Soar Sound

Soar Sound
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Soar Sound is a community podcast dedicated to promoting social cohesion by highlighting the voices and stories of Leicester's diverse communities. Our mission is to foster an integrated intercultural society that brings people together based on their shared experiences of living, working, and studying in Leicester. Each episode features interviews with local residents, activists, and professionals discussing a range of topics, including social justice, public health, arts, culture, and community building. By focusing on media practices that promote individual and collective well-being, Soar Sound aims to create a sense of unity and belonging. Run by volunteers, Soar Sound is committed to enhancing social engagement and fostering a strong sense of community connection. Subscribe to Soar Sound to stay informed about the stories that unite us in our city.

Episodes

  1. FEB 2

    Spotlight on Art – Intangible Labour’s Spiritual Cleanse

    What does it mean to start where you stand, not as a slogan but as a practice? If art begins on the pavement, by the bus stop, at the edge of a park or in the corner of an adult education building, what changes in how you listen, how you notice, how you belong? When a poem names what is small and close rather than grand and distant, does it ask you to look again at the ground beneath your own feet? Where does performance end if the street becomes part of the stage? When a cloak marked with everyday symbols moves through a crowd, when disco is sung as affirmation rather than nostalgia, when fire is carried past taxis and traffic, are you watching something separate from daily life, or are you briefly seeing daily life reframed? What happens when ritual is not hidden away at a festival or gallery, but placed directly in the flow of an ordinary evening? Who does the work that goes unnoticed, and how do we recognise it without trying to measure it? When a candle is lit for care, for emotional labour, for creative effort, for the quiet maintenance of people and places, does that recognition change anything, even for a moment? Is a “spiritual cleanse” about erasing what weighs us down, or about pausing long enough to acknowledge what has been carrying weight all along? What kinds of folklore are still being written, not in books but in gestures, collaborations, and shared jokes made in the cold of January? If myths can be remade to suit the present, what gods, symbols, or stories would emerge from adult education centres, side streets, and working lives? How much of what feels ancient is simply sediment within us, waiting for the right conditions to surface again? As you listen, are you an audience member, a witness, or a participant? When the microphone captures laughter, uncertainty, interruption, and movement, does it change how you think about radio itself? Can broadcasting be a form of presence rather than documentation, a way of holding space rather than fixing meaning? And when the recording ends, what stays with you? Is it a line of poetry, a song re-sung, the image of fire moving through a city street, or a question you did not realise you were carrying? If you were to start where you stand, right now, what unseen work around you might deserve a moment of recognition? Source

    18 min

  2. JAN 27

    Spotlight on Travel – Standing at the Junction

    Travel is often framed as escape, leisure, or consumption. In this edition of Spotlight on Travel, the conversation moves in a different direction. John Coster and Rob Watson reflect on travel as a practice of attention, discomfort, and perspective-shifting, shaped as much by winter darkness at home as by encounters abroad. Drawing on recent journeys to India, Nigeria, Japan, and Cambodia, the discussion explores what travel reveals when it is undertaken with purpose rather than spectacle. Sound becomes as important as image, whether it is the organised chaos of a Mumbai junction or the quieter atmospheres of places shaped by difficult histories. These moments resist easy interpretation. They sit with complexity, memory, and contradiction. The programme also considers why travel still matters at a time of climate anxiety and cultural fatigue. Not as a moral badge or lifestyle choice, but as a way of testing assumptions, encountering other social models, and understanding one’s own position in the world more clearly. Ultimately, this episode is less about destinations than about orientation. Travel here is not about ticking places off a list. It is about noticing what changes in you when the familiar frame of reference no longer holds. Source

