KNITSONIK MIXTAPE #7: SONIK Balance For Better Blanket

This year in celebration of International Women’s Day, I decided to work on a SONIK accompaniment to the Balance for Better Blanket on which I collaborated last year with my amazing friends at KDD & Co.

celebratory stranded colourwork blanket, made up of many different, intricately-designed squares

The result is a rather long and dense audio mix which blends readings of texts written by the women featured in the blanket with field-recordings or audioworks related in some way to their work or its creative context. There are also compositions or songs created by some of the women celebrated in the blanket; clips of reportage or interviews relating to their work; and music which is connected in some other way. You can hear the mix here and today on the blog I’m sharing a detailed tracklist citing all my sources and the timings of when each one enters the mix.
Women’s names in bold.

Happy Listening!

00:00:00 – Source by Nubya Garcia
https://nubyagarcia.bandcamp.com/

00:02:05 – With my Hammer by Shannon Smy of Seize the Day
http://www.shannonsmy.org/

00:02:36 – excerpts from The Hammer Blow – how 10 women disarmed a warplane – by Andrea Needham
https://peacenews.info/node/8245/hammer-blow-%E2%80%93-how-10-women-disarmed-warplane

00:08:46 – excerpts from How to destroy a warplane with a Hammer – by Undercurrents Media featuring the women of Seeds of Hope: Jo Blackman, Lyn Bliss, Clare Fearnley, Emily Johns, Lotta Kronlid, Andrea Needham, Jen Parker, Ricarda Steinbrecher and Rowan Tilly
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zs1Ah3eIo-8

00:11:41 – Source (Maxwell Owin remix) by Nubya Garcia

00:11:49 – excerpt from The Birth of Cool by Carol Tulloch, featuring the words of Beryl Gilroy
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/the-birth-of-cool-9781859734704/#sthash.NXcwELP9.dpufwebsite

00:12:26 – excerpt from Black Teacher by Beryl Gilroy
https://www.peepaltreepress.com/authors/beryl-gilroy

00:14:50 – Land Of The Midnight Sun, Aurorora Borealis by Wendy Carlos
http://www.wendycarlos.com/

00:16:04 – excerpts from Alma Thomas by Ian Berry and Lauren Haynes featuring the words of Alma Thomas
https://prestelpublishing.randomhouse.de/book/Alma-Thomas/Ian-Berry/Prestel-com/e508285.rhd

00:19:59 – Diamond by Little Simz (Simbiatu ‘Simbi’ Abisola Abiola Ajikawo)
https://littlesimz.bandcamp.com/

00:21:02 – excerpts from Buchi Emecheta interview | Civil Rights | women’s rights | Today | 1975, featuring Buchi Emecheta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJPIJ8JpOFk

00:22:21 – Ready by Vicky Sola
https://vickysola.bandcamp.com/

00:25:31 – One Blank Summer by Caroline McKenzie
https://carolinemckenzie.bandcamp.com/

00:25:55 – Britain’s Unsung First World War Hero by Forces TV, highlighting the work of Dr Elsie Inglis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rC2B99zQJI0

00:30:34 – Slave Driver by Our Native Daughters who are Rhiannon Giddens, Amythyst Kiah, Leyla McCalla and Allison Russell
https://ournativedaughters.bandcamp.com/album/songs-of-our-native-daughters

00:30:53 – Bury Me in a Free Land by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper read by Nefeli Vidali for LibriVox
https://librivox.org/short-poetry-collection-184-by-various/

00:35:15 – excerpt from We Are All Bound Up Together by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
https://awpc.cattcenter.iastate.edu/2017/03/21/we-are-all-bound-up-together-may-1866/

00:36:43 – Oceano Pacifico by Chloé Despax
https://archive.org/details/aporee_27202_31349

00:37:51 – Lear by Pauline Oliveros, Stuart Dempster and Panaoiotis
https://www.roughtrade.com/us/pauline-oliveros-stuart-dempster-panaoiotis/deep-listening?utm_source=CJ&cjevent=2d47bf31620711ea838f019e0a18050d

00:38:20 – excerpts from An Atlas Of The Difficult World by Adrienne Rich read by the poet herself at the 1995 Santa Cruz County Artist of the Year Awards
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O_N7vQVBFs

00:39:47 – Rattlesnake Mountain by Pauline Oliveros on Maritime Rites by Alvin Curran
https://paulineoliveros.us/

00:41:36 – Los Angeles Without Palm Trees by Geneva Skeen
https://genevaskeen.bandcamp.com/

00:43:36 – The Ocean at Portland Bill by Felicity Ford (that’s me)

00:44:05 – reading of Oread by H.D.
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/48186/oread

00:44:40 – Washing Up Wineglasses by Felicity Ford
http://www.sound-diaries.co.uk/previous-sound-diaries-projects/2010-2/uk-soundmap-sonic-time-capsule/

00:45:35 – reading of excerpt from Washing Day by Anna Laetitia Barbauld
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51901/washing-day

00:46:40 – Up, Up and Away by Fifth Dimension whose members were Billy Davis Jr., Florence La Rue, Marilyn McCoo, Lamonte McLemore, and Ronald Townson
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfxqQmWtGNM

00:49:08 – How High The Moon (Live in Berlin 1960) by Ella Fitzgerald
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iR1__k-BxhY

00:55:47 – Preserve by Maiya Hershey
https://maiya-hershey.bandcamp.com/

00:56:14 – excerpt from 13 Question Interview on Angela Davis Speaks featuring Angela Yvonne Davis
https://angeladavisspeaks.bandcamp.com/album/angela-davis-speaks

00:57:40 – US (ft. Rocky Rivera, Klassy, and Faith Santilla) by Ruby Ibarra
https://rubyibarra.bandcamp.com/

01:01:40 – Turn You (DJ Nphared Remix) by Rocky Rivera (Krishtine De Leon)
https://rockyriverabeatrock.bandcamp.com/

01:04:41 – Erilegh Ifanata by Les Filles de Illighadad who are Fatou Seidi Ghali and Alamnou Akrouni
https://lesfillesdeillighadad.bandcamp.com/

01:05:09 – reading of excerpt from Stitched from the Soul: Slave Quilts from the Ante-Bellum South by Gladys-Marie Fry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gladys-Marie_Fry

01:07:33 – A Stream near Ben Dorian by Felicity Ford

01:08:00 – reading of excerpt from The Living Mountain by Nan Shepherd
https://www.waterstones.com/book/the-living-mountain/nan-shepherd/robert-macfarlane/9780857861832

01:08:00 – Pebble Beach by Felicity Ford

01:08:16 – Petit Jardin by Magali Babin
https://www.magalibabin.com/magalibabin.com/1.html

01:08:29 – The Rustle of Paper by Lau Mun Leng
https://syrphe.bandcamp.com/album/art-of-the-muses

01:09:04 – reading of Dr Darwin’s description of the paper flowers of Mary Delaney, taken from The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney, by Mary Delaney
https://archive.org/details/autobiographyan01coolgoog/page/n8/mode/2up

01:10:00 – Breatheeyesmemory: Still Ill Installation Soundtrack by Raman Mundair
https://soundcloud.com/user-188666667-76863612/breatheeyesmemorystillill-installation-soundtrack
https://youtu.be/ArEpaNrg1dk

01:23:08 – In My Dreams by Anohni
https://anohni.bandcamp.com/album/paradise

01:23:12 – Rain on the Car Roof by Felicity Ford

01:23:15 – Let Glasgow Flourish sung by St Mungo Music; this is a religious musical interpretation of the same Glasgow Phrase – Let Glasgow Flourish – with which Ann Macbeth embroidered her Women’s Suffrage banner.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Macbeth

01:26:00 – Karma by Anohni

01:26:13 – Roxana Marcoci discusses the work and legacy of Untitled by Claude Cahun
https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/claude-cahun-untitled-c-1921/

01:27:40 – Gillian Wearing reads from Disavowels by Claude Cahun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI03GvB6bls

