A haunting monologue, a power struggle between two vastly different entities. The speaker (a woman trapped in a toxic relationship?) reveals pain and vulnerability, shattered by constant attacks. But amidst the despair, a chilling undercurrent of defiance emerges. The speaker unveils a disturbing truth: a force to be reckoned with, a presence that …

The narrative explores the complex emotions of returning to your homeland to see, possibly for the last time, an ageing parent. The salty air, the rocking of the ferry, all becomes sensory details that evoke the physical experience of the journey. Yet, beneath the surface lies a deeper turmoil, a haunting question about goodbyes and the fragility o…

More of a borderline stream-of-consciousness than a tutorial. Despite beginning with a promising premise—teaching the listener how to carve a wooden spoon—the guide quickly veers off into obscure, yet weirdly specific, tangents that overshadow any practical advice. Listeners end up with some very useful advice, just not necessarily on carving woode…

Night Radio was one of my first podcasts. Unfortunately it required the voice talent of a young girl and of a mature man with a deep voice, and I had no one to ask. But I was really keen on telling the story: a young, impressionable girl who spent her sleepless nights listening to a mature man who covered the graveyard shift on the local radio, phi…

A comedic game show called You've Got to Be Kidding Me tests contestants' knowledge of a dystopian society's new constitution and the decrees of their Glorious Supreme President. When I created this for the Silver Sound Biannual Sonic Dash competition in January 2025, it sounded like something fun and out of this world. By May 2025, in the US, they…

This is one of the stories created for All The Best Radio's 24 hour radio challenge, in which producers were tasked with creating audio stories from scratch in a day. I participated from Sardinia (Italy) with a story starting with a recurring dream. Here you can listen to all the entries. Photo by Quinn Korsune on Unsplash [29/11/2024]…

I created this story for Small Audio Art, a community created by Phoebe McIndoe with artists and audio makers "looking for togetherness in a scattered world". This time the prompt was 'window'. I recount a small but poignant moment that reflects my own regret over the way I reacted in a specific moment of our collective lives. A reflection on how e…

This piece was one of the 15 finalists in Audio Flux Circuit 04. The prompt asked for a three-minute piece that referenced an object related to a first and included the sound of time passing (but not a clock). I decided to tell about the day I did something that no one in my family had ever done before me. I'd rather not tell you what so as not to …

The prompt was 'door'. Created for Phoebe McIndoe's Small Audio Art project "Exploring identity and belonging through the objects that make up a home. Join us every other month for community & creative prompts." Photo by Elimende Inagella on Unsplash [09/07/2024]By M. Cristina Marras

Some things are lost over and over and then are found again and again. But then there are also other things. By Maria Cristina Marras for Sonic Dash June 2024 The Sonic Dash is a 48-hour audio storytelling competition held each winter and summer. With participating audio-makers from around the world, entrants must craft a completely original, from-…

Forget your morning latte, folks, because the city's daily dose of WTF is already brewing! Today's public service announcements veer into the delightfully deranged, leaving us scratching our heads and wondering what exactly they're putting in the water cooler at City Hall. Whether a deliberate artistic experiment or a product of a malfunctioning sy…

A longing house cat dreams of returning to her old home with a garden, a lost paradise of sunlit playful hunts. In the picture is my beloved Ombra, whom I did not have the heart of forcing to endure a flight that would have lasted several days, followed by a month quarantine inside a cage. Ombra now plays happy in a beautiful Northcote garden with …

A sonic reflection on the monotony of our daily routines. With a touch of irony and a hint of existential angst, I present the symphony of mundane sounds that mark the passing of our days, a never-ending loop of bodily functions and technological hums. This is our absurd, repetitive existence. Photo by bady abbas on Unsplash [15/10/2023]…

This piece is a reflection on the concept of space as sound. Space understood not as a visual concept, but as an auditory one, as the connective tissue between all of the objects in the world, carried to the perimeter and to the center. A voluminous environment that emerges from an exquisite global polyphony. This piece was inspired by Mathias Hink…

Audio Club is a place to meet, workshop and develop ideas through monthly audio challenges. This intriguing experiment launched by All The Best Radio, kicked off with the first challenge: create 5-7 minute pieces about anything and everything in the whole entire world. The catch? The piece had to incorporate 60 seconds of absolute, pin-drop silence…

