Adventurous Listening
“There’s a type of stillness that I’m eager to fill with adventurous listening” says Hanif Abdurraqib, the poet, cultural critic and host of Object of Sound, the new music podcast and radio show from the team behind On Air Fest and Sonos. “I like to be surprised and exposed to the unexpected.”
Object Of Sound brings you in tune with the music shaping our culture, and we’re thrilled to share it with you. The launch episode out today features a rare interview with Moses Sumney and a prompt to make a playlist for your future self. Take a listen. We’d love to hear yours.
Leading from a place of adventurous listening, we recommend:
For the launch of Object of Sound, we couldn’t just share one episode… So we launched with three. Take a listen to a gorgeous conversation between Sudan Archives, Kimberly Drew and Jenna Wortham about Afrofuturist music, plus a special episode about cover songs with the often-covered Jeff Tweedy of Wilco. Each week, the show blends the eclectic curation of freeform radio with artist interviews and textural storytelling, guiding you to a new way of listening.
Object of Sound also launches alongside a new Sonos Radio station of music curated by D’angelo with the entrancing title Feverish Fantazmagoria.
We’re feeling particularly inspired and moved by the all-surrounding audio rooms and essays curated for Soundhouse: Intimacy and Desire at the Barbican.
We’re always looking to other podcasts that blend music, personal narrative and memoir, and Anything For Selena does exactly that while *also* feeding our never-ending love for Selena. Thank you WBUR and Futuro Media.
A lot has been written about Andy Mills, and it’s necessary for the dialogue to continue. This piece from Maya Goldberg-Safir urgently points to how the culture of our industry at large rewards “legacies of exclusivity, institutionalized racism, and complicity” and highlights the powerful work of people actively changing who the audio community uplifts.
A couple favorites from 2020 we’re still holding close: the speculative worlds envisioned in Open World Podcast and Sharon Mashihi’s Appearances, a story blurring truth with fiction to touch both the pain and possibilities of motherhood.
We’re listening this week to Jazmine Sullivan’s sublime Tiny Desk Concert.
Hot Docs Podcast Festival is taking shape virtually this year. Jan 27–29.
Transom wants to hear from you. With a new diversity initiative (and the announcement of Leila Day and Saidu Tejan-Thomas joining of the editorial team) there’s a new opportunity for producers of color to publish their work on Transom’s platforms.
On Air alum Roxane Gay has launched a newsletter that’s also a book club and also a space for her to ‘tell one hell of a story about the world we’re living in.’ Subscribe to The Audacity here.
What’s on your radar? We’d love to hear where you’re finding inspiration. Send us an email at hello@onairfest.com, and we’ll share out some of our favorites in the next Off Mic.
Our Interview with Hanif Abdurraqib
Associate Producer Babette Thomas sat down with the Object Of Sound host to talk about the overlaps between music, poetry and storytelling. Here is an excerpt:
Babette Thomas:
As a poet and a writer, what attracts you to telling stories in sound? Is there some relationality between the sonic and the poetic? How are those practices intertwined and what is the importance, for you, in telling these types of musical stories through sound?
Hanif Abdurraqib:
I am someone who writes how I speak, and I think there are intricacies that sometimes don’t leap out on the page that can be enhanced and enlivened by the conversational nature of telling stories out loud. I’m someone who meanders, I’m likely to be pulled in the direction of my many excitements, even if they aren’t all the excitements I began with. Every song I have ever loved is a machine of multiple parts, and multiple tales aligning with those multiple parts. I’m always really excited to illuminate the interior that others might find mundane.
