Best Foot Music (Phillip Minns)

Sounds recorded approaching, in and around the Qutub Shahi Tombs, Hyderabad. The 7 tombs were built between 1550 and 1667. The large domed structures create a natural reverb and are stunningly beautiful to walk around.

Soundscape made on the train journey from Hyderabad to Balharshah.

This episode is about how we started Best Foot Music. 

It features the music of Anna Lazareva. 

You can find the full recording session with Anna here: https://bestfootmusic.bandcamp.com/album/anna-lazareva

Record labels and musicians mentioned in this episode

https://www.babazula.com/

https://open.spotify.com/artist/39zIRxvWFOGGH4hxGqRkLy?si=JA74JRZrT029x-T8sOELeA

Double Moon Records

https://www.challengerecords.com/catalogue/7/

00 Munich pigeons

0.12 Munich train to Salzburg

0.50 Romanian cafe opposite Salzburg station

1.47 Train to Ljublijana

2.02 Ljubljana

6.26 Ljubljana to Budapest Train

9.00 Budapest

16.08 Budapest to Cluj Train

16.44 Cluj Napoca

25.26 Cluj to Sighișoara Train

Soundscape recording made in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra, whilst visiting family. Includes street and nature sounds, Sunday market and Tajuddin Muhammad Badruddin parade.

A week after the Gideon Falter 'openly Jewish' incident, which gained wide press coverage and further attempts by him, some in the UK Gov and media to demonise the demonstrations, we attended the National March for Palestine from Parliament Square to Hyde Park. On this occasion we were near the front of the march, for a while with the Jewish Bloc. Following the previous weeks events, numerous people carried 'Openly Jewish' placards.

There were lots of groups with drums and percussion, leading chants along the way. As always the march was hugely diverse, with people from a wide range of religious and ethnic backgrounds, age and where they'd travelled from around the UK. We met people from North Wales, Cardiff, Leeds, Nottingham, Bristol across the UK, and fair few people who were visiting London and decided to join for a while.

As the march neared Hyde Park, some people unfolded banners over the statue of Achilles, memorial to the Duke of Wellington, a huge symbol of colonialism. A group of police asked them to remove the banners, but after a few chants of 'show your human side' decided to leave them alone. Later in the day, after the main event had finished, a group gathered in Hyde Park, singing and chanting, for a while the police surrounded the group, mostly just observing and eventually deciding to step back. I made soundscape recordings of the day, this time as we were in the noisier front section of the march, it's mostly chants and atmosphere, with one guy from the Jewish Bloc speaking around 5 minutes in.

Some of the groups on the Jewish Bloc

Black Jewish Alliance

Jewish Socialists Group

Jews For Justice For Palestinians

Jewish Voice For Labour

Na'amod

International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network

Saturday the 9th of March. A short episode, capturing some of the protest for Palestine. Set against the backdrop of the UK Gov and some of the media calling the marches 'Hate marches'. Also includes the thoughts of some Jewish activists and academics we met on the march.

Kamla & Laila discuss their own experiences with arts-related projects.  

Topics include; Unlearning,  decision-making processes,  the 'right' voice, micro and macro biases and thinking from the margin.

The 4th and final part of this conversation will be published Friday 31st July 9.00 am UK time.

The 4th and final part of this series. Intersectionality, the 5 'R's & concluding thoughts.

Part 1: Kamla Jo Braithwaite & Dr Laila Kadiwal from Trinidad and Tobago and India, discussing their own experiences of working in creative spaces. Chapter 1 includes, Setting the context; what do we mean by decolonising the creative space and why do we need it? How did we get here?

Links to some of the discussions in this chapter:

Jane Austen & Edward Said

https://www.jstor.org/stable/1344068

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Styles_and_themes_of_Jane_Austen#Role_of_colonialism

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orientalism_(book)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_and_Imperialism

https://blacklivesmatter.com/

https://blacklivesmatter.com/our-co-founders/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_a_Nation

Conversation with Jacinta Kerketta, Felix Padel & Laila Kadiwal, on Adivasi & minority rights, democracy, protest, environmentalism, & colonialism in India. 

The title of this episode is from the poem by Jacinta. 

With support from:

https://www.indiaandme.com/

https://www.sussex.ac.uk/cweh/

https://twitter.com/JacintaKerkett2

https://www.bestfootmusic.net/

Brighton based musician, composer and cultural activist Polina Shepherd on her exciting collaborative project with Lorin Sklamberg and choirs based in the UK and USA. 

