The Sounds of Exile – Listen to the World

Both a radio program broadcast every Sunday in the RFI news bulletin and a participatory platform, Listen to the world lets you hear the cultures, languages ​​and imaginations of the world through sounds from Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Hundreds of shows can be listened to as podcasts on this site, while the participatory and evolving platform offers sound postcards and recordings. To date, 245 sound recordings are freely available.

Author and coordinator ofListen the worldMonica Fantini listens, records and composes sound pieces based on everyday sounds: the slamming of Parisian metro gates, the harangues of sellers at the Bobo-Dioulasso market in Burkina Faso, the cracking of glaciers in Patagonia, the rolling of Dakar carriages and even bells of Saint Mark’s Square at midnight in Venice, voices of poets… So many bursts of life with which she weaves stories to tell the world, create connections and share knowledge.

From their collection to the creation of sound works and their distribution, Monica Fantini seeks the collaboration of artists, researchers, composers, journalists and writers, in order to bring together a large community and to pool experiences and knowledge in different approaches to sound. With the ambition to develop the practice, sense and pleasure of listening, she also leads sound workshops aimed at all audiences: teachers, children, students, migrants, prisoners, poets, musicians… Finally, the sound creations ofListen to the world are regularly the subject of public presentations within the framework of festivals, exhibitions, conferences and dedicated cultural events, imagined by the authors of the platform. Every year, the National Library of France gives Monica Fantini carte blanche aroundListen to the world.

Production team

Sound recording, editing, mixing: Monica Fantini

Mixing assistance: Laurence Allanic and Pascal Boungo – Creation Unit

Listen the world on

Apple Podcast

Google Podcast

Spotify