We're Hosting a Radio Show At Nextones Exploring The Ambience of Place

How does sound inform our memories? How does listening deeply to a place shape our understanding of where we are? Our brains do not only store images, but also the soundscape of a moment. Which is why we're pausing to reflect on what it's like to truly hear when we travel.

These are themes we will be looking into this weekend during our hour-long take over of Radio Banda Larga (RBL) at Nextones Festival - a celebration of art, landscape, and experimental sound in the spectacular setting of Italy’s Ossola Valley.

RBL is an independent radio platform active in Turin, Berlin, Barcelona and Istanbul, returning to Nextones with a dedicated stand in the camping area. Sharing the festivals commitment to championing independent culture and amplifying the region’s creative energies, they will broadcast DJ sets, interviews and broadcasts.

We've teamed up with RBL for a special broadcast: "A Conversation with Trippin and Sara Berts: Composing with Place - Sound, Travel and the Ecology of Listening".

During the show, we sit down with Berts, an Italian artist who crafts ambient sonic worlds from field recordings using various synths. We will speak to her after she performs a rare, site-specific piece, Codex Viridis in the medieval stone village of Ghesc, where she took up residency. In the performance, part of a personal archive spanning several years, Berts channels harmonic vibration of medicinal plants.

"The essence of the plant is translated into a melody, a transcription from biochemical to sonic, which is developed through meticulous observation of the plant’s structure and its properties," says Berts. "Ghesc is the perfect context for this kind of work; the calm of the place and the opportunity to observe the plant species in their natural ecosystem make it the ideal location."

Our conversation will explore how her work fuses place and composition in strikingly powerful ways, delving deep into topics including how sound affects our perception of travel, and imprints on our experience of place. We will ask Berts, who has travelled extensively, how diverse terrains shape her creativity and define a sonic identity.

Nextones isn’t just an average festival, its a wholly immersive experience that absorbs setting and environment into every artistic endeavour. Whether this be an abandoned quarry, medieval ruins, megalithic sites, and thermal baths—where every site becomes a stage and sound becomes a guide. With live sets from artists like EartHeart and immersive installations from Michela de Mattei & Palm Wine, the 2025 edition expands in scale, story and setting.

Stay tuned for our broadcast, which will be played to festival attendees and available to listen via streaming on https://rbl.media/en/ on Friday 18th July at 16pm (BST+1).