CBC Ideas — The Sounds of Toronto — Tonight

When I had a discman, a favorite thing to do was walk around Toronto at 9pm listening to Ideas on the CBC Radio One. Now that I’ve switched to an (irritatingly radio-less) iPod, it isn’t as easy to do that. A shame, especially as Invisible Cities is airing tonight, all about what Toronto sounds like — perhaps an occasion to see if that old Sony still works.

Cities are often distilled into postcard images a skyline or a prominent landmark. What we see is on the surface, but what lies beneath? Jowi Taylor takes us on a sonic journey through Toronto, to places heard but often not seen. There are layers of natural history, the economy, history and culture, which transform over time.

Each of these layers has an identifiable sound: the sounds of nature, the sounds of industry, the sounds of language and culture. Each is a kind of composite element that forms part of an identity.

Invisible Cities is an intimate journey into the heart of a city. It uses the voices, music and other sounds of Toronto to allow the listener to achieve a kind of shortcut to intimacy with the city. The show focuses on sounds that are lost in the din of contemporary life.

Broadcast time:

Friday at 9:05 p.m. (9:30 NT)
CBC Radio One, 99.1 FM in Toronto
(and on local CBC Radio One stations across Canada)

(The interviews in approximate order of appearance within the hour)

-Helen Mills, naturalist, founder of Lost Rivers Walks.
-Alex Jacobs (Waasaanese), Ojibwe elder and language teacher.
-Luz Ladrà³n de Guevara, visual artist, recent immigrant.
-Matt Blackett, aka m@b , cartoonist, co-founder of Spacing Magazine.
-Shawn Micallef, author, co-creator of The Murmur Project.
-Jack Chambers, linguist, University of Toronto.
-Robert Everett-Green, music journalist, The Globe and Mail.
-Jorge Lobel, TTC streetcar driver, 506 Carlton line.
-Jeff Marek, host, Leafs Lunch on AM640 Toronto.
-Pier Giorgio di Cicco, poet-laureate of the City of Toronto.
-Rita Cox, storyteller, author, librarian, community activist, citizenship judge

(The music in order of appearance within the hour)

-Broken Social Scene – Capture the Flag from You Forgot it in People.
-The Choir of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene – Kyrie from Missa Brevis IV
from Healey Willan: Masses & Motets.
-Glenn Gould – Variations no. 5 & 28 from The Goldberg Variations by J.S. Bach from Gould: The 1955 Goldberg Variations.
-Barenaked Ladies – Lovers in a Dangerous Time from Kick at the Darkness: Songs of Bruce Cockburn.
-Bruce Cockburn – Rise and Fall from Speechless (2005).
-Moe Koffman – Swinging Shepherd Blues from The Best of Moe Koffman.
-The Hidden Cameras – Awoo from Awoo (2006).
-k-os – Crabbuckit from Joyful Rebellion (2004).
-Tarig Abubakar & the Afronubians – Safar from Tarig Abubakar + Afronubians Live.