The Agency of Sonic Thinking

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The Agency of Sonic Thinking
The Agency of Sonic Thinking

Sound is able to merge supposed contradictions: in the audio walk «Zero, Land der Zukunft» at Dystopie Festival, our writer finds herself entangled both in dystopian and utopian worlds. Here is a short essay on listening as a mode of creating critical agencies.

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Quote: Andrea May
Design: Klaus Janek

Nobody Dey Get Us

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Nobody Dey Get Us
Nobody Dey Get Us

In Ghana, everyday life is widely ruled by the Christian religion. The artists portrayed in the film «Contradict» revolt against this religion’s tendency to dominate people’s histories – by writing their own.

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Design: Šejma Fere

Finding Refuge in Rebetiko

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Finding Refuge in Rembetika
Finding Refuge in Rebetiko

Clive Bell muses on the music documentary «Don’t Rush’s» love for Rembetika – Greek urban folk music essentially made by refugees – and on an ongoing humanitarian crisis.

 

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Quote: Clive Bell
Design: Šejma Fere

The Sound of Beirut’s Underbelly

The Sounds Of Beirut’s Underbelly_Rayya Badran_Sejma Fere
The Sound of Beirut’s Underbelly
The Sound of Beirut’s Underbelly

What can we learn from a film by listening to it? Rana Eid’s «Panoptic» (2019) takes the viewer on a dark peregrination in the city of Beirut, and becomes a terrain on which images, sounds and voices superimpose and coalesce.

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Design: Šejma Fere

More Sad Hits

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More Sad Hits
More Sad Hits

In an era where platforms package music in a way that strips away life’s complexities, Angus Finlayson finds a melancholic antidote in the music documentary «The Long River Slides».

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Design: Šejma Fere

Tongues and Borders Are Immutable

tongues and borders
Tongues and Borders Are Immutable
Tongues and Borders Are Immutable

Lacking a common language is not always an obstacle to communication. It can help to build new connections without preconceptions. An essay inspired by the film «In Your Eyes, I See My Country», in which two Israeli musicians travel to Morocco.

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Design: Šejma Fere

Imagining Worlds and Making Meaning With Four Artists From Delhi

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TIMEZONES – Episode 3: Delhi
Imagining Worlds and Making Meaning With Four Artists From Delhi

Episode 3 of the «Timezones» podcast series, co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe-Institut. In this episode, four contemporary artists with a connection to the city of Delhi reflext upon their diverse and evolving practices.

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Design: Šejma Fere

Why Locality Still Matters: Baltimore Club

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Why Locality Still Matters: Baltimore Club
Why Locality Still Matters: Baltimore Club

While techno and house have become widely commodified by white Europeans, Tedra Wilson’s documentary Dark City Beneath the Beat shows how Baltimore Club kept its highly localized aesthetics, and proves the richness of Black club music in the 21st century.

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Design: Šejma Fere

A Spirit Guides You

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A Spirit Guides You
A Spirit Guides You

Steph Kretowicz is struck by the power of the creative impulse exhibited by Camille Degeye’s protagonist in her short film «Journey Through a Body».

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Design: Šejma Fere

Your Body Is a Medium

Snap Your Body Is A Medium
Your Body Is a Medium

A body is not just perceiving sounds, it is also their medium. Here is an essay about the materiality of sound and how the body shapes the listening process.

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Quote: Luise Wolf
Design: Johannes Plank
Photo: Anngret Wolf
Sound: Johannes Plank

How Post-Punk Heralded Modern Coffee Shops

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How Post-Punk Heralded Modern Coffee Shops

How does music affect the image of a city? In his recent book «Deindustrialisation and Popular Music», Giacomo Bottà elaborates the relationship between de-industrialization and genres like house, industrial or post-punk.

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Design: Chrizzi Heinen