The Soothing Presence of Strangers

Available for over a year

Artist and musician Rhiannon Armstrong revisits a formative friendship from her childhood in a new light, with the help of some of the bus drivers and passengers from the W12 route in east London. We follow a journey of the W12 recorded in the summer of 2019, as it crosses from Walthamstow to Wanstead in East London. Two long term drivers on the route, Godfrey Stewart and Mohammed Shabir, share stories from their working life as it was then and as it is now, in spring/summer 2020 amid the pandemic. Rhiannon remembers her friendship with the driver of the bus home from school in Montreal in the early 1990s, and recounts how her understanding of the relationship has changed over time. Through these recollections, conversations with Godfrey and Mohammed, and music made from field recordings of the route in 2019, what emerges is a meditation on loneliness, usefulness, and the place a bus route can have in our lives. Written and produced by Rhiannon Armstrong With contributions from Godfrey Stewart and Mohammed Shabir Music by Dinah Mullen with Rhiannon Armstrong Executive producer Sarah Cuddon Mixed by Mike Wooley Transcription support from Harun Morrison and Jo Verrent