BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

Migrated podcast image for: Late Junction Sessions

Late Junction

Music

Music: World

Journeys in music, ancient to future. The home for adventurous listeners

Late Junction: The Voice As Contagion

The Voice As Contagion

BBC Radio 3 - Late Junction, The Voice As Contagion

Jennifer Lucy Allan explores sonic traces and haunted technology with Kristen Gallerneaux.

Jennifer Lucy Allan explores the idea of voice as contagion with author Kristen Gallerneaux, tracing how the voice has haunted our technologies since the dawn of recorded sound.

How does the human voice haunt our technology? Jennifer Lucy Allan is joined by author, curator and artist Kristen Gallerneaux to explore the idea of voice as contagion. Gallerneaux’s research is steeped in the idea of the ‘sonic spectre’ looking at how sound has infiltrated our technologies in surprising and magical ways. In this, the first of our features looking at the big ideas behind the music we play, Kristen traces a path from the early talking dolls of Thomas Edison to the work of Richard Gagnon, the inventor of an early text-to-speech synthesizer called the Votrax Type ‘N Talk. The votrax voice, modelled on Gagnon’s own, has spread through electronic music and pop culture in surprising ways: Kraftwerk, hip hop, educational robots and video games.  

Elsewhere the contagion for possessed electronics and vocal chinese whispers continues with scrambled signals and soulful non-sequiturs by Ain Bailey, Finnish inventor Erkki Kurenniemi and his potty-mouthed robot, Swedish sound artist Sten Hanson’s vocal excavations and new cuts from Late Junction favourite Klein. 

Produced by Alannah Chance.
A Reduced Listening Production for BBC Radio 3.

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Late Junction

The Voice As Contagion

Genres

Brand

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3