Beatie Wolfe: Music keeps us alive inside
Photographer: Ross Harris
Some conversations are less about answers and more about the questions. Getting to ‘the why’ of an issue. And sometimes those questions, those ‘whys’ open the door to unexpected discoveries that give rise to even more questions. That’s how I would describe my conversation with today’s guest, artist Beatie Wolfe.
I was introduced to Beatie’s work at her retrospective at London’s Victoria and Albert museum and to say I was blown away is an understatement. Beatie isn’t solely a musician, she’s a tech innovator, a scientist, an artist - she’s sent her music into space, played in the quietist room on earth, she’s contributed to pioneering Dementia research, she’s the first person to use live 360 VR in her music, created an environmental protest piece using 800,000 yrs of Nasa data the list goes on, if I were to tell you all of it it would sound like I’m reeling off an impressive CV. Yet what I find more impressive isn’t actually what she’s achieved (albeit incredible) it’s her curiosity and what I would call a very simple yet deeply rooted conviction about the power of music - it’s those questions that I was telling you about. And it’s from that questioning that Beatie has innovated, challenged, pioneered and for people like me, really inspired.
We talk about the ‘why’ of music, its importance, its value, its ability to heal, to connect us, what Beatie calls ‘music as medicine’ and the conditions needed to ensure that it (again to quote Beatie) ‘imprints’.
Guest: Beatie Wolfe
Title: ‘Music keeps us alive inside’
Website & IG: @heidilevo
Songs: Take me home, From Green to Red from the album Montagu Square, Little Moth from the album Raw Space all by Beatie Wolfe
Artist on playlist: songwriter Allee Willis - September and Boogie Wonderland - Earth Wind and Fire; Friends theme tune I’ll be there for you
Postcards for democracy with composer Mark Mothersbaugh
Film: Orange Juice for the Ears
Podcast: Orange Juice for the Ears