This is an Art Song wrote by Mojgan Misaghi and commissioned by Mezzo Soprano Audrey Johnson.

Spirits of the Deep

A Chant for Freedom

This is a song I wrote this year in conversation with birds I've seen and heard frequently, some in diaspora and some home where war is rampant. To the sun bird and the searching robin, thank you for the accompaniment and for seeing this world worthy of hope and building a nest despite it all.

Ya Abou El-Henna

🔊 https://youtu.be/rRpwV8ew_M4
https://soundcloud.com/dextercolt: I wanted to channel low-key, deep, smoked-out club energy with this one. Vibes build slowly with flashes of energy and dubby detours. It features a few recent bits that I’ve been feeling lately, but most of these tracks were dug out of my collection.

https://soundcloud.com/darkerthanwax
https://soundcloud.com/super3njoy
Artwork: https://soundcloud.com/oniss

A diverse selector, budding producer, and label head from Singapore, Dexter Colt fuses a love for the deepest sounds with leftfield house, trippy techno, and dubbed-out frequencies. A student of pirate radio and NYC club legends, with over a decade of experience behind the decks, he has distilled a sonic signature built around a deep knowledge of dance music and blistering technique. Through his record labels Darker Than Wax and Super Enjoy, Dexter Colt has been pushing obscure sounds forward from Asia and beyond and through his monthly show on Bristol-based Noods Radio.

Always on the hunt for lost cuts and new talents, Dexter Colt is a mainstay in the Singapore scene and a familiar face across Asia, having shared his sounds at celebrated venues in the region such as Mitsuki (Tokyo), West Harlem (Kyoto), Mihn (Hong Kong), Cakeshop (Seoul), and Potato Head (Bali). Dexter Colt has released several EPs since his debut in 2023 on his labels and Los Angeles label Low Recordings, with several more releases slated for 2025.

Play on YouTube

LAYER #407 | Dexter Colt

After ten years of conducting interviews for Here There Be Dragons, there’s one question that Jess particularly loves to ask: “Where is the heart of the city for you?” Usually, we wait until the end of the season to reveal the many hearts that residents leave all over their city maps. But in Odes[s]a, these hearts seemed to coalesce in one neighborhood in particular, the City Center. So, this episode kicks off not only this season, but also a two-part exploration of Odes[s]a’s downtown with all its potentials and limitations. 

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Odes[s]a: Center [центр]

In the second part of our exploration of Odes[s]a's city center, we move through the streets on City Day. From the bars by Cathedral Square to the McDonald's on Derybasivska Street to the street art gallery on Kuznechna Street, residents are thinking about the urban histories that describe or disrupt their understanding of Odes[s]a's identity.

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Odes[s]a: Origins [Витоки]

Every so often we’re going to bring you something we’ve been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn’t make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message. 

It was an enormous pleasure to receive field recordings from Boris. In this scene he surveys the cathedral in Soborna Square after it was damaged by Russian rockets. You'll hear more from him through out the season. To spend more time with the cathedral and questions of identity in Odes[s]a's city center, check out Odes[s]a: Origins [Витоки]. 

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Off-Cut: The Cathedral [Соборна площа]

In this episode we’re wandering west of the city center to a neighborhood made famous by writers, TV shows, and movies; Moldavanka. However the neighborhood’s story is told and whatever is understood of its reputation, there have always been working people making a life there somewhere in between the myths of legendary criminals and shared toilets.

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Record a question or comment for us and send to: htdbpodcast@gmail.com

Odes[s]a: Off-Center [молдованка]

Every so often we’re going to bring you something we’ve been calling off-cuts and footnotes. These are extended scenes and deep dives that didn’t make the final cut of the main episodes. This is also a place where we can talk about your questions and comments. So feel free to send your thoughts to htbdpodcast@gmail.com in a voice note or a quick message.

This episode is a footnote. We’re going to take a deeper dive into housing in the context of the Soviet Union. In the USSR and generally in the post-World War II city planning regimes, housing and new construction technologies played a major role in urban development booms. We’re still feeling the impact of it to this day. The Soviet Union is a major contributor to this moment because it planned standardized residential developments to be deployed around its territories and spheres of influence. These designs were replicated so extensively that you can find them all over the world, from Poland to Iran from Estonia to Vietnam and of course in Odes[s]a.

In this footnote, we’ll hear from Kate Malaia, the author of Taking the Soviet Union Apart Room by Room, about the development of these residential blocks. We’ll also hear from Odesiti who lived in the Soviet Union’s first housing experiment, the communalki or communal apartments and later transitioned to different types of residential housing in Soviet Odes[s]a.

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Footnote: Housing [Житло]

Electric piano and vocal: Elsa Saade 
Setaar Mohammad Golabi

Jam session with Elsa Saade

Mohammad Golabi