Son[i]a #318
Jonáš Gruska
![Son[i]a #318](https://img.macba.cat/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/photo-by-agf_edit.jpg)
Jonáš Gruska is a proud amateur, honouring the French origin of the term (to love what you do). Curiosity and passion run through pretty much everything that Gruska engages in. In our conversation ranging from his site-specific sound installations to his hand-crafted microphones and audio tools, his recent interest in mycology, and his playful exploration of the electromagnetic spectrum, Jonáš used the word ‘fascination’ quite a lot, and for good reason. Curiosity and passion may indeed be the glue that holds together all the facets of his rather diverse artistic pursuits: the invisible thread that connects, say, electret microphone design to data sonification and oyster mushrooms. These interests and many more overlap in LOM, Gruska’s record label, audio equipment manufacturer, sound laboratory and public space in Bratislava, which emerged and gradually mutated from a punk DIY ethos, and is now a well established platform for sound experimentation and beyond.
We talk to Jonáš about resonating spaces, resonating surfaces, tramways, self-taught electronic circuitry, field recordings, fermentation, mushrooms, and unusual microphones.
Playlist
01 ‘Tečúci vietor’
02 ‘Sen’
03 ‘Paša I.’
04 ‘Modlitba’
05 ‘Enapos remx’
06 ‘Tečúci vietor’
07 ‘Dazd (bonus)’
08 ‘Site Specific Resonances II – 1’
09 ‘Svitanie’
10 ‘Slnecno’
11 ‘Fontana Rodina’
12 ‘Vidina’
Music by Jonáš Gruska. This podcast is part of Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the Creative Europe programme of the European Union. Picture by AGF.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with the slovak sound artist Jonáš Gruska that we were unable to include the first time around.
Deleted scenes
We dig up some unreleased fragments of our conversation with sound artist Lars Holdhus that we were unable to include the first time around.
Alvin Lucier
In loving memory of Alvin Lucier (1931-2021), we dig up a conversation with Alvin, one of the most amazing composers and sound artists we've seen, in which he talks about the need to listen carefully, the composers that have accompanied and influenced him over the years, and the role of space and technology in his work, among many other things. One of a kind.