On Air

Audio as Image

During my many years working as a radio broadcast journalist, travelling the world, collecting people and their stories, I have been given the opportunity to write, produce and direct about 120 Arts features and radio plays for ARD/BR, each around 30 to 180 minutes long. 

 

 

Photo RAX / Ragnar Axelsson, Iceland 2017

 

Image as Audio

 

 

 

I hear what you don’t see;

But tell you what the sound imparts.

Tell me what you hear,

So I can see who you are! 

 

 

 

Listed below is a selection of what I consider to be amongst my most significant works. A number saw success as audiobooks, but, unfortunately, are in part no longer available. 

  The sky is a hypothetical substance

 

In the ether,

through the air, in the air,

from the air, frequently on air:

 

Between heaven and earth

Travelling with one of the world’s most successful balloon pilots “on air” for Bayerischer Rundfunk, September 8th 2016 

Wilhelm Eimers is the most successful gas balloonist in the world. Having set off on nearly 3,000 flights, he has, to date, spent over 9,000 hours in the air. Sometimes for days on end. His 92-hour world record has remained unbroken since 1995.

 

Audiobooks and radio features

– Africa’s Fortune – Namibia’s chequered history retold by Wolf Gaudlitz, Namibia 2014

– Algerian Diary with Wolf’s desert cinema, criss-crossing a forbidden country, Algeria 2001

– At the Midpoint of Europe lies the centre of the world, on another planet maybe, Neualbenreuth 2009

– From a Vast Country– an extensive Russian tour, Siberia 2011

– Cone and Crater Man and myth from the foot of volcanoes, from Iceland to Sicily, 3×60 minutes, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Deutschlandfunk 2007

– The Leopard’s Inheritance – from the life of the hereditary Sicilian prince Gioacchino Lanza Tomasi di Lampedusa, Palermo 2013

– The Volcano Comes, A Town Vanishes Naples and Vesuvius, 2007

– Far Too Many Gods on a religious journey through the Indian state of Rajasthan, 2006

– The Other Reality – 40 years after the band and commune Lord’s Family was founded, Beilngries 2010

– The High Art of Moving Forward, crossing the Sahara: triumphing over sand, water and air, Sahara 2005

– The Wondrous Fable of the Awe-inspiring Quaking of the AirChristmas shots, Berchtesgaden 2010

– Mali’s Drama and the Tragedy of the Tuareg Mali at war, 2013

– My Father the Magician, my Love the Sea the youngest daughter of Thomas and Katja Mann, Elisabeth Mann-Borgese, 2×90 mins, Canada 1999, also available as an audiobook, Audiobuch Verlag, Freiburg

– Echoes from Halifax – a bewitching smile, memories of Thomas Mann’s daughter Elisabeth Mann-Borgese after she passed away, 4×60 mins, also available as an audiobook, Audiobuch Verlag, Freiburg, 2010

– And there was Light at the End of the World – Ultima Thule, Lapland 2004

– Fade to Black– A short history of the moving image and of the film-projectionists of the beautiful illusion, Germany 2015

– God is Great but Bavaria is Beautiful when Arabs go in search of treatment in the Free State of Bavaria, Upper Bavaria 2012

– Harry Linser’s Final Visit to Vienna – a Holocaust survivor’s story of life and survival in the 20th century, Vienna and Israel 2012

– Ilha Mozambique – the tiny island Ilha Mozambique and the huge country Mozambique, Mozambique 2000

– Everyman’s Inheritance – the life story of Hofmannsthal’s grandson, Michael Zimmer, New York 2002

– Beyond the Stream of Speech – an attempt to enter into conversation with hermits and recluses, Switzerland, Austria, Germany 2016

– Kairouan, the most Western Pearl of Islam – the holy city positioned between the marked strictness of the Orient and the fun-lovingness of the Occident, Tunisia 2004

– Cape Verdean Samba – the rhythm of life on Santo Antão, Cape Verdi, 2011

– Human and Insects  – true stories of love and hate and the extinction of species, South Germany, 2018

– Marcel Marceau, Moved by Silence  the greatest mime artist of all time talks honestly and revealingly on what was to be his final tour, Germany 2005, also available as an audiobook, Audiobuch Verlag Freiburg

