The Attic presents The Sonic Turn — International Conference · Nov 14–15, 2025

Spotlight

The long read, interviews and stories that we focus on.

FROM THE ARCHIVES

None of Us Know the Words: Lessons from the Mid-20th Century...

Contesting the vitality of a multicultural, multi-ethnic America, this article offers a glimpse into the Mid-Twentieth Century American music.

Ian Nagoski

SONIC ACTIVISM

How to Perform an Anti-fascist Collective From Sound

This essay examines the idea of the collective and collaboration in relation to, and in resistance against, fascism and populism.

Salomé Voegelin

ANTHROPOLOGY OF SOUND

Thick Listening: Listening in the Thick of It

This contribution introduces the concept of "thick listening" to better understand the pluriform, relational, and unstable quality of listening in everyday situations.

Holger Schulze

SOUND SPACE MEMORY

Mnemosonic Topographies - Sensory Epistemology Between Sound,...

The article proposes a sensory epistemology, where the act of listening becomes a form of witnessing, healing, and reimagining.

Manja Ristić

SONIC WARFARE

When You Hear Them Sound - The Weaponization Of Acoustics

A concise exploration of sound as weapon and instrument of control, coercion, and myth-making, from Jericho to Gaza, Beirut and Belgrade.

Cosmin Nicolae

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

Favourite Albums of 2022

We asked some of our friends and collaborators to share their favourite albums of 2022.

Dragoș Rusu

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

Favourite Albums of 2021

We asked some of our contributors, collaborators and friends to share their favourite albums of 2021.

Dragoș Rusu

FOCUS ON

Excavated Shellac: An Alternate History Of The World’s Music

Excavated Shellac focuses on music recorded across the non-Anglo world, offering a taste of the music being made in myriad communities at the dawn of recorded sound.

Garth Cartwright

IN CONVERSATION

Everything You Are About To Hear Is Absolutely Real

At the edge of two (imaginary) worlds of electronic music, academic and popular, M. C. (Martin) Schmidt and Drew Daniel from Matmos discuss their work.

Miron Ghiu

IN CONVERSATION

Lăutărie Then and Now: Inside Romania's Romani Musical Heritage

Conversations with four lăutari from different backgrounds and generations about the journey of the Romanian-Romani music genre known as "muzica lăutarească".

Shaun Williams

CULTURAL HERITAGE

The Polyphonic Search for Authenticity in a Balkan Country

From archaic phonos to “Made in Romania“, here's a look on how the term “Balkan” is used in the construction and perception of rock music and manele.

Claudiu Oancea

PERSONAL ENCOUNTERS

Are arranged marriages forced marriages? Answers from a Roma...

What is readily dismissed as 'tradition' is often a product of modernity, shaped by socio-economic transformations if one embraces a concept of “culture” as dynamic and changeable.

Cătălina Tesăr

FROM THE ARCHIVES

A Century of Manele: a Sonic Excavation of Romania’s Most Popular...

An exploration into the history of the Romanian-Romani ethno-pop music genre manele.

Shaun Williams

ALBUMS OF THE YEAR

Favourite Albums of 2020

We asked some of our contributors, collaborators and friends to help us and share their favourite albums of 2020.

Dragoș Rusu

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Jana Winderen – Uncovering the Hidden Sounds of the Environment

Jana Winderen’s sonic artworks are deeply representative of the contemporary moment and her practice focuses on recording and sharing difficult-to-access audio environments.

Andrew Choate

ACOUSTIC ECOLOGY

Ros Bandt and Vicki Hallett – Listening to the Barwon River in...

Two of Australia’s best known field recordists, Ros Bandt and Vicki Hallett are sensing this slice of the planet – the Barwon Estuary in Victoria, Australia, a project that interrogates place as an acoustic space where sound, place, time and culture collide.

Jane Cornwell

FEATURE

On the Manelization of Romania in Identitarian Times

Manelization is a term used to describe the "threat" of transforming Romania into a manele-country.

Paul Breazu & Mihai Lukács

IN CONVERSATION

A Sense of Identity

The story of the Syrian oud musician Mohamad Zatari, who moved to Romania to study music at the Conservatory of Bucharest.

Dragoș Rusu