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Damon Albarn to Compose Audio Time Capsule for BBC’s Big Anniversary

Damon Albarn BBC Time Capsule 90 Years

Because he totally hasn’t had enough to do — what with playing the Olympics with Blur, resuscitating Bobby Womack’s career, trotting out Gorillaz for a massive collab, conducting a train full of African musicians, and rallying for music industry ethics — Damon Albarn will be curating an aural time capsule for BBC Radio in honor of the organization’s 90th anniversary.

The end result will be a three-minute global simulcast called “Radio Reunited” and will air on the BBC’s entire network of local, network, and national stations, plus the World Service, on November 14 at 5.33 p.m. GMT, at the exact time of the British Broadcasting Company’s first transmission in 1922. It is expected to be heard by as many as 120 million people.

So what is it, exactly? Sixty participating BBC stations are asking their listeners to send in — via text, tweet, or email — “a hope, a fear, an observation, question or piece of advice” about the future. Each station will choose one message to represent it, and the author will come in to record their thought in the studio. Those will then be passed along to Albarn to arrange and score.

“I love the idea of stations across Britain and the World Service coming together, with all of our different lives and circumstances, even if it’s only for a few minutes,” Albarn told the BBC. “It’s a powerful idea.”

The “Radio Reunited” piece is part of the greater “BBC Radio at 90” special programming schedule. Here’s Albarn wearing a rad hat and talking about the thing: