Bogotá: A Promise Between Silence and Noise
In Episode 20 of the TIMEZONES podcast series, four artists discuss the duality of Bogotá: a vibrant yet chaotic city full of contrasts – rich in culture but marked by violence, diverse but segregated. How can ambient music provide a way to pause and reflect amidst the noise of everyday life? Produced by Luisa Uribe.
Producers Mav Nuhels, Ezmeralda, dj +1 and composer, sound artist, and interdisciplinary creator Ana María Romano discuss the contrasts of Colombia’s capital city. They share how they use sound as a tool to navigate their personal histories and reflect on the cultural landscape of Bogotá. They explore the broader social and political realities of Colombia and reveal how ambient music not only creates a contemplative space and escape from the overwhelming daily life, but also becomes a subtle form of resistance and storytelling within a challenging urban environment.
Credits
A podcast by Luisa Uribe
in collaboration with Manuel Suárez Parias, Tembe Laboratorio Sonoro
Produced by Norient
Featuring: Mav Nuhels, Ezmeralda, dj +1, Ana María Romano
Artistic Editor: Abhishek Mathur
Project Management: Abhishek Mathur
Outreach/Press: Janina Neustupny
Selected photographic works: Gregorio Díaz
Video Trailer: Carroll Omuom
Additional music by: Iphi
Jingle Voiceover: Nana Akosua Hanson
Jingle Mix: Daniel Jakob
Mastering: Adi Flück, Centraldubs
Artwork: Šejma Fere
Listen on
→ Listen to further TIMEZONES episodes
Featured Artists
Manuel Suárez Parias is an anthropologist, sound engineer, and scholar in sound studies and sonic arts. He researches and works with sound on experimental non-fiction projects for multichannel installations, audio post-production for cinema, and expanded radio formats. Follow him on Instagram.
Tembe Laboratorio Sonoro is a company that navigates between social research and sound creation with the aim of developing cultural projects and new participatory methodologies focused on education with a territorial and environmental approach. This initiative is based on collaborative work with other artists, researchers, territories, and institutions that share the interests of our projects. It is also a space designed for experimentation and sound research in the fields of acoustic ecology, musicology, intersections between sound and activism, heritage issues, and urban studies. Follow them on Instagram.
Mav Nuhels has been a producer in Bogotá for seven years, exploring numerous sounds and styles. He is characterized by having a very particular visual and sonic identity within the Colombian electronic scene. His music is sincere and made to connect the soul with what we often flee from: sadness, melancholy, and mourning. As a DJ, his profile offers an amalgamation of references focused on ambient and vaporwave, along with distorted and time-manipulated Latin American percussions. Aiming to turn the dance floor into a space of contemplation and slow dance. Follow him on Instagram.
Ezmeralda is the present of Cedritos’ child, Bogotá’s own Nicolás Vallejo. His early work with La MiniTK Del Miedo and their unapologetic gótico tropical stance set the stage for his late excursions with synths, cumbia rebajada and effects, a journey that began with downpitching traditional Colombian ritmos and then watercoloring the hell of them. More recently, EZM has ditched his own playbook to take a deep dive into the bones of ambient, exhibiting a shivering love for life via a glimmering, droney, loopy, noisey, glowy post impressionistic sentiment. Follow him on Instagram.
Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, and with residences in Quito, Brasilia and Mexico City, Gregorio Hernández de Alba tries to give life to everyday Latin American scenes, through sequences and synthesizers, with his electronic music project, dj +1. Follow him on Instagram.
Ana María Romano is a Colombian composer, sound artist, and interdisciplinary creator. Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender, sexuality, sound, and technology, shaped by themes of listening, soundscapes, space, the body, noise, experimentation, cyberspace, and the political dimensions of creation. In every sphere of her life, she prioritizes collective and collaborative work. Follow her on Instagram.
Trailer
by Karrl
Dive deeper into the diversity of Bogotá, where multiple cities exist at once in this Norient Online Special, curated by Luisa Uribe. Norient City Sounds: Bogotá spotlights the city’s plurality, showing how its people reclaim public spaces and celebrate their defiant existences through vibrant nightlife and boundary-crossing music.
→ Explore the full special and read an introduction by NCS and TIMEZONES curator Luisa Uribe.
The TIMEZONES podcast series plunges into the world of artists and their practices, asking: what does living and working in culture and the arts involve in different countries, cities, and contexts today? The artists’ thoughts on their moods, their social, political, and intellectual realities and their philosophies (of life) have been worked up into experimental audio collages.
The podcasts run the gamut of formats and content, from straight journalism to experimental and documentary approaches, ethnography and fiction, sound art, and improvisation. The TIMEZONES series endeavours to create new artistic forms of storytelling, listening and exchange across the boundaries of geography, time zones, genres, and practices.
Biography
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Published on January 15, 2025
Last updated on January 16, 2025
Topics
A form of attachement beyond categories like home or nation but to people, feelings, or sounds across the globe.
Why do people in Karachi yell rather than talk and how does the sound of Dakar or Luanda affect music production?
Ecology describes the relationships among living organisms. At Norient, we add sounds and music, asking, for instance: what does a field recording tell about the environment it was recorded?
A generative practice that promotes different knowledge. One that listens is never at a distance but always in the middle of the sound heard.
How do acoustic environments affect human life? In which way can a city entail sounds of repression?
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