Podcast: cosy up with Irish winter

There is no cure for January, but there are many cosy nooks to use as a hiding place from the dim. Hibernation Radio is one such crawlspace, transposing the soggy depths of an Irish winter into audio comfort. The bi-weekly podcast compiled by Dublin’s Bluebottle Collective runs online throughout January, exploring biological and creative responses to living in a drab, dark habitat.

The assortment of sound bites in Hibernation Radio summons the work of various Irish artists, storytellers, writers and comedians and intersperses them with meditative sound art and scientific narratives. This somewhat restores the image of our ubiquitously damned winter weather.

“Hibernation Radio nurtures aural curiosity and socialisation, as all other senses dim,” reads the somewhat wordy description on the Bottlenote website. “Hibernation Radio is a meeting point. Rising mbps allow weatherless intimacy – we welcome avatars and all-weather identities.”

Each broadcast is led by fictional host Linda Surname (who has “exhibited in galleries you have heard of and is a patron of many activities you have also heard of”). She meanders through the tales of the contributors in a suitably tranquilising voice, providing listeners with a temporary burrow in which to cocoon themselves from the elements.

Dublin’s Bluebottle collective was conceived in 2013, swiping their name from the abundance of dead flies that inhabited their first creative space: a disused HSE building on Thomas Street. Since then they’ve composed imaginary walking tours of Dublin, multimedia variety shows and the uniquely brilliant Poem Line (a tailor- made poetry hotline hosted by “melancholy gulls in your area”).

Stay cosy, and generate some new found affection for the Irish winter.

All podcasts are available through soundcloud.com/ bluebottle-dublin.

Emily Longworth