Shows
Sustain.fmDawn Chorus / Reveil with Mort Drew and Grant SmithEvery morning, if we are awake, we can hear the Dawn Chorus. The sound of birds and insects and animals waking up. But what do we really hear? How do those sounds change around the world? And what about the underwater chorus? Can we hear that too? Today we speak with Grant Smith and Mort Drew, both part of the Soundtent collaborative that organizes the Reveil project – a 25 hour long streaming of the dawn chorus around the world. We talk about sound, listening, and working collaboratively in ecological sound projects. It was a fascinating conversation and we listen together to...2025-04-2359 minSustain.fmMetamorphosis with XayideSo much about sustainability is about change. Looking at where we are and where we want to go. But often sustainability planning feels like binary choices about technologies, policies, and projects. What if there might be a different way to think about that? Today we explore a different kind of metaphor – metamorphosis. Xayide, the alter ego of musician Aura Danielle Muñoz Barragán, has described how metamorphosis implies potential, that “the blueprint for transformation is always there”. We talk about how those ideas of potential and transformation are part of music, sounds, and “the fluidity of life”.
...2025-02-2659 minSustain.fmThere is no separation with drusnoiseA special live edition of sustain.fm featuring drusnoise performing the composition ‘There is no separation’. drusnoise explores the sociomaterial world through light, plants, radio, electromagnetic radiation, heartbeats, and carbon dioxide concentration data. The improvised composition and performance questions the story that we are separate from nature. That nature is separate from us. That nature is for us to control. But we are a part of nature. Nature is part of us. There is no separation. drusnoise performs with modular synthesizers, samplers, sensors, electro-acoustic instruments, climate data and poetic explanations of the performance element with vocals by Erbse followed by a...2025-01-241h 00Sustain.fm2024 Sound, Music & Sustainability CompilationWelcome to the end of 2024 episode of sustain.fm radio. I can’t believe how fast the year has gone by and it was a nice treat to put this episode together. It gave me a chance to reflect on the incredible variety of artistic approaches to sound, music, and sustainability. I am so grateful to all of the artists who shared their time and sounds with me over the year, and I hope you enjoy their sounds.
For this episode, we only have music, no interviews this time. You will hear sounds from all of the ar...2024-12-2559 minSustain.fmImaginary Animals with Luis Fernando AmayaIn many ways, music is all about relationships. Relationships between musicians, between artists and audiences, between artists and their instruments, even the relationships between sounds and notes in a scale. But we can also think of these relationships inside a wider web of connections. What would it be like to compose and perform music that embeds relationship between humans and non-humans such as plants, animals, or environments? What might that do to how we compose, perform, and listen to music? Today we dive into these questions with Luis Fernando Amaya, a composer and percussionist based in Oslo. Luis Fernando’s...2024-11-2759 minSustain.fmFluid Boundaries with Gina LoMost of the time we think of humans and non-humans as separate things. We experience and live in different worlds. Humans may love nature but are separate from nature. What if that is a wrong – or at least limiting – way to think about it? What would it mean to break down that separation? How might that change our experiences of sound and life with non-humans and nature? I’m your host Steve Williams and today we explore these questions with Gina Lo. We have lots to talk about so be sure to check out the show notes for links to the...2024-10-2359 minSustain.fmCreating Future Soundscapes with drusnoiseWhen people are asked what kind of neighbourhood they want to live in they often say they want a quiet neighbourhood. But by quiet, they do not mean silent! People want to hear the sounds of children playing, birds in the trees, and glasses clinking at cafés but may not want to hear sounds of traffic, construction, or planes overhead. They may want to preserve the sounds of the past or hear something completely different. The Future Soundscapes project connects with local residents to record (on their phones) sounds they want to hear more of and sounds they w...2024-09-2559 minSustain.fmAttunement – Environment, perception, weather and more with Juan Carlos Duarate ReginoWhat does it mean to give voice to nature? To the weather? How can we connect with ecological systems through sound and performance? And what does it mean to attune to nature? Today I am excited to explore these questions – and more. Juan C. Duarte Regino is an artist-researcher, currently a Ph.D. candidate at Aalto University. Central to his investigation is the relation between the atmosphere, the act of listening, and the profound concept of attunement. His background is in New Media, Design & Production, and Audiovisual Communication. His mission looks beyond conventional, extractive, or deterministic approaches to understanding the...2024-08-2859 minSustain.fmDarkness and Sound with Melissa Ingaruca MorenoSound is one of our most powerful senses. But it is just one of our senses. Sight, touch, smell, and taste are powerful too. And even more powerful when they are combined with sound. Today we