Episode 29: CRITICAL POSITIVITY – with ACL

Sound Propositions

Happy (very belated) birthday to us! Back in February of 2022 we celebrated the tenth anniversary of our blog. To celebrate, in this episode, we pull the curtain back a bit to talk with ten of the writers who have contributed to A CLOSER LISTEN since we began over a decade ago. Utilizing my idiosyncratic editing skills, I’ve conjured a virtual roundtable discussing the past, present, and future of ACL. We discuss the founding of the site, abandoning scoring, and all our sub-sites, mixes, and other projects that define us. Our discussion of video game music gives way to a reflection on film scores, and the relationship between sound and the visual more broadly, including artwork, packaging, and physical media. We recount what has made ACL distinct over the years, our openness to new sounds, the joys of ongoing discovery, our formative influences, and our signature blend of critical positivity.

The music for this episode was selected collectively, drawn from tracks that came up throughout our conversations. Scattered throughout the episode are also many 10 second clips I solicited from friends of the site back in 2014. I used them to make some “community sound collages” that I never properly shared, so it seemed fitting to include them here.

VOICES (in order of appearance)

Richard Allen

Gabriel Bogart

Joseph Sannicandro

Jeremy Bye

Samuel Rogers

Nayt Keane

Chris Redfearn-Murray

David Murrieta Flores

Maya Rose Merberg

Jennifer Smart

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Sound Propositions is written, recorded, mixed, and produced by Joseph Sannicandro.