A swirl of sounds and sensations, listening to this piece is like entering a circus. Still, instead of clowns and illusionists, you'll find: libraries, librarians mistreating innocent children, thunders, revenge, dark nights, betrayal, tax fraud (just a little bit), more thunders, Berlin in the '80s, translations, revenge, triumph, cautionary tales…

Winner Audionomia's best mini-headphone & Hörspielsommer Kurzhörspielwettbewerbs. Set in one of my favourite non-places, the arrivals at a railway platform, and inspired by Wisława Szymborska's poem "Dworzec" (The Railroad Station), My non arrival is an emotional journey that explores the intricacies of human connection and the bittersweet dance of…

This is a story about Gigi Riva, the legendary Italian soccer player who "led the modest team of Cagliari to win the Serie A championship in the 1969-70 season." While it portrays Riva as more than a player—a demigod whose name is whispered with reverence and his deeds immortalised—it’s ultimately a tale of childhood, wonder, memories, and a touch …

La Sposa nel Vento premiered at the Seattle Social Justice Film Festival in front of a stunned and engaged audience, receiving high praise from viewers for its powerful and emotional depiction of the topic of gender violence against women. Directed by Giovanni Coda, the film combines stunning dance moves with graphic and tragic stories to create a …

A tale of cultural neocolonialism. This podcast is inspired by my personal experience, as someone who grew up in Sardinia surrounded by stories and boasts about the journey of the famous English writer D.H. Lawrence, and his wife Frida through Sardinia. Lawrence visited Sardinia in 1921, after becoming bored with rainy Sicily. He spent just over a …

Instructions on how to prepare a clay pot, before using it to cook, presented with a sexy voice. This is part of an exploration on voice that I created as assignment for the 'In the dark' course (a course that I highly recommend, presented by the fabulous Nina Garthwaite). Photo by Alfonso Escu on Unsplash…

This is part of an exploration on voice that I created as assignment for the 'In the dark' course (a course that I highly recommend, presented by the fabulous Nina Garthwaite). This time I looked for actual instructions (on how to prepare a clay pot to be used) presented the same material to the tune of a song. Let's see whether you recognise which…

This is part of an exploration on voice that I created as assignment for the 'In the dark' course (a course that I highly recommend, presented by the fabulous Nina Garthwaite). This piece consists of found sounds mixed up with my original piece. Enjoy! Photo by Alfonso Escu on UnsplashBy M. Cristina Marras

An audio experiment created while attending Nina Garthwaite's amazing In the dark audio course. Photo by Alfonso Escu on UnsplashBy M. Cristina Marras

What does the opposite of inspiration sound like? It's an endless litany of audio prompts delivered with horrible audio and without any sense or order. Created as Assignment #13 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/ [02/10/2020]By M. Cristina Marras

Created for Cities and Memory's Shortwave project, this piece starts from the real shortwave audio from the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster to tell the real story of Robert H. Lawrence Jr., a United States Air Force officer and the first African-American astronaut. "Shortwave radio is one of the most fascinating sonic worlds – capturing vital mom…

I venture with my namesake Cristina Marras along the Mining Trail of St Barbara, across the Sulcis mining area of Sardinia, gruelling isolated goat trails swept by the ubiquitous mistral wind, but also breath-taking glimpses of views and beaches with water so crystalline that it always reminds me of stained-glass windows in churches. And suddenly t…

Meet Viviana: be it between the doors of a garage or enticing others to play along (and breathing and touching), her darkness is always a celebration of life, friendship and love. Some people have an intrinsic luminosity that transpires even when they are immersed in the deepest darkness. Written, edited and produced by M. Cristina Marras Music Epi…

There is no generic description that captures the essence of darkness. And this is what makes darkness so compelling. Thank you to all the friends who have generously shared with me their thoughts. You are my inspiration. Thank you. Written, edited and produced by M. Cristina Marras Featuring (in alphabetical order): Hala Abdelnour, Christian Astou…

My take on Piazza San Marco's soundscape. A narrative interpretation inspired by the memory of a trip that I took to Venice many years ago with my Australian boyfriend who didn't manage to captured with his toy camera the beauty of a deserted Piazza San Marco. My last trip to Venice resulted in a surreal feeling as I found myself alone in the squar…

There are many questions related to darkness, so many that it is difficult choosing where to start from. Darkness is an overused metaphor to describe negative feelings. We need to remember that, like all metaphors, it is just an image. This is part of my explorations on darkness. Its reality is rich in meanings and suggestions. Here I explore some …

