Lost And Sound

David Longstreth on Dirty Projectors, Orchestral Experimentation, and the Radical Psychedelia of Fatherhood

David Longstreth stands at a fascinating creative crossroads. For twenty years, he's been the driving force behind Dirty Projectors, crafting music that defies easy categorization while earning collaborations with icons like Björk, Rihanna, and Paul McCartney. Now, with his ambitious new orchestral song cycle "Song of the Earth," Longstreth explores our shifting relationship with nature while processing what he calls "the radical psychedelia of fatherhood."

Speaking from his California home studio (formerly a kitchen, before that a garage that "bloomed with mold"), Longstreth reveals how this project emerged from conversations with his longtime friend Andre de Ritter, conductor of the Berlin-based ensemble Stargaze. Drawing inspiration from Gustav Mahler's "Das Lied von der Erde," Longstreth initially set out to write nature poems, only to discover his feelings about the natural world had "gotten weird" – reflecting our collective anxiety about climate change.

The beauty of Longstreth's approach lies in his embrace of uncertainty. Throughout our conversation, he repeatedly describes putting himself in musical situations "beyond what I'm capable of," allowing the learning curve itself to become part of the creative process. This has been his method since recreating Black Flag's "Damaged" album from memory for Dirty Projectors‘ 2007 "Rise Above" (deliberately avoiding revisiting the original) through to this orchestral collaboration that marries environmental themes with deeply personal transformation.

Perhaps most captivating is Longstreth's description of how parenthood has fundamentally altered his perception. Watching his three-year-old daughter experience the world for the first time has made him question everything he knows, creating a profound sense of renewal that directly influences the emotional landscape of "Song of the Earth." Twenty years into his career, Longstreth has found a way to make music that feels simultaneously ambitious and intimate, political and personal – a rare achievement worth celebrating.

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My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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Seamus Rawles Malliagh, better known as Iglooghost, is an artist who doesn’t just make electronic music—he builds entire worlds. His sound is hyper-detailed, bursting with surreal textures, and deeply tied to the mythologies he creates around it.

In this episode, we dive into how growing up in rural Dorset shaped his imagination, from childhood experiments with ley lines to the eerie, folklore-like atmosphere of empty landscapes. We also explore the making of his most recent album, Tidal Memory Exo, crafted during a five-year stint living near Thanet’s brutalist seafront. Immersed in what he calls “aesthetic ugliness”—concrete towers, decay, a nearby sewage plant—he channeled these surroundings into an intricate fictional narrative, where a storm isolates Thanet from the mainland, birthing underground music subcultures.

Iglooghost shares how discomfort and constraint fuel his creativity and how mythology plays a key role in his artistic process. Whether you’re deep into his sonic universe or discovering him for the first time, we get into one about how environment, storytelling, and electronic music collide.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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Étienne de Crécy is one of the architects of the French Touch movement—those lush, filter-heavy grooves that shaped house music in the ‘90s, right alongside acts like Daft Punk, Air, and Alex Gopher. But his journey didn’t start in the clubs. Before electronic music, he was a punk bassist, navigating Parisian record shops that looked down on house music before the scene exploded worldwide.

In this conversation, Étienne reflects on three decades of pushing electronic music forward, from his groundbreaking Super Discount series to his latest album, Warm Up. This new record marks a shift—more organic, more vocal-driven, and carrying a double meaning: a reference to its sound, but also a nod to the global moment we’re in. “We are just at the warm-up… for the climate, for politics.”

We talk about his creative process, his mathematical approach to composition, and why he avoids the easy route of plugins in favor of crate-digging for samples. Plus, the story of how he unearthed a long-lost collaboration with Damon Albarn, recorded twenty years ago and now perfectly fitting Warm Up’s aesthetic.

As electronic music culture shifts—where younger generations lean into harder, faster sounds—Étienne remains committed to a philosophy: “What I’m learning is to stay simple and to be amazed by simple things.”

