Welcome to the end of 2024 episode of sustain.fm radio. I can’t believe how fast the year has gone by and it was a nice treat to put this episode together. It gave me a chance to reflect on the incredible variety of artistic approaches to sound, music, and sustainability. I am so grateful to all of the artists who shared their time and sounds with me over the year, and I hope you enjoy their sounds.

For this episode, we only have music, no interviews this time. You will hear sounds from all of the artists I interviewed this year ranging from archival sound pieces to techno to sound art compositions to meditations and trash music. Thanks so much to Veronica Mota, Veerle Pennock and Etta Harbor as Parallel Problems, Felipe Vareschi, Monica Sand, Priscilla Haring-Kuipers from This is Not Rocket Science, Melissa Ingaruca Moreno, Juan C. Duarte Regino, Gina Lo, Luis Fernando Amaya for sharing their sounds. And there are some sounds from me – drusnoise – in there too.

We have an exciting 2025 coming up with some great guests already on deck, live events planned in Berlin, Oslo, and Lisbon, and some cool research projects starting up soon too. Get in touch with us through sustain.fm or info@drusnoise. We would love to hear your thoughts on our shows, ideas or suggestions for future shows, or if you want to bring a sustain.fm event to your town. Have a great rest of 2024 and will see you next year. For now, enjoy the sounds.

Track listing

Monica Sand – Elegi

Luis Fernando Amaya – Bestiario @luisongolilongo

Melissa Ingaruca Moreno & drusnoise – Endarken @mel_ingaruca

Gina Lo – Live at Berlin Modular Society @ginalololo

drusnoise – Future Soundscapes - Live in Gothenburg @drusnoise

Juan Carlos Duarte Regino – Soundgifts @j.c_d.r

Felipe Vareschi – Noise Mapping @frmvar

Veronica Mota – Utopie und Widerstand

drusnoise – We are but dust and shadows – Live in Graz

This is not Rocket Science – Live at Clubsynth @rocket_not

Parallel Problems – Live at Voltage Control Amsterdam @elektortek @ettaharbar

In many ways, music is all about relationships. Relationships between musicians, between artists and audiences, between artists and their instruments, even the relationships between sounds and notes in a scale. But we can also think of these relationships inside a wider web of connections. What would it be like to compose and perform music that embeds relationship between humans and non-humans such as plants, animals, or environments? What might that do to how we compose, perform, and listen to music? Today we dive into these questions with Luis Fernando Amaya, a composer and percussionist based in Oslo. Luis Fernando’s music has been performed throughout the Americas and Europe and themes of collective memory and relationships between humans and non-humans are often present in his work.

Bio and Links

Born in Aguascalientes, México, Luis Fernando Amaya is a composer and percussionist based in Oslo. Topics such as collective memory and the relationship between humans and non-humans (such as plants, animals, or environments) are commonly present in his work. He studied composition and music theory at the Centro de Investigación y Estudios Musicales (CIEM) and holds a Ph.D. in composition and music technology from Northwestern University.

Amaya's music has been performed throughout the Americas and Europe by performers such as the CEPROMUSIC (México), Arditti Quartet (UK), Lucerne Festival Contemporary Orchestra (Switzerland), Ensemble Dal Niente, Fonema Consort, Yarn/Wire (USA), Oslo Domkor (Choir of the Cathedral of Oslo, Norway), amongst others. He is the recipient of awards and fellowships such as the Residency PRIX CIME (International Electroacoustic Music Competition 2023), a Presidential Fellowship (NU), and representing México in the 61st International Rostrum of Composers of the UNESCO in Helsinki, Finland. As a performer, Amaya is a member of the collective composition and free improvisation trio Fat Pigeon.

His scores are published by BabelScores.

His monographic album Cortahojas was recently released by Protomaterial Records.

https://www.luisfernandoamaya.com

Instagram @luisongolilongo

Bandcamp

Studies for "Bestiario: seis"

En esta línea contengo un bosque (2018)

Eddie Ortíz-González poetry

PhD Dissertation: Music Composition as a Means to Connect With the More-Than-Human: A Dialogue Between the Works of Walter Kitundu, Liza Lim, and Luis Fernando Amaya

Photo credit Ana María Bermúdez

Most of the time we think of humans and non-humans as separate things. We experience and live in different worlds. Humans may love nature but are separate from nature. What if that is a wrong – or at least limiting – way to think about it? What would it mean to break down that separation? How might that change our experiences of sound and life with non-humans and nature? I’m your host Steve Williams and today we explore these questions with Gina Lo. We have lots to talk about so be sure to check out the show notes for links to the sounds and get in touch to info@drusnoise.com with your questions and comments.

Notes and Links

Bio

Gina Lo is a Taiwanese-born sound artist, field recordist, and performer based in Berlin. Their work revolves around the creation of immersive sonic environments that explore the fluid boundaries between human and non-human experiences, harmoniously merging the organic with the synthetic. Through live performances and sound installations, Gina employs a blend of electroacoustic instrumentation, field recordings, and custom-designed synthesizers. With a strong emphasis on attentive listening, their improvisational sets transform spaces into ever-evolving atmospheric landscapes.

Gina’s connection to nature is rooted in their upbringing on a subtropical island and extensive time spent off the grid throughout East and Southeast Asia, where they immersed themselves in the rhythms of the natural world and the intricate behaviors of wildlife. These encounters form the core of their sonic research, fostering a deep engagement with the elemental forces of nature as a lens for exploring the human condition. Gina’s work invites listeners into a meditative state, where the boundaries between self and environment blur, creating space for deeper reflection and a reconnection with the primal, transformative aspects of the psyche.

https://ginalosound.wixsite.com/work/about

https://www.instagram.com/ginalololo/

• EROOO0oo00​(​O​)​oO​.​0o0​.​oo​.​.​sion - Æther compilation (re:natura, digital)
• Intuitive Dialogues @ginalolo and @frmvar
• Harkening Critters https://f-o-m.bandcamp.com/album/harkening-critters
• Cowie Bay https://f-o-m.bandcamp.com/track/cowie-bay
• Bornean https://f-o-m.bandcamp.com/track/bornean-anura
• Signals Festival Sound Installation https://catalyst-berlin.com/about/signals-festival-2021-installations
• Berlin Modular Society 44 Live performance https://youtu.be/okHrEpze4wc