FIBER Podcast 029 Phonaut

What this episode covers

“Play twice before listening,” is the disclaimer that comes along with the 2 hour long excavation of deep ambient sounds carefully selected by Phonaut. The American with a track record that spans two decades is known for his narrative sets: “I try to design mixes for multiple listens, like soundtracks or to tell a story. Something to sink into.” The latter is a fitting categorisation of the visceral, almost material, effects that the listener experiences while listening to the otherworldly sounds and atmospheres that make up the 29th FIBER Podcast. With a background in sound design and research into psychoacoustics it’s not a surprise that Noah Phonaut’s mixes tap deeply into the experiential levels of sound. The Chicago-based producer, sound designer and radio show host takes his time when building his sonic narratives. “I spend time listening (‘know your records’) then choose the best bits and consider how the parts work together. I usually prefer to let the tracks dictate where the mix will go rather than settling on a precise theme beforehand or forcing it too much a certain way. This gives a good flow but also can be surprising or disruptive at moments, often pleasantly so”. The appreciation for eclectic surprises also comes from growing up during the 80s in the Midwest near Detroit. “I lived, close enough where I, while sweeping across Detroit’s FM radio waves late at night, could tune into radio shows and tape them. I’ve still got a couple of Electrifyin’ Mojo’s radio shows on tape, which were like sonic time capsules, the sound of the city. He’d play anything from Kraftwerk and Prince to Captain Rock, old or new, I liked that eclecticism. I moved to Chicago in the early 1990s, so I saw the tail end of the house and techno warehouse event boom here. I hosted radio shows for many years and one station had a massive collection so I was exposed to many types of music I perhaps wouldn’t have discovered on my own. Through that access I discovered things like Vietnamese folk music, for instance, which is amazing.” It’s good to realize that radio and its idiosyncratic hosts had such an important influence on the distribution of music and the development of tastes. The importance of the curator/gatekeeper is growing, in today’s overflow of net-labels and algorithmically curated radio/streaming services. “The sort of lineage of music history now with electronic music these days is staggering to consider. The intersections, influences, or sound-ancestry along with the rate of music being released today… it’s important to prioritize where to spend one’s listening time, and to continue to check out new sounds without forgetting and appreciating what came before.” Luckily people like Noah open up old and new territories to discover. Apart from a catalogue of great mixes, such as Sleep2Dream published in the summer of 2014, a look at his website gives a great insight into his musical wanderings, passions, and additions to his collection. Asking about his past and present influences delivers an overflow of labels and artists that are featured in his mixes or “occupy considerable space on my music shelves”. From labels such as Nonplace, Eskaton/Threshold House, Echospace, Skam, Dakini, 12k, Mille Plateaux, to artists such as Tetsu Inoue, Rapoon, The Orb, Zoviet France, the KLF, Lustmord, Bauhaus and Bill Laswell. He continues with a list of newer generation artists such as: Fatih Tuter, Sorrow, Vince Watson, Brock Van Wey, Mark Fell, Fluxion, but this only make things worse, as its impossible to be complete. “I’m leaving out legions of past and present ambient house and techno records, one-offs and one-hit-wonders, and the occasional classical, experimental, jazz, rock, pop, etc. music which are all part of a steady listening diet”. Listening to his sets can truly pull the listener into an other-world territory. This is also what he finds fascinating when looking at visual sources of...