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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Loraine James is one of the most forward-thinking artists in electronic music today. Her sound is instinctive, fluid, and deeply personal—whether she’s crafting glitchy, jazz-infused beats, bending genre expectations on Hyperdub, or exploring mood and texture through her Whatever the Weather project.

In this episode of Lost and Sound, Loraine talks about her approach to making music without rigid plans, letting emotion and instinct guide the process. She shares insights into the creative freedom that shapes her work, from improvisation to embracing imperfections in her own way. We also dive into the personal themes in her music, including the deeply moving 2003, a track that reflects on loss and memory.

With a new Whatever The Weather album out now on Ghostly International, Loraine talks about the balance between control and spontaneity, how she navigates external expectations without compromising her sound, and why she’s never been interested in fitting into any one scene. Thoughtful, open, and refreshingly down-to-earth, I feel we got a rare look into the mindset of an artist constantly pushing her own boundaries.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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What happens when music becomes so deeply personal that it reshapes the course of your life? Kali Malone joins me to explore this through the lens of The Sacrificial Code, the album that transformed her from an underground experimentalist into one of contemporary composition’s most vital voices.

Malone’s approach to the organ exists in a liminal space—both ancient and futuristic. She explains how recording on a 16th-century instrument for the album’s reissue created radically new interpretations despite the composition remaining unchanged: “The music is strictly composed, but the registration and delivery change its identity so much.” You could read it as a poetic parallel to human evolution—our core essence intact, yet constantly shifting.

We dive into the tension between intuition and discipline, a defining force in her work. In an era of relentless digital noise, Malone advocates for silence as a creative act: “Remove all the layers and all the noise, and you’ll slowly start to hear what you feel, what you want, what you believe in.” It’s a philosophy that resonates far beyond music, speaking to anyone searching for artistic clarity.

From Colorado’s DIY punk scenes to Stockholm’s experimental avant-garde, Malone’s journey reveals the role of artistic communities in shaping sound. Her deep collaborations with Caterina Barbieri and Maria W Horn (both previous guests on Lost and Sound) highlight how musical friendships create “secret languages” that transcend time, breaking down artificial boundaries between traditions.

And when asked what she’d tell her younger self? Without hesitation: “You’re not crazy.” A simple but powerful affirmation for anyone carving their own path—where instinct often feels irrational but, in the end, is the most honest route forward.

If you’re enjoying Lost and Sound, please do subscribe and leave a rating or review on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen. It really helps to spread the word and support Lost and Sound.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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Tesfa Williams has been shaping the sound of UK underground music for over two decades. From his early days as Dread D in the Black Ops crew—helping define the sublow sound that fed into grime—to becoming a key figure in UK funky, his journey has always been about pushing bass culture forward.

In this episode of Lost and Sound, Tesfa breaks down the evolution of UK club music, from jungle and garage to grime and beyond. We talk about his early days in West London’s underground scene, the impact of pirate radio, and the industry challenges facing electronic artists today. He also shares the motivations behind his recent name change and how it connects to identity, culture, and artistic evolution.

We also get deep into his latest album, Raves of Future Past—a record that bridges the past and future of UK bass with Tesfa’s signature blend of raw energy and deep musicality. Plus, we explore the fragmentation of today’s music landscape, the struggle for meaningful connection in a digital world, and the importance of community and reclaiming spaces for underground music.

This is an essential listen for anyone passionate about UK club culture, sound system lineage, and the future of bass-driven music.

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Beyond Today EP by Tesfa Williams is available now on Heist Recordings, Bandcamp.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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What happens when music and psychoanalysis occupy the same creative headspace? This week on Lost and Sound, I chat with Ezra Feinberg—composer, guitarist, and practicing psychoanalyst—about the deep interplay between experimental music, the subconscious mind, and the subtle forces that shape creativity.

We dive into Soft Power, his latest album—a lush, hypnotic fusion of minimalism, kosmische music, ambient soundscapes, and psychedelic influences and one of my favourite albums of the last 12 months. We talk about how intention and perception collide in music, whether the emotions a listener feels mirror what the artist originally set out to express, and what it means to truly trust the creative process.

