This is the second in a two-part conversation with Swedish mathematician/poet/composer/musician Catherine Christer Hennix. In the September issue we talked about the ontology of music and the significance of drone-based sounds, and Hennix introduced the idea of the sonic shrine.

For this interview, conducted remotely from her studio in Istanbul where she currently resides, Hennix wanted to talk about music as a sonic or vibrational practice, and the ways that in the coronavirus-related lockdown, the enforced stasis that we face could become the site of new kinds of discovery and recognition.

I remember visiting John on the Bowery when our son Jesse was about one year old. Jesse was crying and Christie had him in her arms and was comforting him saying, “it’s alright … it’s alright.” John turned to us and said “It’s not alright. And it’s never going to be alright.”