Cara Mayer, aka Cardboard Lamb, brings her first report from Meakusma festival in Eupen, east Belgium, 01-04 September 2022. Cara records her expectations and impressions, field recordings and conversations from this extended weekend of beautiful musics. https://www.meakusma-festival.be/

Cara writes: In this episode, I share excerpts from my interview with Dalia Neis and Enir Da of Dali Muru and the Polyphonic Swarm, as well as excerpts from my brief chat with the visual designer and long-term Stroom affiliate, Nana Esi.

Dalia, Enir and I sit, sunblinded, in a communal garden and discuss their universe of references – Sergei Parajanov’s Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors from 1965, Dario Argento’s soundtracks –, the power of rivers to transgress borders and time, their upcoming book and soundtrack ‘The Swarm’ – a multimedia continuation of the universe they have created with their debut album – and how the experience of an album is shows that music is a journey: a durational piece the listener sits through and experiences in real-time. We also discuss finding their home on stroom, alter egos in music, and their attempt to transgress the heteronormativity of love-songs by dedicating one to a boar.

Nana Esi has been a key part of Stroom’s universe since the very beginning. With her, I discuss the what stroom was like in the early days, the history of online radio, the playful, ambigious, near-fictive identity of stroom, and what it was like to “wake up with the radio, and go to bed with the radio” every day. I hope you enjoy!