150 Voices CD/Download

Polina Shepherd Website

More about the 150 Voices Project

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

Part 2: Kamla Jo Braithwaite & Dr Laila Kadiwal from Trinidad and Tobago and India, discussing their own experiences of working in creative spaces. Chapter 2 includes; Problematic terminologies 'the other', who can tell a story? Black Lives Matter and the creative spaces in Trinidad and Tobago.

Our last few days in Gadchiroli include; a candy floss vendor arriving outside the house, monsoon rains, a school choir, distant drums from a funeral on the far side of the river Kathani, morning sounds and insects on our final evening before making the journey to Hyderabad for our flight home (Hyderabad will be in the next episode)

We visited Istanbul for a holiday from 3rd to 11th April 2024. These recordings were made whilst walking around the city, predominantly in the Fatih district, which includes the historic peninsula . We also visited Kadıköy & Büyükada. Recordings are made with a Zoom H6 recorder with the XYH-6 X/Y MIC.

All recordings made in public spaces.

Istanbul has an estimated population of 15.46 million and covers 5461 square km², compared to London’s population of 8.9 million and size of 1573 km². Considering its size and population, it’ve very easy to find peaceful quiet spaces. This episode includes street musicians, nature sounds, cafes and memories of life in the city.

The call to prayer (Adhan) is recited 5 times a day and so is a regular part of the soundscape of Istanbul. Our flight arrived in Istanbul early morning on the 3rd April, we arrived at our hotel around 5 in the morning, coincidentally Fajr, the first of the day happened just as we stepped out of our taxi. The street we stayed on was narrow, with high buildings, near several large mosques, causing the sound to reverberate, not dissimilar to being in a canyon. In other places, its a quiet background sound.

We were visiting during the last few days of Ramadan, including Eid, with a major public holiday the following three days (Bayram)

00 - 7.10 April 3rd

Arriving at our hotel, near küçükpazar, early morning call to prayer (Fajr) then Beyoğlu, near Galata bridge.

7.15 - 10.50 April 4th

Balat and Fena.

10.50 - 14.40 April 5th

Near küçükpazar, walking to Beyoğlu, then walking to Suleymaniye Mosque, Eminönü.
14.40 -  18.10 April 6th

Ferry to Kadıköy, then Fener in the evening, including drummer. His family have been drumming for generations, he collects money during Ramadan, wishing people happy holidays.
18.10 - 27.00 April 7th 

Venerable Patriarchal Church of Saint George, Fener. Street sounds Balat and Fener, including drummer.
27.00 - 31.00 April 8th

Early morning bakery in küçükpazar, then Büyükada, Princes' Islands.
32.00 - 53.42 April 9th

The last day of Ramadan, we spent the whole day around Sultanahmet, visiting the Sultanahmet Camii (Blue Mosque), Hagia Sophia and sitting in the Sultan Ahmet park with 1000’s of people as they waited for the final Iftar meal of this Ramadan. It was really beautiful.
53.42 - 1.07.20 April 10th 

Beyoğlu
1.07.20 - end April 11th

Early morning call to prayer from our hotel window,  with Simit bakery in background, walking through the neighbourhood early morning and Basilica Cistern sounds.

There are a few bits of recognisable music being played from passing cars, restaurants etc.

27.15: Başkentli Resul - Sabir Ver

1.03: Aynur Doğan - Keçê Kurdan

These are just the ones I recognise, if you know more, please message.

00 Sighisoara

23.16 Cluj to Budapest Train

24.20 Budapest to Munich Train

27.00 Munich

A conversation and poetry reading between Vladyslava Bondar and Naomi Foyle, recorded at Razom ~ Together on the 17th March 2024, at the Rose Hill Brighton

Razom ~ Together is a series of collaborative social events organised by the Ukrainian community and their friends in Brighton, focusing on sharing food, music and a safe space to form friendships.

Naomi worked for Waterloo Press and has a history of publishing Ukrainian literature in the UK. She is Reader in Critical Imaginative Writing at the University of Chichester'.

Further information on Naomi's work on Ukraine can be seen in the links below.

https://pulsemedia.org/2015/01/21/writing-with-foreign-blood-a-visit-to-ukraine/

https://www.naomifoyle.com/category/ukraine/

Vladyslava is originally from Ukraine currently living in Brighton. She is community organiser, activist, founder member of Kupala Brighton and member of the Razom organising team.

Thanks to Marek Kohn for suggesting the idea of a Ukrainian literature reading as part of Razom and introducing us to Naomi. Marek is also a member of the Razom team.

