Sound Off with Katy Henriksen

Sound Off explores creativity at the intersection of art, music, and literature, to dig into what that work and the people making it tell us about art and life in the 21st century. Today’s guest is Haley Fohr, who makes stunning music as Circuit des Yeux. Her new album “Halo on the Inside" came out on the Matador label this spring. It's a defiant beat heavy exploration of our own humanity. In this conversation between Fohr and Henriksen you'll learn all about Fohr's fascination with the mythological creature Pan, why she worked at night to create the album and all about how she found her own voice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today’s guest is composer Mary Kouyoumdjian who collaborated with the Kronos Quartet to release her first recording. An Armenian-American composer & Pulitzer prize finalist who deftly weaves field recordings to masterful compositions, Witness explores her own family history of surviving the Armenian genocide by moving to Lebanon, also impacted by the ravages of war. The exquisite sounds here are woven in with deeply personal stories from family testimony. Listen in to gain insight from Kouyoumdjian and hear moments from the album. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Seun Kuti became the bandleader to Egypt 80 as a teenager after the original bandleader, his father, afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, died. He was filling heavy shoes. Today's Sound Off features a discussion with Seun about the working class struggle, the power of music and his new album Heavier Yet (Lays The Crownless Head) deluxe edition with collaborations with De La Soul, Adi Oasis and Kamasi Washington. Listen in to hear tracks from the album and Katy Henriksen's conversation with Seun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The joyfully D.I.Y. 90s band Tsunami recently received the box set treatment from Numero Group. Bandmates Jenny Toomey and Kristin Thomson join Sound Off to recall the “long welcoming shadow” of Discord Records, running their own label Simple Machines and the importance of communities created through music and a strong DIY ethos. We'll also hear some of their music. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Journalist Liz Pelly joins Sound Off to unpack her new book Mood Machine: On the Rise of Spotify and Costs of the Perfect Playlist. Beyond the fact that Spotify is a tech platform more dedicated to the advertising industry than music, Pelly joins Sound Off to discuss the incentivizing of passive over deep listening and the ways in which the platform itself can be a starting point to looking at systemic issues of hyper-individuality, surveillance capitalism and the billionaire tech class. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices