Sonic Interventions

About Sonic Interventions

A podcast about the poetics of sound and its power to disrupt norms and transform society. Each episode presents conversations with musicians, sound artists, visual artists and theatre-makers, with a special ear for postcolonial and/or queer sonic possibilities. Season 1 (Feb-April 2023) was launched for Black History Month with a focus on New York and Chicago. Season 2 (Sep-Oct 2023) features artists based in Berlin, Paris, and Yogyakarta. Season 3 showcased South African voices and sounds (Feb-March 2024) and Season 4 (May-July 2024) Polish artists, activists and curators. Our new season starting in January 2026 focuses on interventions in Germany by Black, African and Afro-diasporic artists. A project conceived by Dr. Layla Zami for the Collaborative Research Center Intervening Arts (SFB 1512 Intervenierende Künste) and the Performance Studies Department (Institut für Theaterwissenschaft) at Freie Universität Berlin. Special thanks: P&T Knitwear Bookstore and Podcast Studio, Blueprint Studio Johannesburg Co-produced by Eufoniker Audioproduktion

Publisher

Intervening Arts - Freie Universität Berlin

Category

arts · music · society & culture

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

16 Jan 2023

Latest episode

17 Jun 2026

Latest episodes

22 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   17 Jun 2026

   Echoes between Cameroon and Germany

   In the last episode of season 5, Jan Dammel is in conversation with musician and sound artist Elsa M’Bala. They talk about Cameroonian anti-colonial organisers in Berlin during the interwar period, such as Victor Bell, and what it means for Elsa to work with sound archives in European universities and museums. Learn more about her ongoing project Kribi Archives, which makes ethnographic recordings of Cameroonian music accessible in Kribi, and her general investment in creating listening spaces.

2. 

   17 Mar 2026

   Unlikely Witnesses to History

   Artist and researcher Rehema Chachage is in conversation with Jan Dammel about mixed-media installations in Johannesburg, Leipzig and Stade. They discuss Rehema’s long-term engagement with her matriline, how songs can serve as “unlikely witnesses to history”, and how the marigold speaks to both colonial uprooting of plants to Tanzania and intergenerational transmissions.

3. 

   20 Feb 2026

   Mit und gegen das Archiv (in German with English Intro)

   Hörspielmacher:in Joel Vogel und Musiker Vincent Bababoutilabo sprechen über gemeinsame Projekte wie ihren dekolonialen Hörspaziergang zurückERZÄHLT (2020), der Akte des Widerstands von 106 Personen aus den damaligen ‚deutschen Kolonien‘, die im Sommer 1896 im Berliner Treptower Park arbeiteten und lebten, ins Zentrum stellt. Sie berichten von ihrem Umgang mit dem (kolonialen) Archiv, von der Möglichkeit mit Sound gewaltvolle Geschichte anders zu erzählen und davon, wie ihr Audiowalk seit fünf Jahren Menschen versammelt.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

1 ratings

Spotify

4.8 / 5

5 ratings