This three-part sonic series commissioned by the Museum for the Displaced, uses music as a vehicle to share obstructed stories, and gives an empathic platform meant to take listeners on a journey of recorded sound. It begs to be mentioned that the history of recording is one rife with the politics of privilege like anything else, so there is a foundation of recognition of these artists that found a way to encapsulate these brilliant moments of cultural significance. 

The focus for this second installment are the stories of displaced people who were protected by not only the dynamic geology of the natural world, but also by the earth's flora and fauna. The origin of this story lies in the realisation that self-determination and sovereignty is an aching necessity of people facing oppression. This is undoubtedly expressed when reflecting on the liberation movements of the 12 million to 12.8 million Africans forcefully brought to the Americas, and beyond, throughout the 400-year history of the transatlantic slave trade. 

Stories of escape into treacherous edens and barren badlands emerge over and over again as a strategy of survival for African refugees in these foreign landscapes. This mix celebrates the diversity of sound that was insulated in these cultural oases. The people who ventured out into the wilderness were labeled as “maroons”, a term that has since been reclaimed by ancestors and admirers of this heroic group. This hour of maroon music is a survey of the rhythms by the various communities from Argentina to Cape Verde, and how the heart of their ancestral home still beats strong.

Borderless playlist 2: The Mist Cradles Me Home by Tana Yonas

Sounds In Orbit w/ Passionfruit | Live on HydeFM | 07/13/22

As the summer comes close to an end, we have a new mix from our friend Tana Yonas to wrap up the season. We also got the chance to talk to Tana about her upbringing, influences, and her role at In Sheeps Clothing. 

Read the full interview here: https://www.homagebrewing.com/spring-summer-mix-series

Homage Mix Series: Passionfruit - 004

As many of you know, in addition to hosting and producing Here There Be Dragons, I also teach architecture at the Rhode Island School of Design. And for the past year, I’ve been working on A Pause Is Not A Break. An exhibition for the architecture department about the intersection of sound and architectural practice. Learn more at https://www.htbdpodcast.com/apauseisnotabreak.

A PAUSE IS NOT A BREAK

In architecture, we the practitioners of the built environment, have turned over our mode of communication so entirely to visual mediums, that we have been accused on many occasions of being poor listeners, poor readers, and perhaps, at the base of it, poor perceivers. What does the axonometric, the plan, the section, the elevation, the detail, the model miss? What have we failed to render in our visual pursuits? 
 
The medium of audio may seem like a privation, cutting us off from the images we use to make meaning but in sound there is a representation of liveliness that standard architectural drawings cannot always capture, and in many cases, actively avoid or sanitize. Unlike the eye, which has a natural defense against that which it does not wish to absorb, the ear has no such mechanism. It is difficult to close the ear without great effort. It requires instead a type of concentration that creates hierarchies of the sonic information that surrounds us. And so, sound becomes a ubiquitous medium––perhaps the most ubiquitous sense in space––taking on through its mundane repetitions a significant part of how we, the users of the built, make sense of space. How can we train the architect’s ear onto the issue of occupation, and so history, and so life? Perhaps the tools of repetition and invocation can remind us of what we know, what our minds have been storing all our lives. 

Special thanks to Adriene Lilly, Mohammad Golabi, Amy Kulper, Katy Rogers, Karen Bell, Carlos Medellin, Aine Guiney, Alex Eckman-Lawn, Uthman Olowo, Alia Varawalla, and of course the Design Research Seed Fund.

Audio Essay: A Pause Is Not A Break

بخشهایی از مقدمه علی‌اکبر سعیدی سیرجانی بر کتاب تاریخ بیداری ایرانیان

Elsa Saade vocal and guitar/ Mohammad Golabi Taar

اقتلونی یا ثقاتی ان فی قتلی حیاتی
و مماتی فی حیاتی و حیاتی فی مماتی

اقتلونی ذاب جسمی قدح القهوه قسمی
هله بشكن قفس ای جان چو طلبكار نجاتی

ز سفر بدر شوی تو چو یقین ماه نوی تو
ز شكست از چه تو تلخی چو همه قند و نباتی

چو بسی قحط كشیدم بنما دعوت عیدم
كه نشد سیر دو چشمم به تره و نان براتی

حركت كن حركت‌هاست كلید در روزی
مگرت نیست خبر تو كه چه زیباحركاتی

اقتلونی اقتلونی یا ثقات. ان فی قتلی حیاتا فی حیات

Tana Yonas collects songs like souvenirs, each recalling precious moments found leafing through dusty foreign record shops or catching sonic fragments weathered by time from the radio of bumpy taxi rides. Listen as she delicately guilds together these memories and shares music from lesser known and under represented musical traditions from across the globe and decades.

https://www.nts.live/shows/tana-yonas/episodes/tana-yonas-27th-february-2023

Wabi Sabi w/ Tana Yonas 270223

Tana Yonas collects songs like souvenirs, each recalling precious moments found leafing through dusty foreign record shops or catching sonic fragments weathered by time from the radio of bumpy taxi rides. Listen as she delicately guilds together these memories and shares music from lesser known and under represented musical traditions from across the globe and decades.

https://www.nts.live/shows/tana-yonas/episodes/tana-yonas-19th-june-2023

Borderless playlist 2: The Mist Cradles Me Home by Tana Yonas

mfdisplaced

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