– People in the Light, Ever Brighter, Ever Further – the drug of light, 3,000 km by bicycle, with barely any sleep, midsummer, north Norway, 2003

– Ninety Years Round and Round – Stories about Bavaria’s oldest big wheel, Auer Dult, Munich 2014

– Palermo the Island on Sicily – fabulous discoveries in the Sicilian capital (still the Mafia capital at that time) 1981

– Pieve Santo Stefano, Town of the diaries – encounters with words, writings and simple stories of people, Tuscany, 2012

– The Cocoa Paradise, São Tomé & Principe – two islands, one future, Lisbon, São Tomé & Principe 2015

– Tell Me of the Warm Heart of the North – travels in Iceland with the brilliant and extraordinary black and white photographer Ragnar Axelsson, RAX , Iceland 2017

– Secret Message from the Sahara – poetic snapshots from Africa’s largest country: Algeria 2016

– The Bedrock of Home: Love when affection is felt within and places close to home held dear, Bavaria 2013

– She alone: the Sea Cloud – In the venerable lady’s white sails– the most beautiful ship in the world and its myth, Caribbean, North Sea, Baltic Sea 2008

– Voices that Move the Moon – the Sami shaman music when it is dark for weeks on end, Lapland 2009

– Deep Down in Bavaria– Cellar stories from Bavaria, Making the hidden heard, Bavaria 2015

– From the Art of Collecting People Hans Herman Rief and his 20th century, Haus im Schluh, Worpswede 2001

– Between Heaven and Earth– Logbook of a balloon flight with Willi Eimers, 2010

 

… and a host of others.

 

 


 ‘RAX’, 

Ragnar Axelsson, 

one of the world’s

most superb 

light-catchers, 

capturing the art of his

Icelandic compatriot

Olafur Eliasson

in the Lenbachhaus,

Munich 2017.

 

Portraits from a cultural perspective

 

– Alfred Mandl, artist of life, sustainable tourism entrepreneur, Santo Antão, Cape Verdi 2011

– Annette Deeken, author, university professor in Film and Adventure (travel) , Trier 2005

– Bison Rouge, singer and cello virtuoso, Berlin 2016

– Boualem Sansal, writer, awarded the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade several times since 2009, Algeria, Tübingen, Vienna, Berlin

– Cathrin Pfeifer, accordionist, Berlin, Uckermark 2016

– Cesaria Evora, singer Cape Verdi, Paris 2009 and Mindelo Cape Verdi 2011

– Christian Sedell, stone whisperer and stone mason, author, Windischeschenbach 2009

– Didier Squiban, pianist, composer, Brittany 2001

– Elisabeth Mann-Borgese, maritime lawyer, author, co-founder of the Club of Rome and founder of the International Ocean Institute, on many occasions in Munich, Lisbon, Halifax 1996 – 2002

– Etta Scollo, singer, musician, Catania 2008

– Fridrik Thor Fridriksson, Icelandic film director, producer, 2000

– Halldór Gudmundsson, Icelandic writer, Reykjavik 2007

– Hans Herman Rief, Worpswede archivist, Haus im Schluh, 2001

– Hans Ritter, desert traveller, Tuareg-language researcher, author, photographer, Munich 2010

– Ian Anderson, Bandleader Jethro Tull, Berlin, 2000

– Ilya Kabakov, sculptor, painter, artist, Bremerhaven 1998, Paris 2008

– Ingeborg Wörndle – the voice of sport, stadium presenter at ten Olympics, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2006

– Joseph Werth, Catholic bishop of Siberia, Novosibirsk 2011

– Leoluca Orlando, Italian senior politician, mayor of Palermo, since 1985 various films and numerous portraits for print press and “on air”

– Leonore Mau, photographer Hamburg 1998

– Letizia Battaglia, photographer, Palermo 1993

– Lotfi Essid, writer, gallery owner, intellectual, Tunis 2012 und 2013

– Mari Boine, Sami singer-songwriter, Bremen 1998

– Marcel Marceau, greatest mime artist ever, Munich, Hamburg 2005

– Marlies Kirchner, grande dame of German cinema, Theatiner Filmkunst, Munich 2017

– Masha Alechina, activist from Pussy Riot, Bremen 2018

– Michael Lüders, writer, Middle-East specialist, Berlin 2016

– Michael Martin, photographer, author, traveller, Munich 2015

– Michael Zimmer, artist, collector, patron of the arts, New York 2001

– Milan Mihajlovic, painter, Sarajevo, Munich 2016

– Misha Alperin, pianist, composer. Moscow Art Trio , Oslo 2003 and Munich 2010

– Misia, fado singer, Paris 2000

– Olaf Otto Becker, photographer, author, Wörthsee 2016

– Otto Pfister, football coach, Cameroon 2008

– Peter Sturm – ‘the wicker storm’, weaving artist, Franconian Switzerland 2012

– Peter K. Wehrli, writer, poet, Zürich 2009

– Rabih Abou-Khalil, Lebanese musician and composer, Munich 2004

– Rachel Garniez, musician, singer, New York, Wuppertal 2013

– Rachid Taha, Algerian musician, Paris 2004

– Roland & Sabrina Michaud, photographers, authors, Paris 2016

– Roland Mack, entrepreneur, founder of Europa Park Rust, Rust 2006

– Rüdiger Nehberg, adventurer, world traveller, Munich 2005

– Sébastien de Ganay, sculptor, artist, Vienna 2017

– Stefan Rosenboom, photographer, author, Weilheim 2017

– Steffen List, musician, poet, Windhoek 2014

– Thomas Mandl, conductor, composer, Bad Reichenhall 2008

– Uli Balß, music producer, owner of the JARO label, Bremen 2015

– Ulli Lommel, actor, film director, producer, Munich 2003

– Wade Schuman, musician Hazmat Modine, Stuttgart 2012

– Walter von Lucadou, spirit hunter, parapsychologist, Freiburg 2017

– Wolfgang Czech, falconer, hunter, artist of life, Berchtesgaden 2006

 

and more of …

Bernd Molde, Emmerkingen

Humans & Insects – true stories of love and hate

 

Culture features, reportages

 

– Isolated and surveilled, South Algeria 2016

– Algeria – Cinema, Sahara 2001

– On the Home StretchHigh-performance sport in advanced years, 2016

– 70 years after the Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, 2006

– 70 years after the Berlin Olympics, 2006

– Encounters in No Man’s Land Travels with the Bible, 2000

– Up Hill, Down Dale, Lisbon Tramline 12, 2000

– The Earth has a Perfume and Shines Brightly, Lapland 2002

– The World as a Pebble, Windischeschenbach, 2010

– The White Fathers, tragedies and works from Rwanda to Uganda2015 

– A Longing Strikes us DeadSepp Kuffer, Bamberg 2010

– Reaching the Summit75 years of ascending the Zugspitze by cable-car, Garmisch-Partenkirchen 2005

– Divine Talents, Germany 2004

– Maze from A to Z, EXPO 2000, Hannover 2000

– Weaving and Willow Art, Upper Franconia 2012

– Moving Pictures, legendary arthouse cinemas, Germany 2000

– Mariánské Lázné, borderland between memory and Mafia, Marienbad 2005

– The North Sea and Midsummer, Norway 2003

– Ecumenism in Iceland, from Reykjavik to Arkureyri 2017

– A Costly Death, for nothing’s for free, Munich, Passau 2012

– Hot Air Balloon Winter Racing in Thuringia, Oberhof 2010

– Drilling deep in Windischeschenbach, Continental deepest Drilling, 2011

– Rainbow women,  The Sami Women, Lapland 2004

– Religious Freedom at Putin’s Mercy, Russia 2011

– Schwabing Destiny 1933-1945, the book from Ilse Macek, Munich 2008

– Black gold from Modica, Chocolate, Modica 2008

– When the Earth Cries Out, Elementary Circles, shamanism, Stromboli 2008

– Wolwedans, where the hyena dance, Namib desert 2014

– Sugar Cane and Rushes, on board of the Dahabiya on the Nile, Egypt 2010

 

and …

 

and

ain’t 

never 

no end – 

beyond 

the horizon 

and 

all reflection.