Sometimes You Just Have to Give it Your Attention

What do spaces that have shaped history sound like? Do we dare reimagine such histories and spaces through listening, especially those that are rooted in state violence and terror? What happens when we listen to complicated spaces together and explore our individual responses by listening to our listening?

These are the questions that shaped a diverse, international group of listeners into a collective that dared to listen to the Nazi Party Rally Grounds in Nuremberg, Germany and respond to their collective listening via sound. This recording features those responses, which used the site as inspiration as well as raw sonic materials to build these sound pieces. Included also is a booklet with essays contextualizing the overall project as well as the distinct sonic responses.

Sometimes You Just Have to Give it Your Attention features author Louis Chude-Sokei, scholar/violinist Gascia Ouzounian, sound artists Yara Mekawei, Jan St. Werner, and Mendi and Keith Obadike, and iconic singer Hani Mojtahedy.