https://www.nts.live/shows/plastic-language/episodes/plastic-language-5th-august-2026

Will René presents Plastic Language, a show exploring spoken word across recorded media, spanning dub, jazz, ASMR, sound poetry & much more. The selections are informed by – but not limited to – the collection of poetry LPs at Southbank Centre’s National Poetry Library, where Will works as a librarian.

This volume focuses on the work of @alan_fielden, which is read here by both Alan and his friends. There are recordings of Alan reading his poems solo on Peckham Rye, a polyvocal piece read with @jemimayong on a busy junction in Peckham, and a variety of voices reading from Alan’s 99 Plays during an event called ‘Hope So’ at the wonderful Ivy House Nunhead, all interspersed with musical selections from Alan.

Alan’s work holds a lot of love, crisis, noise and beauty, and it’s been a great joy putting this all into an hour of radio

Thanks Alan for the poems, plays and ideas, and special thanks to Rory at Monitor Books and Jemima Yong (and Juniper) for all the help putting this together. Thanks also to Sasha Elina for contributing a completely stunning flute piece for this.

And of course, thanks to the readers: Bart Seng Wen Long, Kaisa Saarinen, Vlad Skofenko, Hestia Peppe, Nat Norland, Tara Fatehi, Peter Ely, Rey Conquer, Jess Stacey and Robert Stearn.