Dear Music Thinkers around the world,
Welcome to the July listening session! This month, we focus on the hidden layers of sound that surround everyday objects. What happens when we listen beyond the obvious? What can the sound of a sneaker on a basketball court or the manufacturing noise of a plastic toy tell us about global capital, real-time improvisation, and our ecosystem? What if we could ‘just listen’ a bit deeper to hear all the sounds in the context of what we are doing?
Today I have two podcasts for you: The latest about the Sound of Baketball and a companion piece from our archive about a toy dolphin. The jam card of the month is about something we often find very unspectacular, something we do every moment, and are not aware of it: Listen. with a famous quote of Jimi Hendrix.
And the paper of the month is about Neuroarts, alongside the website of the month about all music genres on one page.
Have fun.
What does basketball sound like? In our newest episode, we explore the soundtrack of sports with ethnomusicologist, sound artist, and singer Jordan Zalis. We dive into the incredible layers hidden inside the squeak of a basketball sneaker, revealing how it signifies both real-time improvisation on the court and the global circulation of capital.
Furthermore, we discuss how championship-winning coach Nick Nurse successfully implemented a strategy called the ‘Monk Offence’—treating his team like a permanent jam session where his only job as the band leader is to make sure everybody knows the tunes. Inspired by Jazz legend Thelonius Monk.
🎧 Click here to listen to What does Basketball Sound like with Jordan Zalis
You can also listen to it on:
Spotify, Apple, and YouTube or wherever you listen to podcasts.
A companion episode from the archive
If Jordan Zalis’s deconstruction of the basketball sneaker changed how you hear sports, you will love this companion episode from our archive.
In Episode 41, we took a sonic tour through the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven before diving into a project by researcher Louis Moeckel. Louis traces the “acoustic supply chain” and noise pollution of a simple toy dolphin. He even handed his recordings of these industrial machine sounds over to techno musicians from the Berghain scene in Berlin to transform the research into a vinyl record.
From research to DJ.
🎧 Click here to listen to:
The Sound of a Toy Dolphin with Louis Moeckel
Listen on Spotify, Apple or search on your favourite player.
Are you enjoying these deep dives into the minds of musical polymaths? Make sure to subscribe to this Substack and follow the podcast on your favourite app so you never miss an insight!
Every month, I share one of the jam cards with you for inspiration, to think out loud, or just as a trigger to train your music thinking.
The essence of the Listen card is to establish active listening. Listening can be a leadership practice to move from knowledge to wisdom. Or in other words to find the signal in the noise.
Knowledge speaks, wisdom listens.
To me, this quote tells two things: on the one hand, to share knowledge, we need to speak, and on the other, to get knowledge and transform it into wisdom and also actions, it requires listening. Jimi Hendrix was one of the greatest and most influential electrical guitarists of all time - and, this quote is one of the main drivers for traffic on my website. People are intrigued by this wisdom.
This iPhone snapshot was taken in the French Pavillion on the Venice Art Biennale 2017 in Italy. The Pavilion is an architectural installation or living sculpture with different space that are intended as a recording studio. The idea of Studio Venezia by the artist Xavier Veilhan was to share moments of fragility, love, relationships and attention with musicians and art lovers.
The inside – inspired by the Merzbau of Kurt Schwitters – was all wood in a monochrome colour, where different musical instruments were built in the environment to bring emotion into visual art. Furthermore, during the exhibition, there were concerts from baroque, classical music, experimental jazz, pop to electronic music to share a sense of curiosity in sound and musical texture. A spectacular choice for the visual art world.
Every day, I find something interesting that connects to listening, sound, and co-creation from a music-thinking perspective; it drives me to read and think. I am sharing this with you to start exploring and having a conversation. Let me know your thoughts via Substack.
Neuroarts: At the Intersection of the Arts, Research, Technology, and Practice
The researchers outline a massive paradigm shift in how we understand aesthetic experiences. Emerging research in the field of neuroarts is proving that the arts do not just entertain us – they measurably alter our biology, brain structure, and behavior. From using surrealist principles to understand how our brains predict the world, to leveraging neurofeedback and AI to reshape our connection with nature, the paper explores the ‘common land’ where artistic intuition meets evidence-based neuroscience to solve complex societal challenges.
Every Noise At Once is a website of its own, a music inspiration with more than 6200 musical genres and sound examples. Years ago I sat together with Glenn McDonald the founder of the website, and former data alchemist of Spotify for one of my most listened podcast episodes.
Have a listen Warning: you can loose hours exploring this.
What started in 2011 as an idea and framework has officially evolved. 2026 marks our transition into the Music Thinking Society - a Foundation in the making.
I am truly looking forward to sharing this pivotal 15th-anniversary year with you, as well as the next fifteen years leading us toward 2041. If you are interested in navigating the cues and rhythms of business and life strategies through a musical lens, I am honoured to have you in the ensemble.
Please forward the newsletter if you think you can make someone happy!
Let’s listen, tune, play, and perform together.
Best regards,
Founder, Music Thinking Society
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