'River of Sound’ premiered as a brand new arts partnership between this year's 11th annual Totally Thames Festival & the musically maverick London-based, arts-facing radio station Resonance FM.

A series of 24-hour arts-radio manifestations of riverine avant sound experimentation & Thamesian discussion over each of the four September Sundays, broadcast on Resonance FM + DAB & streaming.

An audio deep dive from the rising of the river to the Estuary mouth. 

‘Water remembers. It is humans who forget.’ (Elif Shafak 'There Are Rivers in the Sky’ 2024)

Go with the flow on our radio ebb and tide. 

WOMEN, ART & WATER

The second transmission of River Of Sound was hosted by curator Claire Mander, director of theCOLAB/The Artist’s Garden.  Situated on the roof terrace above Temple tube station, The Artist’s Garden has 85 metres of river frontage with views over the Thames stretching from the Houses of Parliament to Tate Modern.  Unsurprisingly, the River has been the source of inspiration for many of the artists who have made work for at what is the world’s only sculpture garden dedicated to the work of women artists. 

Listen to conversations with and between three artists recently commissioned for the Artist’s Garden whose work examines the nature of water and interrogates the narratives of the Thames: Holly Hendry’s ‘Slackwater’ and Candida Powell-Williams’s fountain ‘Auguries Through the Mist’ and Kate McMillan’s ‘The River’s Stomach (Songs of Empire)’ an intervention into the nearby Strand Lane Roman Baths.  Joining the discussion from her riverside studio in Devon, Tania Kovats, whose work has long posed the question of ‘what rivers run through you?’.

Hear how water runs through their processes and their thinking and what from what watery musical, literary and artistic sources they derive inspiration.  

ABOUT RESONANCE FM

Resonance is a groundbreaking 24/7 radio station which broadcasts on 104.4 FM to central London, DAB to Greater London, nationally on Radioplayer and live streamed to the rest of the world.

Realised by a dedicated community of volunteer engineers and programme-makers, Resonance offers over 105 creative broadcast series every week featuring local and international artists, makers and experts.

Resonance seeks to discover, encourage and support a diverse range of artistic voices through radio - from first-timers to seasoned broadcasters. Our ambition is to provide a broadcast platform through which as many people as possible can exercise “the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community and to enjoy the arts” (Article 27, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights).

Our role extends to support for the rights of free speech; the rights to freely receive and impart information; and, in these days of algorithms curating and pushing us to mainstream commercial content, we offer protection to freedom of thought by ceding as much editorial control as current broadcast regulations allow to our contributors.  Resonance is a project of London Musicians' Collective Limited, registered charity 290236.

https://www.resonancefm.com/about

ABOUT TOTALLY THAMES FESTIVAL

Celebrating the River Thames with arts events, active adventures, environmental initiatives, heritage and education programmes. Totally Thames Festival is an annual season of unique, diverse and accessible arts and culture throughout the month of September with activity taking place on, beneath, and along the River Thames.

The month-long live event programme along a 42-mile stretch of the Thames, working collaboratively with artists, local communities, river interest organisations and businesses.

https://thamesfestivaltrust.org/

ABOUT THE HOST

Claire Mander and theCOLAB

Claire Mander is the Director and Trustee of theCOLAB. Launched in 2011, this registered charity forges opportunities for the commissioning of complex large-scale interventions in unusual sites beyond the white cube and into the landscape. theCOLAB unites people, land and art by commissioning epic, life-affirming and career-defining sculptural works in undervalued and underused outdoor public spaces.

About The Artist's Garden and MARY MARY

The Artist's Garden has transformed a 1,400 sqm hidden and neglected roof terrace above Temple tube station into a place for the public to experience large-scale life-affirming artistic interventions by women artists. Situated next to Somerset House and accessible by steps from Temple Place it is only a seven-minute walk from the RSA.

A popular public open barrier-free destination for the contemplation and appreciation of the power of sculptural interventions by women artists, its 85 metres of river frontage offers extensive views and a vibrant programme of artist commissions, residencies in the Artist's Hut and an education programme for 13-16-year-olds

It is open to the public all day every day for free from 8am until dusk. Its current exhibition, MARY MARY, enacts a large-scale reclamation of public space by a diverse group of nine artists: Rong Bao, Olivia Bax, Lucy Gregory, Virginia Overton, Candida Powell–Williams, Frances Richardson, Holly Stevenson, LR Vandy and Alice Wilson.

Their work challenges and reimagines traditional ideas about gardens reshapes the negative portrayal of strong-willed women as 'contrary', a stereotype deeply rooted in our national consciousness, and highlights the bold, non-conformist approaches of women artists. The works offer new perspectives on the possibilities of sculpture materially and as a conduit for revealing untold stories.