Voices #13
◦ “voices” is the place where we ask, artists reply and you read.
here we got:
Ryan Hooper
answering some questions. We have already observed his experimental / concrete / spoken word work here.
[1. IDEA]
■ The A. O.: The track from “Studies Made on a Typewriter” that we prefer is “Drawing 4’33””. Can you tell us how it came to light?
► Ryan Hooper: Inspired by a piece of typewriter art by Anni Albers, Studies Made on the Typewriter explores the typewriter as both a physical object and a conceptual tool – one that interacts with texts in varied ways and acts as a marker of place. It becomes a conduit for capturing diaristic traces, like etchings across different environments.
Drawing 4’33” draws directly from the ideas of Brian Eno and John Cage. Eno described ambient music as something that shapes the atmosphere of a room – like lighting or wallpaper – while Cage famously asserted that absolute silence doesn’t exist, inviting listeners to consider all sound as potential music. This piece plays with both concepts: an ambient cut-up blending Eno’s aesthetic with Cage’s conceptual challenge of 4’33”.
this is not music for airports
still silent
partially unsighted
wallpapering the skull
feedback loops
between recorder and microphone
never heard or felt
a performance of 4’33″ like this
At the time of recording, I was listening to Indian Soundies by Moniek Darge & Graham Lambkin, and I think some of that influence seeped into the process. The track is structured in two halves: the first built around a processed field recording of local church bells – a specific, locational sound that situates the listener. The second half features the sound of someone drawing – a quiet, intimate gesture that hints at how experiences are stored and later expressed. In this case, the memory of place is reinterpreted through an invisible drawing.
[2. CREATION]
■ The A. O.: How do you usually approach composition? Do you start with a concept, a sound, a state of mind or what else? How do you generally proceed from the initial seed to the complete work?
► Ryan Hooper: My approach is often rooted in non-musical sources. Memory plays a central role – both its creation and its absence. The presence of loss, in particular, can be a deeply creative force. For this particular project, Anni Albers has been especially influential.
A project can begin with a single spark – a line from a book, a photograph, a film, a conversation, a field recording, or a moment spent outdoors. I’m surrounded by the landscapes of Cornwall – its moorlands, woodlands and coastlines – and there’s a quiet but insistent energy in these places that continually seeps into my work.
From there, the process becomes instinctive – a layering of ideas through improvisation and recording. The initial inspiration acts as a foundation and the piece develops as I respond to it, blending intuition, memory and whatever emerges in the moment. It becomes a kind of dialogue between that first impulse and the evolving shape of the sound.
[3. FEEDBACK]
■ The A. O.: What do you hope listeners feel or experience when engaging with your music?
► Ryan Hooper: I create music primarily from a place of personal enjoyment and therapy, so having any listeners at all feels surreal and an incredible privilege. If someone finds solace or joy through what I’ve made, that goes far beyond anything I ever hoped for.
With this project, I wanted to emphasise the tactile act of typing – its connection to touch, onomatopoeic sound. It’s a process of translation: thoughts into keystrokes, steel type to ribbon, ink to paper.
At its core, the project is about how our thoughts and memories are processed, altered and recorded over time – not just externally, but within our own hearts and minds. If the project stirs something in a listener, evokes a memory or feeling, then that’s something magical.
[4. IDENTITY]
■ The A. O.: In a world saturated with digital music content, how do you try to keep your sound distinct and personally meaningful?
► Ryan Hooper: There’s a quietness in my process that resists the pressure to try to compete.
I attempt to stay connected to what feels honest and necessary. Working this way, the sound remains meaningful to me – and hopefully that comes through to listeners.
Ultimately, distinctiveness comes not from trying to be different, but from being in tune with your own world.
[5. INFLUENCES]
■ The A. O.: Name three albums that you consider relevant to your musical path and why.
► Ryan Hooper: ○ Graham Lambkin – Salmon Run
Through a symbiotic relationship with sound and place, Lambkin has a rare ability to elevate the everyday into something quietly poetic. There’s a raw intimacy in how Salmon Run captures domestic spaces – like eavesdropping on a private world – yet it’s also deeply composed beneath its unpolished surface. The emotional ambiguity, the sense of memory embedded in lo-fi textures and the way it transforms ordinary sounds into deeply resonant moments are powerful touchstones.
○ Asha Sheshadri – No Longer A Soundtrack
I admire how this album blends sound poetry, narration and diaristic monologue. Clipped voice memos, field recordings, glitchy textures and fragments of text drift like passing thoughts. Over time, a quiet cohesion emerges, as if flipping through an annotated personal journal where even the silences carry weight. Sheshadri’s voice becomes an archive of memory, identity and rupture. It doesn’t offer tidy narratives or emotional payoffs but loops, lingers and haunts – echoing the texture of memory, diaspora and dislocation.
○ claire rousay – a heavenly touch
On a heavenly touch, rousay captures a closeness that borders on discomfort – voice notes, breaths, glitches and fragments unfolding like a private monologue. The album never imposes emotion; it suggests, letting feeling emerge in the quiet spaces it leaves. Like much of her work, it illuminates the fragile minutiae of daily life. This is not performance – it’s confession. A masterclass in restraint and vulnerability, its sparseness holds tension, anticipation and deep emotional presence. rousay’s music doesn’t just accompany you – it inhabits you.
[6. REGARDS]
■ The A. O.: Leave us with a quote you love.
► Ryan Hooper: This one from Anni Albers perfectly captures my approach on Studies Made on a Typewriter:
“Being creative is not so much the desire to do something as the listening to that which wants to be done: the dictation of the materials.” (Anni Albers)