The Most Alive Sounds

New Zealand-born composer and sound artist Annea Lockwood has spent a lifetime listening very closely to sounds in her environment that, for most of us, slip by unnoticed.

The trickle of a stream flowing under a bridge, the resonance of a pane of glass, the rhythm of her wife’s breath….

A contemporary of Pauline Oliveros and other avant-garde composers of the 1960s and 70s, Lockwood turned 87 this year.

Her work has received widespread acclaim in recent years - particularly her epic soundmaps tracing the length of rivers such as the Danube and the Hudson.

Today, Lockwood is still making new compositions and collaborating with artists around the world, who are now often half her age.

Canadian sound artist and documentarian Kalli Anderson spent the past year following Lockwood down slippery river banks, into concert rehearsals, and to her home in rural New York state.

Along the way, Lockwood opened a portal to a new way of being in the world.

And now you’re invited to step through it as well.

This is “The most alive sounds".

Produced by Kalli Anderson.
Featuring the voice, music and sound compositions of Annea Lockwood and of her late wife, Ruth Anderson.
Also featuring the voices of Tom Fisher and Emmie McCluskey on the banks of the River Clyde. Additional hydrophone recordings by Tom Fisher.
The recording of bayou-borne is from a rehearsal at the Counterflows festival in Glasgow in April 2026 and features performances by Nate Wooley, Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh, Fritz Welch, Angharad Davies, Diljeet Kaur Bhachu and Garazi Navas.
Sound mix and master by Chad Bernhard.
Executive producer: Dennis Funk.
A Written in Air Production for BBC Radio 3.