Environmental Connection Through Sonic Curation

w/ Ki Oni

a light blue and off white ceramic mug with a handle to the left of a mini orange and red La Crueset pot sitting atop a wet and dewey cement floor. The vessels are wet with rain.

What does it look like and what does it feel like to connect with our surrounding ecosystem people, plants, animals, movements, practices and rituals through sound creation and through sonic exploration? How does the curation of sound landscapes honor environments which have held us, and which we strive to hold? What is the process of internal cultivation and internal exploration that occurs during the creation of music that helps us to better understand our own unique roles within our eco-systems which can help us to care for those around us? In this episode, Callie and Chuck, long-time friends, who met through dublab, discuss how sound cultivation and music composition have helped them to acknowledge magical happenings in their environment, support loved ones (near and far), and build relationship.

They also exchange memories and honor the impact in which being a part of the long-form, unconditional, supportive, and fully accepting dublab family has deeply influenced their ability to make work which feels explorative, ever-changing, resonant, and expansive. Callie and Chuck’s conversation is woven together with songs which touch on themes and artists mentioned in the interview. The show is brought to a close with a caring, bright, and spacious feeling pre-recorded live set by Ki-Oni.

Guest: Ki Oni

he/him

Chuck sits in front of a textured glass window looking out into the distance. He is wearing a dark navy baseball cap and crew-neck sweatshirt.

Ki Oni is the pseudonym of ambient artist Chuck Soo-Hoo named after a creature in a Japanese monster movie – a tree with a human face that spews flower pedals from its mouth. Soo-Hoo similarly inhabits a surreal space between the artificial and natural worlds, a liminal zone where the fabricated blends with the fluid and music is a river, flowing of its own accord.

Soo-Hoo splits his time between working at dublab, L.A.'s freeform radio station, and co-hosting Contact Wave, the station's resident ambient and experimental music program. He has previously released music on sound as language, Inner Islands, Atlantic Rhythms, Doom Trip, Geographic North, Never Content, and Pyramid Blood.

Photo by Brittaney Kirchner