    32 min

  3. JAN 26

    Spotlight on Arts – Intangible Labour Discussion

    This discussion for Spotlight on Arts was recorded in the basement gallery at the Adult Education Centre during the Intangible Labour exhibition, bringing together a group of artists whose practices sit deliberately outside dominant institutional pathways. What emerges most clearly is not a single aesthetic position, but a shared experience of working independently in a system that routinely demands artists chase funding, approval, and legitimacy at the expense of time, wellbeing, and creative focus. The exhibition itself resists conventional gallery logic. There is no wall text, no hierarchy of names, and no prescribed route through the space. Visitors are invited to slow down, construct their own narratives, and engage on their own terms. For the artists, this approach mirrors how the work is made: relational, exploratory, and grounded in lived experience rather than market expectation. Several contributors describe practices shaped by working-class backgrounds, neurodivergence, street culture, performance, music, and autobiographical reflection. These are forms of cultural production that rarely sit comfortably within formal funding criteria or commercial gallery models. A recurring theme in the conversation is the burden of what Miffy Ryan describes as “intangible labour”: the unpaid hours spent applying for grants, paying submission fees, networking under pressure, absorbing rejection, and navigating systems that reward conformity and confidence over care and experimentation. Artists speak candidly about how monetisation structures distort practice, pushing them towards output-driven production or self-promotion strategies that undermine the very reasons they make work. For some, these environments are actively exclusionary, reinforcing classed expectations about language, behaviour, and appearance. What stands in contrast is the value of mutual support, trust, and shared space. Rather than waiting for permission or validation, this group has created its own conditions for making and showing work. The process of installing the exhibition, performing live music, and simply spending time together in the space becomes part of the artwork itself. Relationships between artists and curator are collaborative rather than transactional, and participation is shaped by invitation and care rather than competition. The discussion does not offer a neat alternative funding model, nor does it pretend that independence removes precarity. Instead, it points to something more modest but more sustainable: locally rooted, artist-led ecosystems that prioritise process, presence, and peer support. Several contributors express a desire not for scale or visibility in abstract terms, but for continuity: spaces where artists can return, develop, and take risks without constantly having to justify their existence. Taken together, the conversation suggests that supporting independent artists is less about refining application processes and more about recognising where value already exists. Time, space, trust, and modest financial security matter more than branding workshops or competitive calls. Intangible Labour demonstrates that when artists are freed, even temporarily, from the demand to chase approval, they produce work that is generous, challenging, and deeply human. Source

    32 min

  4. JAN 14

    Intangible Labour and the New Folklore Exhibition

    The Intangible Labour and the New Folklore exhibition, taking place at Leicester Adult Education Gallery on Belvoir Street brings together artists, performers, and musicians who are interested in the kinds of work that usually go unnoticed. This is not labour measured in hours, wages, or output, but the quieter effort involved in creativity, care, endurance, and emotional commitment. The exhibition and the accompanying podcast explore how much artistic work happens below the surface. Artists speak about the time, risk, and personal investment involved in making images, performances, and music. Much of this labour leaves little behind once a moment has passed, yet it shapes how culture is felt and remembered. Folklore plays an important role in this conversation. Here, folklore is not treated as something old-fashioned or fixed in the past. Instead, it is understood as something living and changing. Punk music, graffiti, work songs, disability performance, and improvised sound are all presented as modern forms of folklore, carrying shared stories about struggle, joy, loss, and belonging. Some of the work touches on difficult experiences, including illness, vulnerability, and personal hardship. These themes are approached carefully, not to shock, but to acknowledge that creativity is often tied to real life challenges. Making art can involve emotional and physical effort that is rarely visible to an audience. Music and performance feature strongly, reminding us that some of the most meaningful cultural moments cannot be fully captured or repeated. A song sung once, a performance witnessed briefly, or a sound drifting through a space can leave a lasting impression without ever becoming a permanent object. At its heart, Intangible Labour and the New Folklore is about connection. It asks how people come together through shared experiences, and how culture is created not just in galleries or on screens, but in everyday acts of expression. The podcast offers listeners a chance to hear these ideas unfold through conversation, reflection, and live performance, inviting us to listen more closely to the unseen work that keeps culture alive. Source

    31 min

  5. JAN 11

    Spotlight on Art – Computala Robots and AI

    This edition of Spotlight on Arts explores Computala, a digital and new media exhibition currently showing at LCB Depot in Leicester. Through a Radio Lear podcast conversation recorded at the launch, artists and curators reflect on how artificial intelligence, robotics, and generative systems are reshaping creative practice. Rather than promoting technology uncritically, the exhibition asks open questions about human agency, authorship, systems, and our relationship with machines. Visitors encounter installations, visuals, sound works, and participatory pieces that invite reflection rather than instruction. The podcast aligns closely with Soar Sound’s focus on accessible arts conversations rooted in local cultural life. Computala is open throughout January at LCB Depot, Leicester, with exhibitions, workshops, and events running alongside the main show. Source

    27 min

  6. 12/15/2025

    Spotlight on Travel – Finding Meaning in the Journeys We Take

    In this edition of Spotlight on Travel, Rob Watson and John Coster return after time away on their respective journeys, bringing with them a conversation that moves far beyond the idea of travel as leisure. Instead, they explore why travel matters, what it changes, and how it shapes the way we understand the places we come from. John begins by reflecting on his recent return to Nigeria, a country he first visited nearly twenty years ago. This latest trip took him deep into the working world of a new media house and into regions that are often described from afar through the language of instability and fear. What he found instead was a more complex reality shaped by people, encounters, and a sense of shared humanity. Moving between cities, filming on the ground, and attending a local wedding, he describes the experience as one that pushed him to examine assumptions, recognise local resilience, and appreciate the care shown by those who guided and protected him. Rob contrasts this with his first journey to Japan, a country he approached with curiosity and a desire to understand its rhythm. Travelling between cities, navigating public transport, and immersing himself in the everyday organisation of urban life, he describes Japan as a place defined by engineering, order, and a social expectation that visitors must adapt, rather than expecting the host culture to bend around them. He brings attention to the quiet details that reveal deeper cultural patterns, from the simple act of waiting at pedestrian crossings to the calm efficiency of public spaces. Together they discuss the challenge of tourism and the tension between authentic engagement and the growing global habit of performing experiences for the camera. They reflect on the difference between visiting places for bragging rights and experiencing them through conversation, patience, and attention. Both recognise that their most meaningful encounters came when they stepped away from the familiar, whether by leaving the main temples of Angkor Wat years ago or by finding quieter corners of Japanese cities far from the crowds. The conversation also turns to what travel reveals about home. Rob and John consider how experiences abroad cast new light on the places we return to, highlighting gaps in organisation, social cohesion, and cultural understanding. They question how cities with residents from around the world can better support encounters between cultures, rather than leaving people to retreat into small, separate groups. For both of them, the value of travel lies not in escape, but in the ability to see one’s own society more clearly. As the discussion closes, they return to the idea that the stories that matter most are the ones rooted in connection. Not the staged photographs or the checklist of attractions, but the everyday exchanges with strangers, the unexpected kindness, the shared food, and the moments that cannot be planned. Spotlight on Travel, in this sense, becomes an invitation to look for significance not only in distant places but also in the experiences that shape how we live and relate to one another. Source

