This episode features cellist, composer, and scholar Dr. Thokozani Mhlambi, who talks about the role of radio, music traditions as cultural archives, and baroque cello in the context of South Africa. He discusses and shares excerpts of his “Zulu Song Cycle” and the production “Hail to the King” about Dingane kaSenzangakhona.
Our third season centers South African Sound Cultures and is curated by our main host Dr. Layla Zami. In this episode, she is in conversation with multi-instrumentalist and composer Sky Dladla. Dladla speaks of her love for Indigenous Xhosa instruments, the intersection of traditional and contemporary performance culture, and her collaboration with artists such as Zolani Mahola. Recorded at Blueprint Studios in Johannesburg.
Season 2 closes with a conversation between Victoria Pham and Emma Lo. Victoria Pham introduces us to the many intersections of her work as an evolutionary biologist and artist. The conversation focuses on rhythm and listening in Pham’s research and practices, and Pham's and James Nguyen's open source project RE:SOUNDING.
This episode features Rully Shabara, an experimental vocalist based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. Emma Lo talks with him about Xhabarabot Voice Machines, an ongoing project in which Shabara engineers interactive instruments from his own vocal samples. They discuss issues of consent in sampling, appropriation and self-exploitation, and open source technologies.
This episode features Anjeline de Dios, a cultural geographer and vocal artist from Manila, Philippines. Emma Lo talks with her about voices, disobedience, well-being, and sonic conceptions of space. They engage with how voices are shaped and how to connect with one’s own voice.
Season 2 engages with Asian (diasporic) perspectives and opens with artist-scholar Dr. meLê yamomo in conversation with Prof. Dr. Doris Kolesch, Dr. Layla Zami, and Emma Lo who curates this new season. In this episode, they discuss sonic relationalities and archival practices. Learn more about yamomo's projects 'Echoing Europe’, the Decolonial Frequencies Festival, and DeCoSEAS.
This episode discusses Nick Cave's exhibition Forothermore and features a conversation with scholar-artist Dr. Meida Teresa McNeal and curator-artist Danny Dunson. A timely meditation on listening, Black bodies, house culture and visual arts, enriched with sound excerpts from Dr. Zami's research field trip to Chicago.
In this episode in German language, musician Natalia Kiës and photographer Elias Wessel discuss the project “It’s Complicated - Ist möglicherweise Kunst". The conversation facilitated by Dr. Layla Zami addresses information overflow, photography as painting, and the possibility for sound art to intervene into social media algorithms.
This episode presents BRICKS (A 20-YEAR MUSIC TOUR OF REPARATIONS), and features playwright Charlene Jean, performer Mercy Kelly, and host Dr. Layla Zami. A conversation about decolonial spirituality, matriarchs, gentrification, Black time, and queer performance strategies, enriched with lively audio samples from the performance.
Recorded on the historical site of the Weeksville Heritage Center, this episode welcomes Najee_ (interdisciplinary artist and yogi) and Erica Harper (VP of Learning and Engagement at WHC). The conversation with Dr. Layla Zami addresses restful practices and restorative sounds, African-American liberation history and the meaning of community. An episode full of emotions and information!
Enjoy listening to conversations with Black, African and Afro-diasporic artists and curators on their interventions!