Always a pleasure playing at Sarag Geis' Audio Playground. This is my take on Assignment#16: "Make a podcast for your current commute" compiled while Italy was in total lockdown because of COVID. Photo by Benoit Roy on Unsplash [02/10/2020]By M. Cristina Marras

A tale of killer fish, a killer lion, an expensive camera (that I hoped was going to save someone's life), a mysterious video animation and dreams so vivid that you have to get dressed and go out (and even then you think that going out could be itself part of the scary dream). And then lockdowns, fears, water, fish tanks, memories and why I avoid t…

Inspired by David Foster Wallace's essay of the same title, created for Radiotonic (ABC Radio National) and produced by Jesse Cox. Fascinated by lobsters, I take on a journey that starts from the stalls of Melbourne busy Victoria Market and takes me straight into an adventure that includes Sardinian wisdom, lobster police, a protective German sheph…

ON AIR FEST OFFICIAL SELECT 2022 Imagine being unable to speak your native language, and that your choice is between using whatever language you were taught as a kid or to use English, if you want to be heard. Welcome to my world! Fluent in three languages but unable to communicate with my illiterate grandmother, who only spoke Sardinian, I found m…

Created for Sarah Geis' Audio playground "Roll a pair of dice. Make a 1-minute doodle inspired by that number. Guest prompt from Rob Rosenthal and Gwen. Here all assignments www.audioplayground.xyz/assignments. Photo by Steve Johnson on UnsplashBy M. Cristina Marras

In Italy we devote three years to the study of Dante’s Holy Comedy, but despite of analysis and exegesis, no one remembers Purgatory and Heaven, we all remember Hell. Amongst the many characters encountered in Hell, Odysseus is one of those that I’ve always loved because I very much identified with his spirit of rebellion against rules and his pass…

Some things are better left untold. Created for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/ Photo by 8 verthing on UnsplashBy M. Cristina Marras

Sonic poem inspired by my last 5 Google searches, created as Assignment #12 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/ [02/10/2020]By M. Cristina Marras

What does it feel like when you want to hug someone but you know that you should not? Or when you do, despite knowing that you should not? This is the new normal, when even the most mundane tasks, like taking the shopping to your elderly mother, become source of worry and doubt. Initially created as Assignment #10 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground, …

What does the opposite of inspiration sound like? It's an endless litany of audio prompts delivered with horrible audio and without any sense or order. Created as Assignment #13 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/ [02/10/2020]By M. Cristina Marras

You are a weatherperson. Dress up, go outside, and give a 1-minute weather report. Created as Assignment #2 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/ [02/10/2020]By M. Cristina Marras

It’s 2pm on a regular Thursday in the year 2050. Record a 30-second dispatch. Created as Assignment #11 for Sarah Geis' Audio Playground www.audioplayground.xyz/ [02/10/2020]By M. Cristina Marras

I don’t have a single picture from when the wall came down. That Thursday in 1989, I didn’t even take my camera with me, on purpose, and mind you, I never stepped outside without my Minox. Rule number one is that you don’t take pictures if you don’t understand what is happening. But not having taken any picture doesn’t mean that I don’t keep the im…

"At the end I didn't meet Franca, and Michaela was in Spain on a study trip. Can you believe it? You are one of the few people who was actually born in Berlin and you miss it. For a stupid study trip to Spain." Cristina has moved to West Berlin to learn German. She is young and everything is exciting. Even the occasional trip to East Berlin. Then o…

So, I guess this is the suspended time we keep on talking about, a time that is not here nor there. Like the time... Text, production and sound design by Cristina Marras Photo by Mohammadreza Asherloo on UnsplashBy M. Cristina Marras

Museums as machines to create stories. Sometimes things happen, on a summer afternoon, when there is nothing better to do. This came back to me from some forgotten lane of my past, after listening to a lecture given in Melbourne by Rory Hyde in August 2015. Voice, words, production and sound design by M. Cristina Marras Opera singer courtesy of Ram…

ON AIR FEST OFFICIAL SELECT 2022 When I think about the dark, I think about a game that I used to play as a kid. I am here, in a house that is not mine. I’m here with my friend, I’ll call him Mario (I’ll tell you later why). I’m 11, he is one year younger than me. Text, Voice and Production by M. Cristina Marras [10/06/2021]…

Sarah Geis' Audio Playground. assignment #20 Eulogize an object you have lost. Guest prompt from Zak Rosen. EulogyAudioPlaygroundSoundrich [28/07/2021]By M. Cristina Marras