Emerald has built a name as a leading voice representing UK underground club culture, we spoke as she steps into a new chapter as label owner and producer. From growing up as "the laptop DJ" on the outskirts of London to becoming a champion of underground sounds on Rinse FM and beyond.Standing six feet tall, mixed-race, and bisexual, she describes feeling like "a clumsy giraffe on roller skates" yet transforms this feeling of otherness into her greatest strength. The origins of her new label Precious Stones—named after herself and sisters Sapphire and Ruby—reflect both personal heritage and her vision for music that transcends conventional boundaries.Throughout our conversation, Emerald dismantles industry myths with a refreshing and down to earth honesty. She questions the often contradictory definitions of "underground" culture, challenges networking norms that feel forced, and advocates for spaces where revolutionism and anti-establishmentarianism can flourish. Listen to Emerald’s music on BandcampIf you enjoy Lost and Sound and want to help keep it thriving, the best way to support is simple: subscribe, leave a rating, and write a quick review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps others find the show. You can do that here on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen.Huge thanks to Lost and Sound’s sponsor Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear. Check them out here: Audio-TechnicaWant to go deeper? Grab a copy of my book Coming To Berlin, a journey through the city’s creative underground, via Velocity Press.And if you’re curious about Cold War-era subversion, check out my BBC documentary The Man Who Smuggled Punk Rock Across The Berlin Wall on the BBC World Service.You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.
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Gyrofield
Kiana Li, the electronic producer and sound artist known as Gyrofield, creates music that steadfastly refuses simple categorization. Growing up in Hong Kong before relocating to Bristol and eventually Utrecht, she began making music in isolation – alone in her bedroom and sharing tracks online. When their parody track “Out Of My Mind” unexpectedly caught fire in 2019, it marked the beginning of a fascinating artistic evolution that continues to unfold in surprising ways.Our conversation reveals how deeply intertwined Kiana's artistic and personal identities have become. As a self-described "cat-spirited interdisciplinary artist," she discusses how exploring gender fluidity has influenced her approach to creating music that exists beyond conventional boundaries. "What happens when we make identity fluid?" she asks, suggesting that both transness and artistic expression allow people to "possess otherness and turn it into something beautiful."What emerges most powerfully from our discussion is how music has functioned as both survival mechanism and connection point for Gyrofield. Growing up neurodivergent and socially isolated, creating electronic music offered an essential lifeline. Now, as a respected artist with releases on labels like Metalheadz and XL, she's using her platform to explore complex emotions while still creating moments of joy.Follow Gyrofield on Instagram: @gyrofieldListen to Gyrofield’s music: Suspension of Belief – Bandcamp Akin / Mother – BandcampIf you enjoy Lost and Sound and want to help keep it thriving, the best way to support is simple: subscribe, leave a rating, and write a quick review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps others find the show. You can do that here on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen.Huge thanks to Lost and Sound’s sponsor – Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear. Check them out here: Audio-TechnicaBored on the beach? Grab a copy of my book Coming To Berlin, a journey through the city’s creative underground, via Velocity Press.And if you’re curious about Cold War-era subversion, check out my BBC documentary The Man Who Smuggled Punk Rock Across The Berlin Wall on the BBC World Service.You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.
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Eli Keszler
Eli Keszler joins me this week to talk about rethinking sound, space, and what it means to create music in an uncertain world. A lifelong percussionist, Eli’s work has often explored the edges of rhythm and texture—dismantling traditional approaches and rebuilding them into something uniquely his own. Eli isn’t just a percussionist who produces great albums though. A visual arist and a creative mentor who has collaborated with everyone from Oneohtrix Point Never to Laurel Halo to Skrillex. We talk about how his relationship with the studio has shifted over time, how working in film has expanded his compositional approach, and how speed and density in performance can create a strange kind of stillness. His new self-titled album on LuckyMe marks his eleventh solo release and reflects years of process, reflection, and experimentation.The conversation also opens out into something I‘m currently really interested in asking artists‘ opinions on: how the function of music itself is changing. As digital culture reshapes how we interact, consume, and listen, Eli reflects on the possibility that music might be returning to something more spiritual, more tactile—more connected to personal and communal practice than product. We talk about the idea of a “humanist retreat” from the frictionlessness of tech, and how creative work might serve as a space to resist or reimagine that drift.Listen to Eli Keszler’s music:BandcampListen to Eli Keszler (2024):BandcampFollow Eli Keszler on Instagram: @eli_keszlerIf you enjoy Lost and Sound and want to help keep it thriving, the best way to support is simple: subscribe, leave a rating, and write a quick review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps others find the show. You can do that here on Apple Podcasts or wherever you like to listen.Lost and Sound is sponsored by Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear. Check them out here: Audio-TechnicaWant to go deeper? Grab a copy of my book Coming To Berlin, a journey through the city’s creative underground, via Velocity Press.And if you’re curious about Cold War-era subversion, check out my BBC documentary The Man Who Smuggled Punk Rock Across The Berlin Wall on the BBC World Service.You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.
