Discussion: Geography, Magic and Decolonised Sounds

In her most recent album, Mexican-American artist Debit crafts a new language for ancient wind instruments of the Mayan civilization, incorporating machine learning into the process. In this way, she unearths speculative music from a blurred, mystical past, related to a wider body of work dealing with the pre-Hispanic world. Indonesian duo Raja Kirik draws on Java’s rich cultural traditions – including shamanic trance dances – to create music inspired by centuries of resistance against colonisation, yet also incorporating electronic music. In conversation with DeForrest Brown Jr., Debit and Yennu Ariendra from Raja Kirik discuss ways that pre-colonial music and magic can interact with contemporary technology, and how this might reveal paths into the future.