Out of the blue, a couple of months ago,  I was asked if I would consider creating a sound collage ident for a popular and locally important new arts podcast by it’s host Jay Sykes.

ArtyParti  celebrates and promotes participatory arts in the North East of England. It’s regular radio show brings artists and creatives together to chat about projects and passions, events and exhibitions, artistic practice and advice.

My starting point was two fold –

Firstly the name – Arty = Arts

Parti = I wanted to convey a party idea and to bring out the fun aspect and enjoyment of Participatory Arts and the show itself and host without being frivolous or belittling.

I aimed for something that wouldn’t be in competition with the speech, host or guests
– minimalist but not
– relevant but not obtrusive
– jolly but not distracting
– elements of continuity with the past intro music, which has been rhythmic and percussive – nothing too new but definitely a Museleon piece.

It was a challenge for many technical reasons. The piece is constructed from 24 arts based sounds to represent as many of the arts as possible but is not exhaustive but includes Tap dancing, watercolours, computer keyboard, short scribble, scissors, sparycan, old typewriter return and bell, balloon art, drawing, tape, paper scrunch, marker pen, applause, hard pastels, typewriter, paper fold, pencils, spraypaint, palette knife, colouring, paintbrush, guillotine and applause. There’s a final flourish of fireworks, theatre audience and party poppers.

You can listen to the show  and if interested you can find out and hear more about ArtyParti via the website here