01:29:18 – Even the Outline Fades by Caroline McKenzie

01:30:00 – Slow traffic on the Street by Felicity Ford

01:30:27 – reading of Why Brickwork? by Jane A. Wight from Catching the Sun [an anthology of poetry and prose]
https://library.reading.gov.uk/cgi-bin/spydus.exe/FULL/WPAC/BIBENQ/179967159/391782229,2

01:31:13 – Turiya & Ramakrishna (Album Version) by Alice Coltrane
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUMuDWDVd20

01:39:21 – Introduction by Daphne Oram
https://boomkat.com/artists/daphne-oram
01:40:43 – Look at Oramics by Daphne Oram

01:41:38 – Studio Experiment No. 2 by Daphne Oram

01:41:52 – Melodic Group Shapes i by Daphne Oram
https://trunkrecords.greedbag.com/buy/electronic-sound-patterns-and-el-0/

01:42:19 – Pop Tryouts Part 1 by Daphne Oram

01:42:27 – Oramics Demonstration by Daphne Oram

01:44:23 – Rita by Be Steadwell
https://bsteady.bandcamp.com/

01:44:34 – In Conversation with Alison Bechdel featuring Alison Bechdel speaking to members of the Young Vic
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1_r8F2ubCo
http://dykestowatchoutfor.com/

01:58:40 – Nothing Really Blue by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, led by English guitarist Simon Jeffes and co-founded with cellist Helen Liebmann
https://penguincafeorchestra.bandcamp.com/

01:49:30 – reading from The Lady’s Assistant for executing useful and fancy designs in knitting, netting, and crochet work by Jane Gaugain
https://ia800202.us.archive.org/21/items/krl00394037/krl00394037.pdf

01:50:46 – Hazel Tindall Knitting with a Belt recorded by Felicity Ford and featuring the fast makkin’ wires of Hazel Tindall
https://aporee.org/maps/work/projects.php?project=shetlandwool

01:51:14 – Yodel 3 by Penguin Cafe Orchestra

01:52:52 – reading from Elizabeth Friedlander: one of the first women to design a typeface by Billie Muraben and reflecting on the life, work and legacy of Elizabeth Friedländer
https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/elizabethfriedlander-graphicdesign-internationalwomensday-080318

01:54:32 – History of Mary Barbour with The History Girls on Live at Five, in which Karen Mailley-Watt and Rachael Purse explore the life, work and legacy of Mary Barbour
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-S4ecGYwQ4

01:56:11 – Snow by Daphne Oram
https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/article/50-things-daphne-orams-snow

01:57:51 – excerpts from Kitchen Show by Bobby Baker
https://dailylifeltd.co.uk/our-work/daily-life-series-1991-2001/daily-life-series-1-kitchen-show/

02:03:55 – Bodies by Phonodelica (Donia Jarrar)
https://phonodelica.bandcamp.com/releases

02:04:00 – What I Will by Suheir Hammad
https://www.ted.com/talks/suheir_hammad_poems_of_war_peace_women_power?language=en

02:07:05 – reading of an excerpt from Building Britannia: Life Experiences With Britain featuring the words and recollections of Althea McNish
https://www.newbeaconbooks.com/black-british-non-fiction/building-britannia?rq=althea%20mcnish

02:08:42 – Castilianne (Juliana) by the Girl Pat Oildrum Orchestra (some of whose members include Hazel Henly, Irma Waldron, Celia Didier, Elle Robertson, Joyce Forde, Norma Braithwaite, Eugene Gowen and Ellie Mannette)
https://www.google.com/search?q=girl+pat+site:panonthenet.com+OR+site:whensteeltalks.ning.com&cad=h

02:11:17 – Uptown Top Ranking by Althea and Donna (Althea Rose Forrest and Donna Marie Reid)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Althea_%26_Donna

02:14:53 – reading from Fashion For Disabled People by Nellie Thornton
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4613559-fashion-for-disabled-people

02:15:55 – Sewing Machine by Chicks on Speed (Alex Murray-Leslie and American Melissa Logan)
https://chicksonspeed.bandcamp.com/

02:14:00 – Winter by Wendy Carlos
http://www.wendycarlos.com/+sslms.html

02:19:38 – Winter (out-take) by Wendy Carlos

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