INTERNATIONAL
AIRSPACE
LISTEN
IA038 / 29 FEB 2024
WORLD RESTART
A leap-year transmission of spiritual jazz, global blues, and restless soul for reflection and reckoning, renewal and re-beginnings
IA037 / 31 JUL 2023
IUXTA SILENTIUM
Ninety minutes of sacred voices, solitary piano, spiritual jazz and spacious minimalism, inspired by ECM's enduring motto, and a silent pair of headphones
IA036 / 29 NOV 2022
AN OPENER (FOR ALVA)
A warm welcome to a newly arrived goddaughter — soulful brass, meditative jazz and expansive soundscapes
IA035 / 08 OCT 2022
GRACIOUS GIFTS
A celebration of musical generosity through broken beat, spiritual jazz, electronic soul and folk, as tribute to Pharoah Sanders
IA034 / 11 SEP 2022
TWO-YEAR JIGSAW
A puzzle of accumulated discoveries, pieced together through harp, horns, psychedelic guitar, ambient textures and traditional song
IA033 / 13 JUN 2020
FOREST BATHING
A soundscape for wandering the woods; restorative encounters with glistening folk, spiritual jazz, and more-than-worldly electronics with harp, strings, woodwind and percussion from Japan to the Appalachians
IA032 / 09 MAY 2020
SEARCH FOR THE NEW LAND
A sonic escape from the perpetual indoors, through windows of South African Soul, Ethtio-jazz, Bengali folk, and other ambient openings
IA031 / 04 APR 2020
IN THE UPPER ROOM
A Sunday service of the sacred and secular: gospel and folk, prepared piano and free jazz in search of higher ground
IA030 / 27 MAR 2020
'TIL TOMORROW
A kitchen mix of hip-hop and dub, Ethio-jazz and Latin grooves; joyful rhythms for restless bodies, holding on ’til freedom returns
IA029 / 11 MAR 2020
GUEST SET / REFORM RADIO
Another Reform Radio takeover of free jazz and electronics, digging deeper for brass, strings, African guitar tradition and machine rhythm
IA028 / 27 NOV 2019
GUEST SET / REFORM RADIO
An hour-long dig through the crates of International Airspace with Gnawa rhythms, Ethiopian keys, and diasporic grooves for Manchester's Reform Radio
IA027 / 11 OCT 2018
GUEST SET / NETIL RADIO
A late-night live excursion through jazz and its wider orbits, from the Great Lakes to the studios of Havana and the back of a taxicab
IA026 / 09 AUG 2018
CHICAGO x LONDON
A transatlantic conversation between two cities reinventing jazz, as a new generation of artists trade horns, drums, basslines and ideas across the pond
IA025 / 05 JUL 2018
MAKING GROUND
Transcending borders with artists reimagining inherited cultures to create new musical ground
IA024 / 07 MAY 2018
SOUNDS DU SOLEIL
Chasing the sun through radiant horns, rolling percussion and warm grooves; ethio jazz, kwaito, dub and afrobeat for the early summer heat
IA023 / 15 APR 2018
THE AWAKENING
A celebration of spring’s quiet awakening; stirring strings, warm jazz, and tentative folk gather strength to reach the light
IA022 / 29 MAR 2018
DEPARTURES AND NEW ARRIVALS
Music carried across borders and generations; cumbia, funk, jazz and other grooves gathered on recent travels through Latin America
IA021 / 08 FEB 2018
LDN JAZZ II
A second snapshot of London’s new jazz generation, showcasing the young musicians reshaping the capital’s sound in 2018
IA020 / 21 JAN 2018
WINTER WARMER
A midwinter warmer of honeyed horns and simmering grooves, drawn across continents to chase away the blues
IA019 / 17 DEC 2017
OUT WITH THE NEW
A year-end dig through 2017’s new and newly discovered; jazz, soul, folk, far-flung grooves, and a fistful of festive numbers
IA018 / 26 NOV 2017
VISIONS OF THE COUNTRY
Reimagining Americana; steel guitars meet crisp electronica, lonesome strings, and open-ended jazz to view country music from its outer edges
IA017 / 28 AUG 2017
LAST DAYS OF RADIANCE
A hazy set of warm grooves, wistful folk and sun-blushed ambience to soak up the final days of summer
