian Tank’ and 'Hinterland' are discussed in detail.

His RCA thesis exhibition is available online until 31 July. 

 

(Host Justin Hopper has a website, too; twitter, even.)

 

Music by Russell McAlpine

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

Icons by Stefan Musgrave / Firebrand Creative

An interview by Justin Hopper with writer and artist JR Carpenter.

We spoke about her project This Is a Picture of Wind - a digital exploration of wind and language, now in book form from Longbarrow Press; about weather, climate change and imperialism; about mapping invisible systems, and about Vahni Capildeo's poetic response to Picture of Wind.

Links:

JR Carpenter's This Is a Picture of Wind (digital version)

This is a Picture of Wind from Longbarrow Press

JR's website

(Host Justin Hopper has a website, too; twitter, even.)

Music by Chris Cannon

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

Icons by Stefan Musgrove / Firebrand Creative

An interview by Justin Hopper with author and artist Angus Carlyle.

We spoke about his books of let’s-call-them-air-quotes-Nature-Writing that both reflect his lifelong love of the genre and some of the conflicts at its heart. About running through the downs at night. About nature writing and indices, and mental health, and hangovers, and about the dadaist bureaucracy through which he approaches the natural world.

There are a few technical glitches in these recordings. Please take these as they are - cracks, through which the light gets in.

Links:

Angus Carlyle's Night Blooms from Makina Books

Angus's website and his Twitter and, why not?, his Instagram

(Host Justin Hopper has a website, too)

Music by Teleplasmiste

Title sounds by The Belbury Poly courtesy Ghost Box Records

Icons by Stefan Musgrove / Firebrand Creative