    33 min

  7. 12/10/2025

    Spotlight on Art – Intangible Labour and the New Folk Culture

    In this episode of Spotlight on Art, the conversation turns to the elusive, everyday forms of creativity that often pass without recognition. Artist and curator Miffy Ryan introduces the idea of “intangible labour” as the starting point for her forthcoming exhibition at the Basement Gallery, opening 12th January 2026. It is a concept that emerges not from theory but from dialogue, rooted in the instinctive, often unnoticed forms of cultural work people carry out in their daily lives. The discussion unfolds with Miffy, James Chantry, and Paul Conneally exploring how culture is shaped not only by formal institutions but by gestures, rituals, memories and expressions that rarely make it into official accounts. From parents at the school gates in dressing gowns to unrecorded performances in marketplaces, these moments are described as carrying the weight of lived experience and cultural transmission. They challenge the narrow boundaries of what is considered legitimate culture, inviting listeners to think again about where cultural knowledge resides and how it moves across generations. James brings a perspective grounded in land, folklore and queerness, drawing on the spectral, rural and often unsettling histories of the Fens. His work shows how intangible culture can emerge from soil, water, memory and myth, revealing how landscape and identity intertwine. Paul reflects on decades of artistic experimentation, from collaborative conceptual work to his long-standing involvement in poetry and sound. His stories highlight how cultural value is negotiated through class, access and the subtle hierarchies that shape artistic legitimacy. Across the conversation, a shared thread develops: the tension between cultural expression that arises organically within communities and the forces that shape, package or suppress it. Whether through social expectations, algorithmic sorting or rigid artistic conventions, many forms of creativity remain unacknowledged until someone takes the trouble to frame and recognise them. Miffy’s exhibition seeks to create that frame. By gathering artists who work with ambiguity, contradiction and lived experience, Intangible Labour aims to open a space where masculinity, class and everyday creativity can be explored without judgement or prescription. It is an invitation to reconsider what culture is, who defines it and how it might be passed on. The episode closes with a sense of anticipation for the exhibition’s mix of performance, live painting, poetry and experimental sound—activities that bring the intangible into shared view, even if only for a moment. What emerges is a portrait of contemporary culture as something fluid, grounded and constantly recreated: a new folk culture shaped not by institutions but by the people who live it. Listen to the full discussion on Soar Sound and join the conversation about how art, memory and identity continue to shape the stories we tell and inherit. Source

    37 min

  8. 11/19/2025

    Spotlight on Arts - Conversations on Creative Journeys

    This episode of Spotlight on Arts features a reflective conversation with artists Paul Caper Dexter, Laura Dalton, and Miffy Ryan, recorded at Fearon Hall. The discussion explores how artists develop their practice outside traditional art-school pathways, drawing on personal determination, place-based inspiration, and everyday environments. Paul reflects on landscapes, street scenes, and colour-led portraiture shaped by years of self-directed work, while Laura describes an intuitive, expressive approach influenced by travel, community connections, and creative spontaneity. Together, the conversation highlights Loughborough’s re-emerging creative energy and the importance of making space for art that grows from lived experience rather than commercial expectations. This SEO summary supports the podcast and accompanying blog by emphasising themes of creative identity, accessibility, and local artistic renewal. This episode of Spotlight on Arts brings together three artists whose work grows from determination, lived experience, and a commitment to making creativity part of everyday life. Recorded at the community café in Fearon Hall, the discussion explores artistic identity, confidence, and the changing landscape of local creativity. The conversation unfolds without pretence, reflecting the realities of making work outside conventional routes into the art world. Paul Caper Dexter speaks about a lifelong pull towards drawing and colour, recalling the moment when teachers first recognised something distinctive in his early illustrations. His practice now ranges from portraits to large-scale painting, influenced by railway posters, street art methods, and the landscapes he returns to again and again. His view from his flat window has become a recurring subject, showing the ordinary environment as something quietly atmospheric. For Paul, the drive to paint is rooted in personal meaning as much as public response. Exhibiting his work, and seeing people engage with it, is part of sustaining that momentum. Laura Dalton describes a different but equally compelling path. Drawing since childhood and eventually studying at Goldsmiths, she talks about the struggle to believe in her own voice while surrounded by what felt like an unfamiliar artistic vocabulary. Returning to her practice more fully in recent years, she now works with immediacy and intuition. Her paintings often emerge in the moment, driven by feeling rather than predetermined concepts. Encounters with other artists and the experience of travelling to unfamiliar places feed this sense of openness. For Laura, inspiration often arrives through colour, movement, and conversation, rather than through formal structures. Miffy Ryan, who brought Paul and Laura together for the discussion, reflects on issues of class, access, and the expectations placed on artists. She points out that language such as “creative industries” can flatten the more expansive, imaginative aspects of making art. The conversation shifts towards the pressures placed on artists to frame their work in economic or therapeutic terms, rather than being allowed to develop for its own sake. Each participant returns to the value of making space, whether at home or in a studio, to work without the noise of external judgement. Across the discussion, a sense of place runs quietly through the artists’ stories. Landscapes, street corners, windows, and community spaces become part of how each of them thinks, makes, and shares their work. Rather than abstracting art from life, they draw from their environments and from the people around them. The picture that emerges is not of an art world defined by hierarchy or exclusivity, but of a network of creative practice shaped by persistence, curiosity, and local connection. The full conversation captures these themes in the voices of the artists themselves. The podcast offers an opportunity to hear how they discuss their work, their influences, and the paths that have shaped them. It also gives a sense of the wider energy developing locally, as new studios, pop-ups, and collaborative projects begin to form a renewed creative atmosphere. @thebellfoundrycommunitygroup @miffyryan @paul.c.dexter @laura_studio_design Source

