Name: Basak Gunak aka Ah! Kosmos
Occupation: Sound Artist, Producer
Current Release: Ah! Kosmos teams up with Hainbach for Blast of Sirens, out via FUU.
Recommendation on the topic of sound: I suggest the Spectres series from Shelter Press.

[Read our Hainbach interview about the Magic of Sound(s)]

If you enjoyed this Ah! Kosmos interview and would like to stay up to date with her music, visit her official homepage. She is also on Instagram, Facebook, Soundcloud, and twitter.

For an even deeper dive, we recommend our earlier Ah! Kosmos interview, and our conversation with her about collaboration.



When I listen to music, I see shapes, objects and colours. What happens in your body when you're listening? Do you listen with your eyes open or closed?

I enjoy listening a lot while walking alone, and during the times of sitting down, many unconscious movements may happen.

I don’t know if I’m seeing, even when I keep my eyes open

How do listening with headphones and listening through a stereo system change your experience of sound and music?

Both have different effects on me. Headphones make me feel intimate and present in the sound field.

In terms of a stereo system, I love visiting a friend of mine, and sitting together with him while carefully listening to music through the stereo system while having tea.

Tell me about some of the albums or artists that you love specifically for their sound, please.

Lately, Eli Keszler’s LIVE album.



[Read our Eli Keszler interview]

Do you experience strong emotional responses towards certain sounds? If so, what kind of sounds are these and do you have an explanation about the reasons for these responses?

I love the sound of soil and stones getting crushed. I love the sounds of water, hearing it outside of water.

I like silence even more since I started working with sound—how necessary it is in the piece and also in my home.

There can be sounds which feel highly irritating to us and then there are others we could gladly listen to for hours. Do you have examples for either one or both of these?

I feel sometimes overwhelmed if the loudness from human chatter is high. But my worst memories are unfortunately hearing a bombing and the sound of a bombing.

While making music using sirens, distortion, vibrational force to appropriate these to transform fear is very helpful for me. In my songs with Hainbach, such as ‘Sirens Between’, and ‘Davolia’, I can feel this connection and how these music-making moments became a way to manipulate reality for me.

Are there everyday places, spaces, or devices which intrigue you by the way they sound? Which are these?

I love the sound of paper and a pencil case.

The sound of seagulls gives me comfort, subconsciously knowing that there is a sea nearby.

Have you ever been in spaces with extreme sonic characteristics, such as anechoic chambers or caves? What was the experience like?

I think sonically I always go back to two specific memories of mine: being by the side of a volcano and the stillness underwater.

Recently, I created a piece for an ancient hammam. Staying there, feeling the reflections, hum, and the leak of the outside world into it was very particular and strong.

What are among your favourite spaces to record and play your music?

For me, instead of places, the person with whom I record is more important. Last fall, I went to Willem Twee Studios together with Hainbach. Making organ recordings there together was a moment that I remember.

In making music and recording, I love experimenting with locations and even trying in random environments to open the body to different movements, which potentially will lead to different ways of thinking.

In terms of playing music, one of the most gorgeous experiences was in Pergamon at the Great Zeus Altar. This historical place is on the Aegean side in Turkey, where the Pergamon Museum's Great Zeus Altar was located.

Do music and sound feel “material” to you? Does working with sound feel like you're sculpting or shaping something?

In a complex sound project, I like to see tracks as threads and approach it as a weaving / unweaving experience.

When working in relation to the space in sound installations, sculpting with the responses of the space intrigues me.

How important is sound for our overall well-being and in how far do you feel the "acoustic health" of a society or environment is reflective of its overall health?

It is very important and as being in a visual society it is highly neglected. It has got big effects on the somatic level.

Sound, song, and rhythm are all around us, from animal noises to the waves of the ocean. What, if any, are some of the most moving experiences you've had with these non-human-made sounds?

I love the 9/8 patterns of the moving staircase that I came across while going to a train.

Many animals communicate through sound. Based either on experience or intuition, do you feel as though interspecies communication is possible and important? Is there a creative element to it, would you say?

Certainly! I'm a believer. We are continually vibrating, resonating with the atoms that shape us, entwined with the very atoms that compose our being, an eternal oscillation that courses through our very essence.

Tinnitus and developing hyperacusis are very real risks for anyone working with sound. Do you take precautions in this regard and if you're suffering from these or similar issues – how do you cope with them?

I regularly go for hearing check-ups and carry ear protection on my keychain for unexpected loud events.

I once developed hypersensitivity towards sound and thought that I was losing some part of the hearing. It gave me a different perspective and also motivated me to be cautious.

We can surround us with sound every second of the day. The great pianist Glenn Gould even considered this the ultimate delight. How do you see that yourself and what importance does silence hold?

Silence is so important in my life. We can surround us with sound but how difficult it is to reach to silence.

In composition, it’s a notion that I’m practicing: to hold silence, how much we can hold silence.

Seth S. Horowitz called hearing the “universal sense” and emphasised that it was more precise and faster than any of our other senses, including vision. How would our world be different if we paid less attention to looks and listened more instead?

Rethinking the sonic frequencies that can be reached beyond ears to unsettle ear-centrism, and reimagining sound in the register of low-frequency vibrations to disrupt deaf-hearing dichotomies.