Shows
The Colonial DepartmentS7E1: Foreign Piano DevilsIt’s the late 1800s, and all across the Pacific seaboard, in places like Singapore and Yokohama, Medan and Selangor, the music of town bands drifts across the esplanades. Many of these groups proudly hail from one port of call: Manila. This is their story.Follow us on IG: @thecolonialdeptFollow us on TikTok: @thecolonialdeptEmail us: thecolonialdept@gmail.comAudio of “Wiener Schwalben Marsch” is from the Discography of American Historical Recordings.
2025-06-2015 min
Sonic InterventionsArchival silences
The new season of Sonic Interventions engages with Asian (diasporic) perspectives and opens with a conversation of Prof. Dr. Doris Kolesch, Dr. Layla Zami, and Emma Lo with artist-scholar Dr. meLê yamomo. In this first episode, they discuss sonic relationalities and archival practices. Learn more about his work, such as 'Echoing Europe’, the Decolonial Frequencies Festival, and DeCoSEAS.
In conversation with
meLê yamomo
meLê yamomo is an Assistant Professor of New Dramaturgies, Media Cultures, Artistic Research, and Decoloniality and author of Sounding Modernities: Theatre and Music in Manila and t...
2023-09-1529 min
MemeshiftWaldjinah - Kembang Katjang (Memeshift's Keroncong Queen mix)I recently fell in love with a song called Kembang Kacang whose original author (as of now) I do not know. However, the version I found was sung and recorded by the venerable Ibu Waldjinah in 1959 when she was just 14 years old.
Ibu Waldjinah has sung and recorded over 1500 songs and appeared on over 200 releases, true musical royalty.
I’d used it to open up a DJ set when I was on Hör radio, but I thought it would be great to remix it after seeing a really incredible DJ set with Yung Singh in June 2022 at Panorama Bar for...
2023-01-0613 min
The Colonial DepartmentS3E2: That Sweet Gangland MusicIn 1930s Shanghai, the sweet sound of slot machines and swinging bands soundtracked the bars and nightclubs of the city’s seedy underworld. Guess where they all came from.Follow us on IG: https://www.instagram.com/thecolonialdept/References:French, Paul (2018). City of Devils: The Two Men Who Ruled the Underworld of Old Shanghai. Picador.French, Paul (February 2018). “Gangs of Shanghai.” That’s Shanghai, 40-41.Guingona, Phillip (2016). “The Sundry Acquaintances of Dr. Albino Z. Sycip: Exploring the Shanghai-Manila Connection, circa 1910-1940.” Journal of World History, 27(1), 27-52. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4...
2022-07-1316 min
Le Guess Who? presents The Big PlaybackThe Big Playback: For the Record Part 2Le Guess Who? presents 'The Big Playback', a conversational, in-depth podcast about all things music. Episode 3 is a four-part series entitled For the Record, exploring the role of the archivist from all angles, released in weekly installments.In this series, host Margaret Munchheimer talks to an independent archival collective in Indonesia; a sound and performance scholar decolonizing sound archives; a journalist turned label founder offering alternative histories of the global South; and a producer/dj using archival material as a springboard for musical collaborations in the here and now.W...
2022-03-2930 min
TIMEZONESEars on/of Makiling
This episode explores the stories and sounds of Mount Makiling, located 80 kilometres South of the Philippine capital of Manila. Makiling is the sacred site of local legends, the setting for numerous classical works of literature, and a pilgrimage destination for many mystics. And it is the home of many artists and arts students.
Featuring: Datu Arellano, Donna Cher dela Cruz, Dennis Gupa, Karlene Moreno Hayworth, Reagan Romero Maiquez
A podcast by meLê yamomo and Nono Pardalis
Artistic Editor: Abhishek Matur
Project Management: Hannes Liechti
Video Trailer: Emma Nzioka
2022-02-2442 min
Sonic Entanglements Podcast08 Nadja Wallaszkowits (Part 2) | How did sound recording and archiving shape the way we listen?This is the second episode of a two-part interview with Dr. Nadja Wallaszkowits, the Head Sound Engineer of the Phonogram Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. This episode focuses on Nadja’s and my reflection on how the development of audio recording and technology shifted the questions we ask about sound, and how they shaped our listening aesthetics. I asked Nadja, how does the knowledge in the science of sound recording and engineering shape the questions that we ask about sound? How did it change our listening aesthetics? The microscope enabled us to see things that we could no...
