Slow Radio Folgen

Relax with a mix of music and natural sounds, recorded by Radio 3 Sunday Breakfast listeners. We start in the Himalayas and end in an urban forest in Dehli, getting there via Kardamyli beach in Greece and the Thames footpath in Oxfordshire. Recordings made by Naryndra Kumar, James Hadley, Kate Sandars and Michael Lidgley.

YA Z AN, a Palestinian Berlin-based artist, travels around his hometown of Ramallah, located in the heart of the West Bank. During his journey, YA Z AN encounters sounds that comfort and remind him of home. He uses binaural technology to collect audio pieces from the verdant Palestinian landscape and sculpts them with sounds from everyday life to create a complete surround sound experience.Setting off with a ‘oud player singing folklore music during a post-wedding ceremony and followed by a walk to home where family is gathered at a dinner table chit-chatting about food and how it is prepared, the recent events that resulted in the death of martyrs in Palestine and the earthquake that occurred in Syria/Turkey. Progressing through the day, Yazan goes down to the city centre farmers market (Al-hisbeh) where a number of street vendors are shouting out the prices of their products.Upon joining friends to hangout, the journey travels further to a jam session when surprisingly the rhythm of the community turns into a small choir.The journey ends with Sufi singer Shadi Al-ahmad intoning his voice in his historical Palestinian home with a cross vault ceiling that accents his baritone.

With its peak at 2410 metres in altitude, the North Grigna is an imposing quasi-mythical character in the local culture of the Lombardy region. Those who get to its top can take in a 360-degree view over the Alps, Lake Como and the plains around Milan. Celebrated by Leonardo Da Vinci in his Codex Atlanticus for its rocky ridges, the mountain is also the protagonist in an Italian Alpine folk song entitled The Legend of the Grigna. The lyrics speak of a beautiful female warrior who is turned into a dangerous mountain, divine punishment for her having asked a sentry to fire an arrow at her suitor.This song - sung in Italian by a local choir - frames our ascent on foot to the top of the North Grigna. As the singers recount the story of the warrior, warning us of the dangers of the hike, we pass through woodlands of beech and larch trees, and encounter small pastures where sheep and donkeys graze. There are rain showers, steep slopes, scree and snowy paths to battle and rare encounters with other intrepid Alpinists. The target is the Rifugio Brioschi, a wooden hut at the peak of the mountain where fellow hikers raise a glass and share tales from the climb before turning in for the night.With special thanks to the Coro Grigna for allowing us to attend their weekly rehearsal and record La Leggenda della Grigna, and to fellow hikers Hannah Mackaness, Monica Malberti and Valentina Rossini.Produced by Silvia Malnati A Reduced Listening production for BBC Radio 3