Recorded at the London Palestine march, on 5th October 2024.

Talk by Professor Haim Bresheeth, discussing the origins of Zionism, the decline of the British Empire, Antisemitism and Islamophobia.

As he says at the start, this is an overview, please see Haim's website for further reading.

"Professor Haim Bresheeth is a filmmaker, photographer and a film studies scholar, retired from the University of East London, where he worked since since early 2002. He now teaches at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

His books include the best-selling Introduction to the Holocaust (with Stuart Hood, 2 reprints since 1997), the first version was titled Holocaust for Beginners (1993) and was also reprinted a number of times; This title was also published in Turkish, Croatian and Japanese translations, and is being translated into other languages."

https://www.haimbresheeth.com/

The discussion is approx 27 minutes, followed by 3 minutes of soundscapes from the protest on the day.

https://palestinecampaign.org/

https://www.stopwar.org.uk/

Conversations with local Ukrainian people and soundscape of incidental music, and ambience at the Made For Ukraine fundraiser event in All Saints Church, Hove, 21st October 2023.

Music in this podcast is not from live music performances on the day but instead includes clips from song and dance workshops and someone improvising on the piano while the gig was being set up.

More pics, info & donations to medical supplies are in the link:

https://www.bestfootmusic.net/post/summer-to-autumn-2023

We were invited along with our friend and collaborator Polina Shepherd to discuss music as a form of activism, at the Amnesty International annual UK Student conference, at the Amnesty UK headquarters in London. Thanks to Poppy Sheward Skelton for arranging this, conducting the interview and all her hard work and interest in what we do, also thanks to Amnesty for giving us a platform at their event. 

Polina's work is here:

polinashepherd.co.uk

the 150 Voices project is here (we worked together on the UK recordings)

Amnesty UK

Trailer for Episode 3 (of 4) of Decolonising The Creative Space, with Kamla Jo Braithwaite & Dr Laila Kadiwal.

Saturday, January 13th. National March For Palestine, London, UK.

As always it was incredibly diverse. In relation to some of the negative reactions to the marches, I thought it would be interesting to capture some of the voices of people there, so took a recorder and asked people one question; what made you come today. 10 people spoke, from a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences. I didn't ask anyone about how they identify, but 2 people said straight away they were Jewish. Some talked about prejudices they had faced in life and the need to stand against a decline in global ethics. The march was peaceful and attended by people from all over the UK.

The first 6 minutes are people speaking, followed by roughly 10 minutes of soundscape from the demo. The march finished at Trafalgar Square, a short walk from Downing Street. The final couple of minutes are the bells of Westminster Abbey, as we walked away at the end of the day, passing through statues and buildings constructed at the heart of the British Empire, one can't help be be reminded of that empire's lasting legacy.

The first national march was held on 15th October. At the time, the UK Home Secretary branded the marches as 'hate marches' as did parts of the UK press.

As of December 30, 2023 Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor estimated Gaza Strip civilian deaths at 27,681.

On 30 October, Save the Children reported more children had died in three weeks in Gaza than in the entire sum of conflicts around the world in the past four years.

https://www.un.org/en/situation-in-occupied-palestine-and-israel

A fabulous afternoon event, organised by by members of the local Ukranian community. Held in Preston Park on Sunday 9th July.

The Kupala Brighton website has been set up by Vladyslava Bondar and Marek Kohn. Please support their work by visiting the site and following their social media.

https://kupalabrighton.org/

https://www.standforukrainebnh.org/

Soundscape from Nagpur, including a musician outside Deekshabhoomi, where B. R. Ambedkar converted to Buddhism as an action against the caste system and street sounds from the Itwari market district.

A soundscape of chants, music and some street speakers (as in those not on the stage) and incidental sounds from the National March for Palestine on 18th May 2024, to commemorate the Nakba. The demonstration finished in Whitehall, although many sat in Trafalgar Square, where there was an event by the Sri Lankan Tamil community, commemorating 15 years since the end of the civil war and also the genocide committed there. Coincidentally as with the Palestine situation, there are also connections to the British Empire.

As always the march was hugely diverse, with a sizeable Jewish Bloc.

Photographs and more in the link here

https://www.bestfootmusic.net/post/voices-from-the-protests

Nakba info;

https://nakba.amnesty.org/en/

https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/israelopt-current-scenes-forced-displacement-gaza-reminiscent-nakba

https://press.un.org/en/2024/gapal1467.doc.htm

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nakba