Distraction Therapy

Conformity is often described as an external pressure: a set of customs, obligations or rules. Yet it also takes shape inside the imagination, in the [...] Source

What happens to art when public life becomes an argument about who belongs, who is right, and who is permitted to disagree? This edition of [...] Source

A train window holds two worlds for a moment. Outside, trees and railway lines pass in an uneven rhythm. Inside, the glass catches a reflection: [...] Source

There’s a moment when a familiar song stops sounding familiar. A chorus that once passed as entertainment acquires an uncomfortable edge. The rhythm still moves [...] Source

A leaf catches against a bicycle wheel. Afternoon sunlight reaches between buildings, illuminating a wall that will soon be in shadow. Somewhere beyond the street, [...] Source

There is an afternoon in autumn when the light seems to belong to two seasons at once. The sun still carries something of summer, warming [...] Source

A journey can begin long before we have decided where we are going. There is a particular pleasure in stepping out into a city without a [...] Source

There are times when the world seems to have settled into a familiar pattern. The same journeys, the same conversations, the same expectations. We follow [...] Source

The change arrives in small intervals. Rain settles on a railing. A leaf rests against the edge of a step. Between passing trains, the sound [...] Source

Autumn often announces itself through a change in the light. A familiar street looks different on the way home. Shadows settle earlier beneath the trees. [...] Source

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. Source

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 [...] Source

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 [...] Source

There is something deceptively simple about a bridge. It joins one place to another. It allows movement across a space that would otherwise interrupt the journey. [...] Source

The first River, Ritual & Ghosts programme follows an imagined city to the point where its river reaches the sea. This separate Japan episode begins [...] Source

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 [...] Source

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 [...] Source

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, [...] Source

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 [...] Source

We spend a lot of time being encouraged to choose a destination, find the quickest route, and keep moving forwards. There’s comfort in having a [...] Source

How far into the future do we need to imagine before the present becomes bearable? Tomorrow can still feel close enough to picture. The day [...] Source

What happens when the way we feel no longer fits the life we are expected to lead? This edition of Distraction Therapy moves through songs [...] Source

This edition of Distraction Therapy moves through several layers of contemporary Japanese music culture: independent guitar music, established melodic rock, singer-songwriter pop, bilingual British-Japanese avant-pop, [...] Source

This edition of Distraction Therapy begins with a reassurance, although not quite a promise. In the Pet Shop Boys’ version of It’s Alright, music is [...] Source

This edition of Distraction Therapy moves through Japanese pop, rock, film music and orchestral arrangement as though following a river from daylight into dusk. The [...] Source