How to Remember

A meditation on the idea of Blackness inspired from Axel's travels to his motherland, Côte d'Ivoire.

Axel explores belonging and authenticity over the course of their life. There was often a conflict between the historical racial familial and personal elements that informed their identity. Instead of being one thing this work is an attempt to reconcile and accept all the parts of themself that they either wrongfully internalized or intuitively knew to be true. By going within it becomes a rediscovery of the essence of who they actually are and how that should be what they hold onto instead of over identifying with societal projections.

Edited by Eleanor McDowall for Short Cuts from BBC Radio 4

Paradise

A dreamlike exploration of depression in the underground.  Inspired in part by a bruised and beautiful looking cloud at sunset, we follow Axel Kacoutié on a subway ride home.

In response to Emily Dickinson's poem 'Hope is the thing with feathers', this work was originally produced for BBC’s Between the Ears, from Falling Tree Productions. Edited by the great Eleanor McDowall.

A Sound Poem

Axel Kacoutié brings you into their mind and their heart through rich sonic universe building. In this audio journey, they conjure sensations: warmth, light, and the feeling of waking up after having a disturbing dream. This is the first of a three part series featuring this audio artist and poet’s inner world.

From Axel: “Our subjective experience of the world is the only thing we know to be true and language is an attempt to crystallize our abstractions of it. This is a sonic experience presenting the way Axel's mapped his associations to this world. You don't need to understand in order to connect with it, only listen.”

Originally produced on the Constellations podcast.