Noise, power, and Minneapolis: Gabriel Mendel interview (Part 2)

January 30

50 mins

Episode Description

The year is off to a very disturbing start thanks to ICE’s violent paramilitary incursion in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Minnesota citizens have responded with mass protests and direct action, much of it sonic in nature—with the sound of whistles alerting neighbors and making life harder on ICE.

This episode, we speak with an expert on noise, power, and protest who also happens to live and teach in Minneapolis: Gabriel Saloman Mindel. Gabriel is one half of the Noise band Yellow Swans. Last month, we discussed the aesthetics and politics of noise music.

This month, Gabriel discusses settler-colonial ways of treating the land, humans, and the soundscape in service of capital and political power, as well as noise, protest, and political power in the troubling context of current events.

This episode features an interview we did in November and excepts from a follow-up in December, after the ICE incursion began. If you’d like to hear the full conversation about Minneapolis, we’ll be dropping it in our members feed. (If finances are an issue, just drop us a line an we’ll get you access.)

Gabriel has an MFA from Simon Fraser University and a PhD in the History of Consciousness from UC, Santa Cruz. He teaches at. Learn about upcoming Yellow Swans shows on their Instagram.

Also mentioned: Mack’s launched a new newsletter series, "What has the digital done to our listening?"

Media Cited

Hildegard Westerkamp - Kits Beach Soundwalk (1989)

Prince - 1999 (Official Music Video)

Raven Chacon - Voiceless Mass (2021)

Hildegard Westerkamp - "The New Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver: An Acoustic Dump"

Gabriel Mindel - "Sovereignty, Sonic Limits Music and Spectacle at the Border" in Studies in Social Justice (2025)

Chapters:

01:40 Guest Introduction: Gabriel Saloman Mindel

05:16 Gabriel's Academic Journey

09:36 Settler Colonialism and Soundscapes

26:21 Silence and Indigenous Perspectives