talk with Melissa Ingaruca Moreno about her work with light, fungi, meditation, and sound. Melissa is an award-winning futurist and researcher in multispecies design based in Berlin. Her project ‘Endarken’ integrates fungal bioluminescence and sonification of nature with glimpses of darker futures. This is a future of designed light-darkness for multispecies cohabitation with a focus on healing and I am excited to chat with...2024-07-2459 minSustain.fmFrom ethereal to material with Priscilla Haring-KuipersSound and music are in many ways ethereal and, quite literally, float through the air with no environmental impact. But, especially in the electronic music world, the gear that makes sound, transmits sound, records sound, and drives the dance floor does have an environmental impact. What does that mean for a sustainable electronic music scene? Today we talk with Priscilla Haring-Kuipers of This is Not Rocket Science in Amsterdam about all this and more. Together with her husband Stijn, they design, make, sell and perform with modular synthesizers. Her background is in marketing, social sciences, media psychology and game-based-learning...2024-06-2659 minSustain.fmSound, memory, buildings, and bodies with Monica SandSound is an interesting thing. Sounds can evoke emotions like happiness, anxiety, hope, and calmness. But what I find most interesting is how sound can evoke memories. One of my first memories of sound is my Mum playing the organ at church, laying down on the wooden pew and feeling bass in my whole body. Strong memories of family, connection and childhood – all from sound. In the latest episode of sustain, we are talking with Monica Sand – an artist and researcher based in Stockholm and Gothenburg. Monica has a long history of working with sounds and space. And most rece...2024-05-2259 minSustain.fmHearing Hidden Noise with Felipe VareschiIt sounds simple, but what is noise? Is it unwanted sounds? Is it a set of frequencies? Or is it something that is always around us but something we don’t usually notice? Today we talk with Felipe Vareshi about their compositions and performances that give voice to the quietest and most hidden forms of noise pollution that affect us as individuals and as groups coexisting within urban spaces. We talk about sound, noise, listening, and the potentials of sound as a medium for “possible” futures and of the artist as the enabler for these kind of possibilities.
Bio...2024-04-2459 minSustain.fmFrom Trash to Music - Turning waste into sounds with Veerle Pennock and Etta HarbarSo what is trash really? What is waste? How do we cut down how much we throw away? And what happens when we throw things away? Is that really the end of things? Many groups like Bye Bye Plastic and Clubtopia are thinking about questions like these; how to reduce waste in clubs and festivals, get rid of plastic water bottles and so on. But a different approach is to completely rethink the idea of waste and trash. Today I talk with Veerle Pennock and Etta Harbar from Utrecht in the Netherlands. They are live performers, teachers, makers, and...2024-03-2759 minSustain.fmWe are but dust and shadowsToday we talk about the intersections of sustainability, health, data and sound in drusnoise’s techno composition ‘We are but dust and shadows’. The composition investigates how sonification of air pollution data can be used for modulation of sound, mirroring the ways that unseen particles in the air affect humans and the environment – usually in ways we do not notice or understand. The live experimental techno set features analog and digital modular synthesizers, samplers, FX pedals, iPad granular synths, and analog drum machines. Additional sounds and modulations come from public air pollution data, live sample and loop manipulation, field recordin...2024-02-2859 minSustain.fmSound is political. Sound is change.When we talk about sustainability, what often comes to mind is climate change, CO2 emissions, wind turbines and solar panels. And of course these are important. But also important are questions of justice, power, and politics – who makes decisions? Who wins and who loses in a more sustainable world? And what are the promises and perils of technical solutions? Today I talk through some of these questions with Verónica Mota. Verónica Mota is a Sound Artist, Musician, Writer & Academic Researching Emancipation & Philosophy of Technology. Born in Mexico City and now based in Berlin, they explore sound as a fu...2024-01-2459 minSustain.fmCan you hear the Earth breathing?In the 1950s, Charles Keeling started measuring carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere at the Moana Loa Observatory in Hawaii. These measurements showed for the first time how the planet itself is breathing as forests in the Northern hemisphere grow leaves in the Spring absorbing CO2, then release it back into the atmosphere in the Fall when leaves drop off the trees. In this episode we talk about ‘Can you hear the Earth breathing?’ a composition and performance translates this climate data into sound, that brings to life these sustainability cycles and the natural (and un-natural) systems that lie bene...2023-12-2759 minSustain.fmReimagining the WorldIn this episode we dig into how sound and music can fit together with sustainability transitions – how can we change whole parts of our society to become more sustainable? This episode dives deep into how sound and music can represent, challenge, and inspire new imagination for the future through interviews and excerpts from the live performance.
2023-11-2859 min