2021-12-1325 minSonic Entanglements Podcast07 Nadja Wallaszkowits (Part 1) | Vienna Phonogram Archive: The Role of Scientific Sound Archive in Academic ResearchIn 2018, I interviewed Dr. Nadja Wallaszkowits, head of the audio department at the Sound Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Nadja is responsible for developing customized audio technologies for field recordings, as well as in audio restoration, re-recording and digital archiving. Her customized equipment and operation procedures became the standard in many other sound archives in the world. In this first segment of a two-part episode, Nadja lucidly elaborates on the specific role that a scientific sound archive plays for the scholarly community. She also explains the technological support that her institute provides for researchers.
2021-12-1330 minSonic Entanglements Podcast06 Harry van Biessum | Uncovering Dutch Colonial Media at the Netherlands Institute of Sound and VisionI talked with Harry van Biessum, about the history of the Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision – the country’s broadcasting and media archive. The institute also houses some rare historical sound and music recordings from the early twentieth century and we uncovered some materials from the Dutch colonial history. We spoke about the role of such an archive in the age of the internet.
Harry van Biessum is media manager at the Netherlands Institute of Sound and Vision. He is a project partner at the Sonic Entanglements research project.
Sonic Entanglements is hosted an...
2021-09-1922 minSonic Entanglements Podcast05 Gerda Lechtleitner | Listening to the History of the World's First Sound ArchiveAs the oldest audio archive in the world, what is the role of the Vienna Phonogram Archive in the history of sound research? What recordings about Southeast Asia are stored in the institute? In this episode, meLê yamomo speaks with Gerda Lechleitner – former archivist and researcher at the Sound Archive of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna. Gerda tells about her career in the intersection of sound archiving and sound scholarship. She also reflected on the ethics behind audio documents made during the colonial period and the idea of sound heritage repatriation.
Gerda Lechl...
2021-08-0929 minSonic Entanglements Podcast04 Elizabeth Enriquez (Part 2) | Tracing Colonial Radio History in the ArchivesIn the previous episode, I interviewed Prof. Elizabeth “Betsy” Enriquez about her research on the history of colonial radio broadcasting in the Philippines. This episode is a continuation of our dialogue, and this time we talk about what she discovered while researching in the archives in the Philippines and the US. We also reflect on the relationship of archives with colonial history. The previous episode is not a requisite to be able to follow our discussion in this episode, but if you haven’t heard it yet, please give it a listen to understand some of the contexts of our co...
2021-07-1222 minSonic Entanglements Podcast03 Elizabeth Enriquez (Part 1) | Appropriation of Colonial Broadcasting: A History of Early Philippine RadioIn this first part of a two-episode interview, I spoke to Elizabeth “Betsy” Enriquez about her pioneering research on the history of the radio media in the Philippines. We listened to extant recordings of music and audio programs created by the front-runners of the Filipino radio broadcasting industry. Betsy talked about the historical context of mass media culture in the US-occupied Philippines between the 1920s and 1940s. And she explained the anti-colonial strategies of the first Filipino radio programmers, hosts, musicians, and performers.
Elizabeth L. Enriquez is a Professor at the College of Mass Communication, Unive...
2021-06-1831 minSonic Entanglements Podcast02 Vincent Kuitenbrouwer | Radio as a Tool of ColonialismIn the second episode of the Sonic Entanglements podcast, I speak with Vincent Kuitenbrouwer about the history of early radio broadcasting in colonial Indonesia. We listen to recordings of some of the first radio transmissions from the Netherlands to what was then called the “Dutch East Indies”. Vincent talks about how the Dutch used radio as a tool of imperialism, and how this project failed.
Vincent Kuitenbrouwer is Senior Lecturer History of International Relations. Vincent’s research focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century imperial history and has a special interest in colonial media, particularly radio broadcasting. He curre...
2021-06-1727 minSonic Entanglements Podcast01 Barbara Titus | Disclosing the Jaap Kunst Ethnomusicology ArchiveIn this pilot episode of the Sonic Entanglements podcast, I spoke to Barbara about some of the earliest sound and music recordings made in colonial Indonesia by Jaap Kunst in the early 1900s. Barbara talks about the history of how these recordings would eventually form the Jaap Kunst Ethnomusicology Archive at the University of Amsterdam. As the curator of the archive, we discussed the future of this collection and how they can be disclosed to the community from which they were recorded.
Barbara Titus is an associate professor of Cultural Musicology and is the curator of t...
2021-06-1723 minSonic Entanglements PodcastTrailerSonic Entanglements Podcast examines the history of sound in Southeast Asia, through conversations with sound experts: historians, archivists, sound engineers, artists, and scholars. The podcast is hosted by meLê yamomo.
2021-06-1401 min