Scene: Gabriele Heller

Returning to Newcastle’s Cobalt Studios this autumn, RADIOPHONICx is a monthly communal listening series curated by Gabriele Heller, showcasing award-winning radio art, experimental sound works and audio drama from across the globe. Taking place on Saturday 17th October, 21st November, 19th December and 30th January (2pm-4pm), each session is built around a different theme, exploring a range of radiophonic styles and genres. Audiences will experience both historic and contemporary audio works in their original language, accompanied by specially produced English subtitles, opening up a rich and often overlooked world of international sound art. Celebrating more than a century of creative audio storytelling, the events offer a rare chance to engage with pioneering documentaries, features, sound art and experimental drama, while post-listening discussions provide space to share ideas, explore artistic approaches and celebrate the communal act of listening.

Here, Gabriele Heller tells us more…

Hi, as someone working in audio art, improvised music, performance and theatre, I naturally mingle with a lot of different scenes and artists. I am originally from Germany but based in Newcastle for 25 years. While working on theatre projects, organising festivals and performing with my jazz quartet, I rediscovered my love for Radio Art. Back in Germany, I worked at the  Bavarian State Broadcast as an assistant director for audio drama for a couple of years. So in  2018 I made my first audio collage called Solitude, which I made by myself on my computer. I  started to organise communal listening events to present this piece in remote churches and museums and the feedback from the audience was really great. Everyone loved the listening-together aspect at this unusual event. Being part of the free improvisers scene for many years, I was really curious to combine free improvised music with my audio art. I teamed up with the fantastic musicians John Pope, John Garner and Tobias Illingworth (Sara) to explore how we could bring together experimental audio drama and live improvised music. Blank Studio was the perfect place for this exploration. With the help of sound engineers Chris McManus and John Martindale, we recorded Homer’s Lane and Utopia More and more two audio plays with a live improvised musical score. Both pieces have a large cast and I am so thankful for my fantastic actors, Jimmy Ryan, Jane Arnfield and the whole team of Tuesday’s Childe Theatre Collective to perform in the plays. Being able to bring together so much talent from various artistic backgrounds is a great joy. I was so happy when Utopia More and More won First Prize at the UK International Audio Drama Festival in 2025. With sound engineer John Martindale, I made a range of different-style audio work in the last years. It is really intriguing to discover the difference between music recording and experimental audio and I think we both keep learning from each other. In the last years I have attended various festivals in the UK and Europe and met many international Radio and sound artists, and listened to amazing award-winning pieces. The European Audio and Sound Art scene is so diverse and there is a lot to discover in terms of new genres, styles and artistic approaches. That’s why I came up with the idea of RADIOPHONICx. Radio Art is a 100-year-old art form, which doesn’t get celebrated enough in our visually dominated world. I am very passionate to encourage people to engage more into concentrated listening. It is a quality that is more and more lacking in people’s lives and in our society. And I think we should practice it together. There is a huge difference between listening alone via headphones or listening together in a shared space. There is always room for talk and discussions at RADIOPHONCx, communal listening. It is fantastic that Cobalt Studios is hosting this event. It is such a perfect venue for  RADIOPHONICx. They are so keen to experiment with unusual set-ups, and everybody from their team is supportive in making every event extra special.

Tickets for RADIOPHONICx. are available via The Cobalt website