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Out of My Head

Grace Cookey-Gam and Toby Jones & a binaural journey of intoxication, inspiration and loss of words & sanity. Music from Doris Day and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan to Oliver Knussen.

Out of My Head is a binaural journey about intoxication and inspiration.
Like any good party we begin with an invitation from Kurt Weill as he staggers from bar to bar in Alabama Song. He’s joined by Baudelaire and Rimbaud but age and time are elastic and before long we are battering down Huxley’s Doors of Perception and entering the psychedelic realm of Jefferson Airplane. It will sound like it too, particularly if you put on headphones, as the programme is a binaural transmission. You will hear the sun moving across the stereo picture talking to Frank O’Hara and nightingales jamming with Clive Bell’s shakuhachi flute; you will hear rain and footsteps as you enter the upside down world of Thomas Traherne's great metaphysical poem, Shadows in the Water. Imagination is our vehicle – the imagination that leads Sasha Dugdale to conjure the grieving spirit of William Blake’s wife, Catherine: or allows us to leap with Anne Sexton into the heart and mind of an old woman stricken with Alzheimer’s but still able to recall a favourite tune as writers conjure different images of mental health.

The voices you’ll be hearing in your head are those of the actors Grace Cookey-Gam and Toby Jones.
Producers: Zahid Warley, Christopher Rouse and Georgia Mann Smith

READINGS:
Baudelaire - Be Drunk
Aldous Huxley - Doors of Perception
Rimbaud - Deregulation of the Senses
Lewis Carroll - The Hunting of the Snark
Emily Dickinson - The brain is wider than the sky
James Merrill - Voices from the Other World
Shakespeare - Ophelia's soliloquy from Hamlet
Sasha Dugdale - From Joy
Anne Sexton - Mister Wait
Rumi - The Turn
Clare Shaw - Tree
Frank O'Hara - A True Account of Talking to the Sun on Fire Island
Thomas Traherne - Shadows in the Water

1 hour, 14 minutes

Last on

Sun 5 May 2019 17:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

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Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:00

    Kurt Weill

    Alabama Song

    Performer: Lotte Lenya.
    • 2011 Stage Door Records.
    • Tr5.
  • 00:00

    Kurt Weill

    Alabama Song

    Performer: The Doors.
    • Rhino.
    • Tr17.
  • 00:00

    Kurt Weill

    Alabama Song

    Performer: Ute Lemper.
    • Decca.
    • Tr9.

  • Charles Baudelaire

    Be Drunk read by Toby Jones.

  • 00:02

    Kurt Weill

    Alabama Song

    Performer: Lotte Lenya.
    • 2011 Stage Door Records.
    • Tr5.
  • 00:02

    Kurt Weill

    Alabama Song

    Performer: The Doors.
    • Rhino.
    • Tr17.
  • 00:02

    Kurt Weill

    Alabama Song

    Performer: Ute Lemper.
    • Decca.
    • Tr9.

  • Aldous Huxley

    Extract from The Doors of Perception read by Toby Jones.

  • 00:07

    Grace Slick

    White Rabbit

    Performer: Jefferson Airplane.
    • Castle.
    • Tr6.

  • Arthur Rimbaud

    Extract from letter – deregulation of the senses read by Grace Cookey-Gam.

  • 00:10

    Cecil Taylor

    Jitney No. 2

    Performer: Cecil Taylor.
    • Freedom.
    • Tr4.

  • Lewis Carroll

    From The Hunting of the Snark read by Grace Cookey-Gam.

  • 00:16

    Oliver Knussen

    Fanfare 1-Overture from Higglety Pigglety Pop!

    Performer: London Sinfonietta.
    • Deutsche Grammophon.
    • Tr19.

  • Emily Dickinson

    The Brain is wider than the sky read by Grace Cookey-Gam.

  • 00:19

    Alvin Lucier

    I am Sitting in a Room extract

    Performer: Alvin Lucier.
    • Source.
    • Tr1.

  • James Merrill

    Voices from the Other World read by Toby Jones.

  • 00:25

    Arnold Schoenberg

    Verklarte Nacht- Breiter

    Performer: Juilliard String Quartet.
    • Sony.
    • Tr2.

  • Shakespeare

    Hamlet Act IV scene 5 – Ophelia’s madness read by Grace Cookey-Gam.

  • 00:33

    Hans Abrahamsen

    Let me Tell you How it is

    Performer: Barbara Hannigan. Performer: Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
    • Winter & Winter.
    • Tr4.

  • Sasha Dugdale

    From Joy read by Grace Cookey-Gam.

  • 00:41

    Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan

    Nothing without You (Tery Bina)

    Performer: Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.
    • Real World.
    • Tr2.

  • Anne Sexton

    Music Swims Back to Me read by Grace Cookey-Gam.

  • 00:47

    Sammy Fain and Paul Francis Webster

    Secret Love

    Performer: Doris Day.
    • Past Classics.
    • Tr10.

  • Rumi

    The Turn read by Grace Cookey-Gam

  • 00:51

    William Duckworth

    Time Curve Prelude 7

    Performer: Katia Labèque.
    • EMI.
    • Tr2 CD 2.
  • 00:53

    Nightingales from Slow Listening on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

    Improvisation with nightingales

    Performer: Clive Bell.
    • Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3.
    • Tr1.

  • Clare Shaw

    Tree read by Grace Cookey-Gam

  • Frank OÂ’Hara

    A True Account of Talking to the Sun on Fire Island read by Toby Jones.

  • 01:02

    Hildegard von Bingen

    Ignis Spiritus

    Performer: Gothic Voices.
    • Hyperion.
    • Tr3.
  • 01:07

    Arvo Pärt

    Spiegel im Spiegel

    Performer: Bournemouth Sinfonietta.
    • EMI.
    • Tr4.

  • Thomas Traherne

    Shadows in the Water read by Toby Jones.

  • 01:12

    György Kurtág

    fin fond de neant

    Performer: György Kurtág.
    • ECM.
    • Tr4.

Broadcast

  • Sun 5 May 2019 17:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 3

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