    32 min

  9. 10/21/2025

    Spotlight on Heritage – Stories, Connections, and the Future of Local Media

    This episode of Spotlight on Heritage features John Coster and Rob Watson reflecting on the Leicester Saturday Heritage Fair and the wider role of storytelling, participation, and local media in community life. Recorded in the basement gallery of Leicester Adult Education Centre, the discussion explores how informal heritage events foster connection, trust, and collaboration across diverse groups. The conversation also considers the future of community reporting, the need for authentic and independent media, and the importance of sustainable local funding models that strengthen civic and cultural life in Leicester. In this week’s Spotlight on Heritage, John Coster and Rob Watson meet in the basement gallery at Leicester Adult Education Centre to reflect on the energy and meaning of last Saturday’s Heritage Fair. What began as a conversation about a community event soon turned into a deeper exploration of what heritage, storytelling, and participation really mean in today’s Leicester. Rob describes the day as “exhausting but full of buzz,” a place where people brought their objects, memories, and curiosities to share. The fair wasn’t about artefacts behind glass but about lived experience—the radios in someone’s bag, the family heirlooms pulled from a cardboard box, the stories that surface when people start talking. As John puts it, the fair worked because of its informality and flow. Every stall was placed with care, allowing visitors to move, pause, and engage without feeling rushed or crowded. That attention to detail, Rob observes, turned the space into something more than an exhibition—it became a meeting point for stories. The conversation widens into the role of community reporting and the importance of trust in media. Rob distinguishes between journalists and reporters—between those who seek to uncover hidden truths and those who share the life of a community at face value. Community reporters, he says, work by building relationships rather than breaking stories. They give people confidence to speak and a platform to be heard. This, John suggests, fills a gap left by mainstream media’s retreat from local storytelling. Their discussion touches on how the past connects with the present. Whether it’s a display about the Vikings, a stall about Afghan language and culture, or a conversation about war memorials, all heritage becomes contemporary when it’s part of how people make sense of their lives now. Heritage, they argue, is not nostalgia—it’s a form of shared meaning-making that helps communities talk about who they are and how they live together. Towards the end of the discussion, the focus shifts to independence and sustainability. Rob calls it “breaking the queue for the begging bowl,” urging a move away from over-professionalised, risk-averse funding systems towards models that circulate value locally. John agrees that events like the Heritage Fair show how much can be achieved when people contribute time, creativity, and trust rather than rely solely on external funding. The programme closes with a reminder that heritage is alive because it’s lived and shared. The stories told at the Heritage Fair weren’t only about Leicester’s past—they were about the networks of understanding, care, and imagination that keep the city connected today. Listen to the full conversation in the latest episode of Spotlight on Heritage, available now on Soar Sound Radio. Source

