November 16, 2012

Damon Albarn's new composition to hit BBC airwaves

Damon Albarn's newest composition, named "2LO London Calling" has hit the airwaves across 55 BBC Radio stations globally at 5:33pm , on Wednesday, November 14th 2012.  The new song has played across national radio, World Service and the local UK radio stations to mark the 90th anniversary of the BBC yesterday.

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Damon created a comissioned musical collage for this special event. It was a mixture of soundbites of radio listeners from all ages all across the UK. More information was revealed via The Guardian's feature:

Albarn's creation, called 2LO London Calling (named after the original 2LO transmitter) is an unconventional affair, featuring Big Ben, bird song and a quote from philosopher Bertrand Russell, relayed in morse code.
It will also feature excerpts from the original broadcast on 14 November 1922 as well as the Greenwich Time Signal "pips".
The broadcast will be "hosted" by Radio 2 DJ Simon Mayo during his drivetime show, live from the Science Museum in west London.
The one-off broadcast, the first time such a wide-ranging simulcast has been attempted by the BBC, could be heard by an estimated 80 million listeners around the world. 

Listen below for Damon Albarn's new song debut. It is an interesting piece of audio, and sounds like a mixture of messages from across the times.

After all, the estimated audience worldwide for the stream was 120 million and each has heard Damon Albarn's 3 minute composition. We particularly liked the ending when music started and the speaking stopped.


Listen and watch the full Damon Albarn interview about his project, inspiration, process and excerpt from the special radio program below. He explains how he tried to collate the soundbites and what it means for him. He even talked a little about Nigeria and his feelings on each sound on the track.



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