Manja Ristić Crafts a Listening Space for Igloo Magazine’s Interlude Series

Igloo Magazine’s Interlude series has returned with a second episode, this time handing the reins to Serbian violinist, sound artist, and researcher Manja Ristić. Curated by Maria Papadomanolaki, who records as Dalot, the series puts female artists at the centre, commissioning guest mixes that respond to a set of open-ended questions. Ristić used the format to assemble something closer to a personal sonic diary than a standard playlist.

Her mix pulls from recent releases and unpublished recordings, merging field captures, instrumental fragments, and archival impressions. The result is less a showcase and more an invitation to listen differently. Ristić’s work has long occupied that threshold where creative research meets ecological attention, and the body becomes a primary listening instrument. The mix reflects that approach without overexplaining it.

Ristich’s forthcoming album, lights shimmered like whispers in the depths of the trees, arrives May 1st on Sawyer Spaces. Two long-form compositions trace ancestral connections to land across Portugal, Italy, Austria, and Croatia through miniature recordings of water, insects, footsteps, and found objects. Violin, EMS synthesizer, and piano thread through the material, sustaining an atmosphere where human and more-than-human histories feel equally present. The record is dedicated to her grandmother and the generation that rebuilt Yugoslavia after the war.

The Interlude series shows no interest in uniformity. By giving artists like Ristić room to respond with genuine complexity, Papadomanolaki is building something that treats listening as a critical act rather than a passive one.