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Adam Wiltzie – Stars of the Lid
What began with nothing more than a four-track recorder, a couple of "crappy mics," and a friendship forged over Erik Satie records at university parties led to the quietly seminal influence Stars Of The Lid have had over ambient, modern composition and drone music over the past four decades. I spoke with Adam Wiltzie – one half of the project (the other, Brian McBride sadly passed away in 2023).Against the backdrop of 1990s Austin – a city dominated by rock and country music – Stars of the Lid emerged with something radically different. Their debut album "Music for Nitrous Oxide" quietly initiated a revolution, pushing against what Adam describes as the prevailing white boy funk and laying groundwork for what would become a seminal force in ambient and modern composition. Now celebrating its 30th anniversary with a remastered release, Wiltzie reflects on those early creative days with the late Brian McBride and the unexpected longevity of their collaborative vision.Wiltzie is so disarmingly unpretentious I almost gulped at one point. "I am definitely my own worst critic and I still love getting bad reviews," he confesses with surprising candor. This willingness to embrace imperfection has fueled a four-decade career spent continually moving forward rather than getting stuck in pursuit of perfection – a lesson valuable for creators in any medium.Most poignantly, Wiltzie shares how Brian McBride's passing inspired this anniversary project, bringing memories of their formative creative partnership back to the surface. The reissue serves not as nostalgic celebration but as a "time capsule" documenting how two university students with minimal equipment created atmospheric soundscapes that seaped their way into the water influencing generations of musicians working at the intersection of ambient, drone, and modern classical composition.Listen to Stars of the Lid’s music:BandcampListen to Music for Nitrous Oxide (30-Year Anniversary Remastered): BandcampFollow Adam Wiltzie on Instagram: @adamwiltzieIf you enjoy Lost and Sound and want to help keep it thriving, the best way to support is simple: subscribe, leave a rating, and write a quick review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps others find the show. You can do that here on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen.Thanks to Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear and sponsors of Lost and Sound. Check them out here: Audio-TechnicaIf you’re looking for summer read and you’ve not read it yet, check out my book Coming To Berlin, a journey through the city’s creative underground, via Velocity Press.And if you like tales of punks outwitting the establishment, check out my BBC documentary The Man Who Smuggled Punk Rock Across The Berlin Wall on the BBC World Service.You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.
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rRoxymore
How do you make an album through personal upheaval? I spoke with rRoxymore about the process of making her third album "Juggling Dualities" – a work born from the ashes of emotional upheaval and creative block. When we sat down together, the genre-blurring producer opened up with remarkable candour about finding her way back to music through surrender rather than force."I couldn't produce any track of music that was satisfying for my standards," rRoxymore aka Hermione Frank confessed, describing the frustration that preceded her creative breakthrough. The turning point came when she abandoned expectations entirely – no planned album, no pressure to deliver a product, just pure exploration. What emerged was something she considers her most honest work, created in a surprisingly short timeframe with an authenticity that surprised even herself.The conversation ventured beyond the album into rRoxymore‘s journey as an artist – from her early days in France feeling constrained by rigid genre expectations, to finding freedom in Berlin's electronic music scene, to her recent move to a smaller city where she's embracing a slower rhythm of life. Throughout it all, she's maintained a fluid relationship with genre, using it as "a reference point that you'll avoid to go to" rather than a rigid framework to follow.Perhaps most striking was her deliberate disconnection from digital noise during this period of creation. "I deleted all the socials for a while," she shared, emphasizing the importance of asking fundamental questions: "What do I want? Who am I?" This return to essentials allowed her to follow her natural rhythm – a practice she describes as "maybe financially not as rewarding, but it's so satisfying."Listen to rRoxymore’s music: Bandcamp Artist Page – rRoxymore Listen to Juggling Dualities (pre-order available):Bandcamp – Juggling Dualities Follow rRoxymore on Instagram: @rroxymore If you enjoy Lost and Sound and want to help keep it thriving, the best way to support is simple: subscribe, leave a rating, and write a quick review on your favourite podcast platform. It really helps others find the show. You can do that here on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you like to listen.Thanks also to this episode’s sponsor, Audio-Technica – makers of beautifully engineered audio gear. Check them out here: Audio-TechnicaWant to go deeper? Grab a copy of my book Coming To Berlin, a journey through the city’s creative underground, via Velocity Press.And if you’re curious about Cold War-era subversion, check out my BBC documentary The Man Who Smuggled Punk Rock Across The Berlin Wall on the BBC World Service.You can also follow me on Instagram at @paulhanford for behind-the-scenes bits, guest updates, and whatever else is bubbling up.
Lost and Sound is a podcast exploring the most exciting and innovative voices in underground, electronic, and leftfield music worldwide. Hosted by Berlin-based writer Paul Hanford, each episode features in-depth, free-flowing conversations with artists, producers, and pioneers who push music forward in their own unique way.From legendary innovators to emerging mavericks, Paul dives into the intersection of music, creativity, and life, uncovering deep insights into the artistic process. His relaxed, open-ended approach allows guests to express themselves fully, offering an intimate perspective on the minds shaping contemporary sound.Originally launched with support from Arts Council England, Lost and Sound has featured groundbreaking artists including Suzanne Ciani, Peaches, Laurent Garnier, Chilly Gonzales, Sleaford Mods, Nightmares On Wax, Graham Coxon, Saint Etienne, Ellen Allien, A Guy Called Gerald, Jean Michel Jarre, Liars, Blixa Bargeld, Hania Rani, Roman Flügel, Róisín Murphy, Jim O’Rourke, Yann Tiersen, Thurston Moore, Lias Saoudi (Fat White Family), Caterina Barbieri, Rudy Tambala (A.R. Kane), more eaze, Tesfa Williams, Slikback, NikNak, and Alva Noto.Paul Hanford is a writer, broadcaster, and storyteller whose work bridges music, culture, and human connection. His debut book, Coming to Berlin, is available in all good bookshops. Lost and Sound is for listeners passionate about electronic music, experimental sound, and the people redefining what music can be.
UK