No Return. A monthly hour long radio show on Resonance 104.4 fm.
Once you've left, there's no coming back to where you were. Mark Aitken and guests discover that things will never be the same again.
We are joined by the illustrious flaneur Ted Dave who takes us around the medieval churches in the City of London. We feel the charm of finding something that’s no longer there, stumble into a quest for the origins of the Avian Goddess, witness the torpor of men drinking too much coffee and discover why Samuel Pepys hid his Parmesan.
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https://teddave.org/
They say you die twice. One time when you stop breathing and then later when someone says your name for the last time. This edition is dedicated to Brent Aitken, five years after.
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Following a misguided arts residency, I made an attempt to return to 79AD. The portal was clogged with ambulance sirens, demonstrators, football fans and back to back tourists visiting a mass grave. I made do with the persistence of crickets and the joy of making a soundtrack to it all.
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Edition 11 - What if art had ears and could speak back? 3rd April, 2026
I’ve heard it said that the work of art takes place during the encounter – an interaction between us and it that ultimately comes down to a feeling. This makes me crave silence in a gallery, in need for contemplation – akin to a church – but I’m clearly in a minority. Galleries are as noisy as train stations. I recently visited some galleries in London and recorded what the art works could hear and wondered how they would respond. Join me and consider your own response.
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Edition 10 - Happiness, 6th March, 2026
Edition 9, 6th February, 2026
Closer. A fig is an inverted flower that wasps no bigger than a pinhead enter from the base. One wasp meets another and more wasps are born. If you look even closer, you will see a single grain of pollen on the throrax of one of these wasps. Meet Rob Kesseler on the island of Corfu as he shares his wonder for the world - where science and art become greater than the sum of their parts. And we also discover that there is no olive oil in olive soap. Thanks to Rob, Agalis Manessi and Apostolos Patounis. With music by Eric Satie.
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With music by Charlemagne Palestine.
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Mark Aitken and Jonty Sale muse over sounds relating to what is over, under, inside and through their experiences of entanglements with nonhuman forms when making photographs. Their whole point of no return is marked by the opening of a joint exhibition called 'In Discrete Dialogue' at Ken Artspace on the 4th - 25th October as part of PhotoMonth, London.
With recordings made by Jonty and others from Philip Jeck, Jacaszek, Moondog and Eleh.
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Resident artist Mark Aitken spent time in Parc y Moch (Park of Pigs) listening and recording sounds made by what's visible and not so. 'The Last Time You Listen' is about time and place and how sounds might orientate or disorientate us to this woodland. You can't always see what you hear or hear what you see.
Written, Performed and Produced by Mark Aitken. Welsh voiceover by Sara Roberts.
Thanks to Sara Roberts and Harri Pickering.
Commissioned by Parc Coed Moch CIC with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
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The series will take a summer break and hopefully return in the autumn. Thanks for listening.
Edition 3, 2nd May 2025
The tale of Deano Martino and the lost mobile phone. Join Mark Aitken and guest Lorna Vincent as they tread lightly over gothic
remains while landing at the whole point of no return. With music by Steve Reich and Dean Martin.
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Edition 1, 7th March 2025
Mark walks with writer Howard Cunnell along the freezing Eastbourne shoreline, blurring lines between writing and not writing and the rituals we cling to instead of getting on with work.
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