IA016 / 28 JUL 2017
TRIBUTE TO JOHN COLTRANE
A tribute to Coltrane’s enduring spirit, tracing a path from free jazz to the outer edges of electronica through his work, those closest to him and his lasting legacy
IA015 / 26 FEB 2017
LDN JAZZ
A dispatch from London’s burgeoning jazz underground, where a new generation of musicians are busy reshaping the capital’s sound in 2017
IA014 / 16 Jan 2017
JANUARY BLUES
Embracing the catharsis of the blues; tracing a cross-continental family tree from American roots to kindred cousins and radical relatives around the world
IA013 / 06 NOV 2016
SONGS FOR THE DEAD
Celebrating Día de Muertos with a musical séance; songs of mourning, ritual, remembrance and rebirth from across cultures and traditions
IA012 / 14 AUG 2016
THIS IS ENGLAND
An alternative portrait of England; folk traditions and underground sounds from a migrant nation in perpetual reinvention
IA011 / 23 MAY 2016
MAMÁ CALOR
Artist and DJ Mamá Calor joins us for a tropical mix of Afro-Peruvian festejo, psychedelic cumbia, música criolla and Andean sounds of Marinera
IA010 / 24 JAN 2016
ANOTHER COUNTRY
Inspired by the musical world of Baldwin’s novel, following its references through jazz, blues and folk as they wander out into stranger territories
IA009 / 20 APR 2015
I CAN'T BREATHE
A soundtrack to resistance across generations; protest song through jazz, soul, spoken word and hip-hop
IA008 / 09 APR 2015
MOST BEAUTIFUL SOUND NEXT TO SILENCE
A two-hour immersion in ECM’s spacious and still aesthetic, through chamber jazz, minimalism and ancient music
IA007 / 30 SEP 2014
SWINGING ADDIS
Celebrating Ethiopian New Year with a deep dive into the funk, jazz, soul, swing, rhythm, and blues of 1960s Addis Ababa
IA006 / 24 AUG 2014
CARNIVAL
Calypso, soca, reggae and dancehall; an incomplete reflection of Notting Hill Carnival’s past, present and future
IA005 / 10 JUN 2014
ALL EARS ON BRAZIL
A festival of samba, Tropicália, psychedelia and funk, celebrating the rhythm and soul of Brazil
IA004 / 16 MAY 2014
SOUNDS OF SATURN - A CENTURY OF SUN RA
Celebrating the Sun Ra centenary with astral electronics and cosmic jazz from the artist, and the disciples of the Son of Saturn
IA003 / 04 APR 2014
JA-KI-MO-FI-NA-HEY!
Marking Mardi Gras with a sonic second-line of brass bands, Cajun fiddles and thriving traditions, celebrating the funk, rhythm, blues and bounce of New Or'lins
IA002 / 09 MAR 2014
VIVA VOCE
An ode to oral traditions; folk song, field recordings, sounds and stories carried by breath across cultures and generations
IA001 / 02 FEB 2014
IN AND OUT OF AFRICA
Following cross-cultural currents in search of hyper-local sounds in and around Africa; music carried across oceans and transformed by distance, to reveal borders as fiction
ABOUT
Independent radio following musical connections across cultures, places and time.
Created and presented by Jonathan May and broadcasting independently since 2014, International Airspace is curated by curiosity, led by instinct rather than genre or geography — bringing distant traditions, hyper-local sounds and unlikely musical relatives into the same listening space.
Sometimes there is a place, artist or idea at the centre of a show; sometimes the connections only reveal themselves through the journey itself. International Airspace is an invitation to listen beyond genre, because borders are fiction.
CONTACT
International Airspace is open to new connections.
Invitations and ideas for guest broadcasts, collaborations, exchanges and syndication with independent and community radio stations worldwide are welcome.
If you make radio, music or something that might belong in the same airspace, get in touch.
JOIN
Hear when a new International Airspace show is published.