Organ Safari
26 episodes - English - Latest episode: over 6 years ago - ★★★★★ - 4 ratingsJoin Simon and Leah as they bike across Europe, seeking out big, bizarre and beautiful pipe organs and their human handlers.
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Episodes
Episode 025 — Lucerne
October 05, 2017 20:24 - 30 minutes - 42 MBOf all the big beasts on the Savannah, there is none larger than the Subcontra C of the principal 32’ of the Hofkirche St. Leodegar Organ in Lucerne. Join intrepid explorers Leah and Simon, and their guide Wolfgang Sieber, as they track down the world's largest organ pipe — a pipe that could swallow you whole.
Episode 024 — The Cinema Organ
June 28, 2017 06:31 - 59 minutes - 81.3 MBPerhaps we should have called the episode "The Theatre Organ", because the specimens we examine are all American. Pith helmets girded tight, safariers Leah and Simon venture into the wilds of California to study this little-understood animal.
Episode 023 — Brother Georg's Organs
June 20, 2017 03:46 - 39 minutes - 53.6 MBIn our many years of safariing, this is the craziest piece of pipe organ DIY we have ever come across. Brother Jorge's Organ San Patricio contains parts of dozens of other instruments and has been a lifetime in the making.
Episode 022 — Sion
June 01, 2017 14:57 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MBHis stupefying single-mindedness yet again on display, Simon brings us another contender for the world's oldest organ—this time from the wilds of a Swiss mountaintop. Oldest or not, the organ at the Valère Basilia in Sion, Switzerland is a singularly fascinating beast.
Episode 021 — Fratelli Ruffatti
March 25, 2017 21:34 - 52 minutes - 72 MBSimon rolls a natural twenty on his charisma check to explain to Leah his visit to the wondrous workshop of the Fratelli Ruffatti, prominent international organ builders. In addition to the D&Desque forges and foundries, we learned about the Ruffatti-Canada connection and some inside stories from the Crystal Cathedral.
Episode 020 — The Spreckels Organ
February 17, 2017 23:48 - 53 minutes - 73.9 MBWe examine a New World species, whose natural habitat is not a cathedral or a hockey arena, but rather it makes its home in the out of doors. The Spreckels Organ in San Diego is the world's largest outdoor organ, and playing and maintaining it can be quite tricky. Come and visit this American landmark with us.
Episode 019 — The Organ Café
December 04, 2016 20:17 - 25 minutes - 35.3 MBOur safari takes us to a church that is keeping the organ popular, and an organ that epitomizes the Reform Movement.
Episode 018—Orgelbaumuseum
September 23, 2016 22:32 - 30 minutes - 42.2 MBThe Norrlanda organ, currently in a museum in Stockholm, is reckoned to be the oldest surviving organ fragments in the world. There is a working replica at the Orgelbaumuseum in Ostheim, Germany—a paradisiacal museum dedicated to the building of organs.
Episode 017—Schmalkalden
August 11, 2016 00:16 - 24 minutes - 34.3 MBWe investigate the beautiful Renaissance Klangfarbe of a historic instrument in the Wilhelmsburg Castle at Schmaaaaalkalden.
Episode 016 — The Europaorgel
July 21, 2016 10:25 - 26 minutes - 35.8 MBOf all the weird species spotted on this safari, there is none stranger than the Europaorgel—a crazy chimera of sounds from all the countries of Europe. Plus some outlandish mutations.
Episode 015 — Haarlem
July 19, 2016 12:54 - 26 minutes - 36.2 MBAll the beasts of the veldt, or so it seems, have gathered at the Sint Bavo waterhole in Haarlem for the International Organ Festival.
Episode 014 — St. Andreas
July 17, 2016 12:27 - 24 minutes - 33.4 MBIn an attempt satisfy his Captain-Ahab-esque obsession with finding the oldest organ in the world, Simon journeys to the St Andreas church in Ostönnen.
Episode 013 — Jacobikirche
November 13, 2014 20:27 - 17 minutes - 24.5 MBIn the last episode involving our experienced wilderness tracker Ed, we visit the Schnitger organ in Hamburg's Jacobikirche. In the words of Albert Schweitzer: "This organ will become the pilgrimage destination of all organists of the old and the new world." Well, it has for at least one lucky Canadian.
Episode 012 - The Famous Mr. Walcker
November 11, 2014 15:45 - 22 minutes - 30.3 MBSimon spends a day in the bush with the reknowned Walcker tribe, and learns much from their oral history.
Episode 011 - Lubeck.mp3
October 31, 2014 15:52 - 16 minutes - 23.2 MBBuxtehude and Bach, bombs and beautiful organs, and a blend of blood-curdling artwork—just in time for Halloween. Join safarist Simon and our guest, the mad trapper Edward Ocampo-Gooding as they visit the churches and organs of Lubeck, Germany.
Episode 010 - Nieuwe Kerk
October 21, 2014 19:20 - 30 minutes - 41.9 MBAfter having disappeared for a month, Simon wanders out of the jungle with exciting tales of savage Dutch organs. Featuring the lovely Bernard Winsemius.
Episode 009 - ASLSP
August 20, 2014 09:22 - 36 minutes - 49.7 MBSimon's friend Edward has flown in to the veld to be our guide for the very wild ASLSP project in Halberstadt.
Episode 008 - Saint-Denis
August 13, 2014 20:54 - 17 minutes - 24.3 MBThe 800-pound gorilla of the organ-building world, Cavaillé-Coll, built his first organ in Saint-Denis in 1841. To see it in the wild, Simon and Leah have to brave the harshest region yet on the safari: downtown Paris.
Episode 007 - Poitiers
August 06, 2014 08:37 - 22 minutes - 31.4 MBWe have spoored a magnificent specimen of an endangered species, the French classical organ, in the cathedral of Poitiers.
Episode 006 - Organ Music in Iberia
August 01, 2014 17:58 - 23 minutes - 32.7 MBTwo weary travelers look back on a month in the Iberian Peninsula: its deserts, its organs and its misadventures.
Episode 005 - El Escorial
July 23, 2014 15:29 - 14 minutes - 19.6 MBSimon finds an obstinacy of organs at the San Lorenzo Basilica of El Escorial. Featuring mad Dutchmen, Spanish gold, and potential for fire—in short, something for everyone.
Episode 004 — Toledo
July 08, 2014 09:00 - 14 minutes - 20.4 MBLeah and Simon cross vast wildernesses to track down the Emperor's organ in Toledo, but have trouble picking it out from the ten pipe organs in the cathedral.
Episode 003 - Evora Cathedral
June 24, 2014 13:11 - 12 minutes - 17.1 MBSimon and Leah get within a football field of the oldest working pipe organ in Portugal, at the Evora Cathedral.
Episode 002 — Sao Vicente de Fora
June 22, 2014 12:43 - 10 minutes - 13.9 MBSimon and Leah feel bad about the long wait for the Evora Cathedral episode, and so publish a mini-episode for appeasement purposes. The organ at the church of São Vicente de Fora is a big instrument with a personality to match.
Episode 001 - Mafra, Portugal
June 09, 2014 08:16 - 15 minutes - 20.7 MBLeah and Simon journey deep into the mountains north of Lisbon to track down the colony of organs of Mafra.
Organ Safari 000
May 28, 2014 23:03 - 1 minute - 1.88 MBSimon and Leah introduce their new podcast.