Distraction Therapy

Music rarely travels in a straight line. Ideas move between people, places and generations. A rhythm developed in one studio appears years later in another form. This edition of the Distraction Therapy Podcast Mixtape follows some of those transmissions through Japanese music.

There is a particular moment in popular music when the machine stops sounding like an imitation of musicians and begins to suggest an entirely different way of experiencing time. This edition of the Distraction Therapy Podcast Mixtape moves through that moment.

The second part of Building Bridges moves eastwards, but not in search of a simple contrast. This edition of the Distraction Therapy Podcast Mixtape turns towards Japan as a place of encounter: a collection of voices, textures, attitudes and musical possibilities.

There is something deceptively simple about a bridge. It joins one place to another and allows movement across a space that would otherwise interrupt the journey. This edition of Distraction Therapy considers connection without requiring agreement.

The first River, Ritual & Ghosts programme follows an imagined city to the point where its river reaches the sea. This separate Japan episode begins at that horizon and asks what happens when listening crosses it.

I’ve been reflecting on the way a city can exist in more than one form at the same time. There is the visible city of [...]

The journey into the mountains continues, but Part Two begins as though we have already reached the end. Boris opens the mix with “Farewell”, placing [...]

Travelling to the mountains involves more than reaching higher ground. It is a movement away from familiar proportions and into a landscape where paths disappear, [...]

This episode of Distraction Therapy shifts the point of view to Japan. The theme remains Back to School, but the mood becomes brighter, faster and [...]

September brings a subtle change of rhythm. The light shifts, the air sharpens and routes which had loosened during summer begin to gather into patterns [...]