    29 min

  10. 10/12/2025

    Saturday Heritage Fair – Creativity, Community, and Leicester’s Living Past

    The Saturday Heritage Fair at Leicester Adult Education Centre celebrates creativity, community, and living history. Produced by Soar Sound Radio, this podcast features songwriter Meg McNeill on Leicester music pioneer Lawrence Wright, Bert McNeal from the Leicester Civic Society on civic heritage, re-enactor Rose on medieval storytelling, volunteers from Satsang Radio on cultural connection, and poet Tim Grayson on creative heritage at Belvoir Castle. Together, they show how Leicester’s people are keeping history alive through music, architecture, performance, radio, and poetry, linking the city’s past with its future. The latest recordings from the Saturday Heritage Fair at Leicester Adult Education Centre capture how creativity and memory intertwine in the city’s living heritage. Produced by Soar Sound Radio, these conversations highlight the people who are preserving, interpreting, and reimagining Leicester’s past in ways that speak to the present. The Fair, now an established part of Leicester’s cultural calendar, brings together volunteers, historians, artists, and community broadcasters who each approach heritage from their own angle — through music, architecture, performance, or radio. What unites them is a shared belief that history comes alive when it is experienced, discussed, and made personal. Songwriter and researcher Meg McNeill opened the day with an unexpected rediscovery: the story of Lawrence Wright, a Leicester-born music publisher and founder of Melody Maker in 1926. Meg’s research connects the city’s industrial roots with its creative legacy, tracing how a local shoe worker’s son built a music empire that shaped British popular culture. Her appeal to find the missing blue plaque marking Wright’s former music shop underlined how easily local cultural achievements can fade from view if they are not actively remembered. From music to architecture, Bert McNeal, Chair of the Leicester Civic Society, spoke about how the city’s heritage is held not just in buildings but in the shared sense of place they inspire. He described the Society’s work as “campaigning for a better Leicester,” combining the preservation of historic structures with advocacy for thoughtful new development. For Bert, civic pride is inseparable from civic responsibility — ensuring Leicester remains a city where everyone feels included and connected. The Fair also reflected the power of historical re-enactment to make the past tangible. Rose, a 12th-century re-enactor with the group Normaness, shared how her team recreates medieval life through costume, craft, and combat displays. Her passion extends beyond performance: she is developing a research project on the heritage of Leicester’s Rally Park, exploring how disused industrial land might be repurposed for community use. Her story showed how historical imagination can inform practical change in the present. A different kind of community connection came from the volunteers of Satsang Radio, part of the Hindu Sanskar Charity. Presenters Sajan, Kaushik, Dhruvi, Aarti, and others described how their Leicester-based station blends devotional music, spiritual discussion, and cultural education to serve Hindu communities locally and abroad. Entirely volunteer-run, Satsang Radio operates as both a form of service and a lifeline — offering companionship for housebound listeners, intergenerational dialogue, and a space to sustain faith and identity through sound. The day ended with a conversation that bridged poetry, play, and place. Tim Grayson, Poet in Residence at Belvoir Castle, described how his role combines writing, teaching, and creative innovation. Alongside composing poems for events and commissions, he has developed the Belvoir Prize for Poetry and even designed a board game, Tataki, inspired by the castle’s Japanese gardens. For Grayson, heritage is “living, breathing, and reciprocal” — something we learn from and give back to through our creative work. Together, these interviews reveal a city alive with imagination. Leicester’s heritage is not a static record of what once was; it is an unfolding story shaped by those who care enough to listen, share, and create. Whether through music, re-enactment, faith, or verse, the people at the Saturday Heritage Fair remind us that our collective past is most powerful when it helps us to see the future more clearly. The full podcast of the Saturday Heritage Fair is available from Soar Sound Radio, featuring these and other interviews recorded throughout the day. Source

    1h 4m
  • 10 Episodes

About

Soar Sound is a community podcast dedicated to promoting social cohesion by highlighting the voices and stories of Leicester's diverse communities. Our mission is to foster an integrated intercultural society that brings people together based on their shared experiences of living, working, and studying in Leicester. Each episode features interviews with local residents, activists, and professionals discussing a range of topics, including social justice, public health, arts, culture, and community building. By focusing on media practices that promote individual and collective well-being, Soar Sound aims to create a sense of unity and belonging. Run by volunteers, Soar Sound is committed to enhancing social engagement and fostering a strong sense of community connection. Subscribe to Soar Sound to stay informed about the stories that unite us in our city.

Information

  • Creator
    Soar Sound
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    10
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Soar Sound CIC
  • Show Website
    Soar Sound