Name: Foundling
Members: Erin Lang (voice, bass, harp), Samuel Hall (percussion), David Georgos (synths, keys, programming), Peter Hanson (sax, flute), Dino Karlis (drums)
Nationality: American (Peter), Australian (Samuel), Canadian (Erin), German (David), New Zealand (Dino)
Interviewee: Samuel Hall
Current event: Foundling's new album Equilibria is out via Lakeview Enterprises. They will officially launch the album on May 26th 2024 at ACUD Club, Berlin.

If you enjoyed this Samuel Hall interview and would like to know more about his music, visit his official website. Foundling are also on Instagram, and Facebook.

For a deeper dive, also read our Erin Lang interview, and our Foundling interview.



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?

I believe that silence is a myth and is generally just shorthand for not perceiving something or more simply ‘don’t activate your instrument’.

While we can choose certain sounds to inhabit the space we are in, in a kind of curatorial way, we do not choose to be surrounded by sound.. We already live inside it, it is our ocean, so to speak. There is always sound to be heard, it is how you frame it that is the key. Often people use the word ‘noise’ to describe sound that is unwanted to their ear or disregard ‘non-musical’ sound as such, but, sound is still there, whether you believe it is music or not is something else.

However, and somewhat contradictory I suppose, for me it is important to participate in ‘silence’, in sound, to listen actively. With this in mind we can really achieve Gould’s delight. It is already happening. It is more about your approach to listening. Perhaps this is what silence really is. What you choose to hear or not hear and how you perceive it.

In another way, silence for me can be about how I choose to activate sound, my participation in silence is leaving space for others and to only listen to what is happening, or, to choose something that is supportive or antagonistic to their sound so that it can be highlighted or framed in a certain way. That my silence can make your ‘non-silence’ more focused to a particular listener, and yet, another listener might hear my ‘silence’ louder than your ‘non-silence’ ... confusing … I know ...

Technically it could be simply how complicated I make a groove, leaving more space for melody to fit in the gaps, the gaps being ‘silence’ or how densely I create a soundscape. I like to think that making music is similar to perceiving an ecosystem, a sound system, that even the smallest sound, which may not be perceived and therefore ‘silent’ contributes to the whole in some way.

It's an ongoing discussion for me, about ‘silence.’ But I really think it's something that we participate in and perceive while we swim around our ocean of sound.