Tape Letters

Feb 23 2024 4

Tape Letters Podcast artwork

Tape Letters shines light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tape as an unorthodox method of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in the UK between 1960-1980. This series features original tapes collected from families in Potwari and English, oral history recordings and behind the project interviews with the people involved in collecting this body of work.

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1. Communicating on Cassette

Feb 23 2024 14 mins

The Tape Letters project shines a light on the practice of recording and sending messages on cassette tapes as a mode of communication by Pakistanis who migrated and settled in theUK between 1960-1980. In this six-part documentary series, listen to first-hand accounts of these migration stories through original cassette tape recordings, interviews with their Britain-born families a

2. Behind the Project: Wajid Yaseen - A Naat Tape in Ashton

Feb 23 2024 11 mins

Wajid Yaseen – Director of the Tape Letters project, talks about how his family moved from Pakistan to Ashton and how he first discovered his family's Tape Letters hoping to hear his own voice but instead discovering his father's recordings of Naats (the religious songs his father was invited o sing in people's homes) This eventually led to the birth of the Tape Letters project.A

3. Behind the Project: Rosa Schling - How People Make Sense of Their Past

Feb 23 2024 6 mins

Rosa Schling, director of On the Record a company specialised on oral-history co-production, joined the Tape Letters project early on and was blown away by the richness and depth of personal stories recorded by families who had emigrated to the UK from Pakistan. She talks about the value of oral history recording. A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver

4. The Power of the Voice

Feb 23 2024 14 mins

This episode explores the re-appropriation of cassette technology from music media to communication media. A thin strip of spooled tape was vital in facilitating long-distance messages.We learn more about the power of the voice and the meaningful, affectionate family memories that were captured through the voice playing on a cassette tape. The recorded messages were often emotional

5. Behind the Project: Micheal Gallagher - A Simplistic View of Technology

Feb 23 2024 7 mins

Michael Gallagher is a Social Researcher and Sound Artist who teaches at Manchester Metropolitan University. He became involved with Tape Letters after meeting Modus Arts producer Shazia Kahn. In this episode he talks about the significance of the cassette tape from a media studies perspective. A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer L

6. A Cassette Tape Love Story

Feb 23 2024 15 mins

This episode looks at families living apart being brought closer by messages on tape, with a special story of a soon-to-be-married couple, who got to know each other more deeply and fell in love entirely through sending cassette tapes to each other between Pakistan and the UK for over 5 years. Telephones were usually expensive and not private, which is why cassettes were their chos

7. Behind the Project: Maryam Wahid - Portrait of Halima Jabeen

Feb 23 2024 5 mins

The award-winning photographer Maryam Wahid was commissioned to produce a photo series for the nationwide iteration of the Tape Letters project. One of the photographs featuring Halima Jabeen, a Tape Letters archive contributor, was awarded the prestigious Portrait of Britain award by the British Journal of Photography. Maryam talks about the connection she has with Halima and the

8. Migration From Pakistan To The UK

Feb 23 2024 15 mins

In this episode, interviewees of the Tape Letters project remember their experiences of leaving Pakistan and migrating to Britain, a country they had never seen before.Common jobs taken up by migrants were mainly in mills and factories, and often based in northern areas of the UK where there were greater opportunities at the time.You’ll also hear more about the reasons for the ea

9. Behind the Project: Karamat Iqbal - A Hostile World

Feb 23 2024 5 mins

Karamat Iqbal is an education professional based in Birmingham. He contributed an oral history and 7 cassette tapes to the Tape Letters Archive. In this episode he describes the discrimination Pakistani’s faced during the 1970s in Britain. A Modus Arts Production. Audio Production and Sound Design by Oliver Sanders, Producer Leona Fensome, Executive Producer Lucia Scazzocchio, Fu