Ezra shares how his twin worlds of music and psychoanalysis aren’t as far apart as they seem, touching on problem-solving, patience, and artistic intuition. We explore the realities of navigating a career in underground music alongside parenthood, and how New York’s evolving music scene has shaped his journey.

Plus, we get into formative influences, spontaneous collaborations and the long game of making music on your own terms. A conversation about sound, time, and the quiet forces that shape creativity.

If you’re enjoying Lost and Sound, please do subscribe and leave a rating or review on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen. It really helps to spread the word and support Lost and Sound.

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Soft Power by Ezra Feinberg is available on Tonal Union, Bandcamp.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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Alva Noto—aka Carsten Nicolai—has spent decades at the forefront of experimental electronic music and multimedia art. Growing up in East Germany, his work has been shaped by the country’s stark aesthetics, Leipzig’s bookmaking traditions, and the GDR’s Bauhaus-influenced design. In this episode, we talk about minimalism, sound as texture, the NOTON label and how his collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto (including The Revenant soundtrack) have redefined electronic music.

Carsten takes us back to the late ’80s and ’90s—a time when electronic music was shifting from analog to digital, opening up new creative possibilities. He shares how artists like Kraftwerk and Brian Eno paved the way for his work and how embracing imperfections in technology led to the birth of glitch.

We also explore how music distribution evolved from CDs to MP3s, how that shaped the way we experience sound, and what it means for artists today. Plus, Carsten reflects on his friendship with Ryuichi Sakamoto and their artistic journey together.

Listen in for a deep dive into sound, technology, and the art of pushing boundaries.

If you’re enjoying Lost and Sound, please do subscribe and leave a rating or review on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen. It really helps to spread the word and support Lost and Sound.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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Turntablist, composer, and sonic explorer NikNak joins Lost and Sound to talk about pushing DJing into new dimensions. From layering ambient textures to weaving intricate narratives through sound, she’s redefining what turntables can do.

We get into her creative process, the influence of video game soundtracks, and how she’s carved a space in the UK’s experimental music scene. She shares stories from performing with Grandmaster Flash, winning the Oram Award in 2020, and navigating the realities of being an artist today—where financial pressures, privilege, and technology all shape the landscape.

This was a really fun chat and NikNak makes some great points about sound as storytelling, the tension between artistry and survival, and why embracing play and experimentation is more important than ever.

If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing and leaving a rating or review on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen. It really helps to spread the word and support Lost and Sound.

NikNak on Bandcamp.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

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Underground Bass culture never sits still and when it comes to forward momentum,  Slikback is at the heart of it. With at least 28 projects since 2018, his sound is restless, urgent—pushing bass, distortion, and rhythm into new forms. In this conversation, we get into the discipline behind his experimental process, how fatherhood has reshaped his approach, and the impact of his latest release on Tempa.

We also talk about the move from traditional labels to self-releasing on Bandcamp—a decision that cracked open new creative freedom, especially during the pandemic. For Slikback, aka the very charming Freddie Mwaura Njau, it’s not just about breaking industry norms; it’s about the raw energy of finishing ideas, pushing sound forward without losing the impulse that made it exciting in the first place.

From early influences growing up in Nairobi to global collaborations, from DIY scenes to Nyege Nyege’s cultural force, this episode traces the connections that shape his music. We talk process, community, and the balance between instinct and refinement in electronic music today.

If you’re enjoying the show, please consider subscribing and leaving a rating or review on Apple, Spotify, Amazon, or wherever you listen. It really helps to spread the word and support Lost and Sound.

Data by Slikback is out now on Tempa, listen or buy here.

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Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica

My BBC World Service radio documentary “The man who smuggled punk rock across the Berlin Wall” is available now on BBC Sounds. Click here to listen.

My book, Coming To Berlin: Global Journeys Into An Electronic Music And Club Culturet Capital is out now on Velocity Press. Click here to find out more. 

Lost and Sound title music by Thomas Giddins

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