Sound Propositions Returns With Five-Part Big Ears 2026 Mini-Season

After a hiatus that stretched nearly two years, the Sound Propositions podcast has re-emerged with a five-part mini-season built around Big Ears 2026. Joseph Sannicandro’s series does not attempt another day-by-day recap or thematic synthesis. Instead, it follows five conversations that trace an arc through sacred spaces and dive bars, the quiet labor of film scoring, and the collective euphoria of a six-set residency.

The guests are Chuck Johnson, Gwenifer Raymond, Mary Lattimore, Booker Stardrum, and Hania Rani. The first installment opens with Johnson, whose sample-based solo drone set filled St. John’s Cathedral with sustained harmonics and tectonic low end. The episode also revisits the “Scoring the Story” panel, which addressed the grueling work and ego-suspension involved in composing for film.

Beyond the festival coverage, the episode points forward: Hania Rani’s Non Fiction is among the first announcements for Unsound NYC 2026 in late October, and Big Ears itself returns to Knoxville from 1 to 4 April 2027. Sannicandro recorded the interviews in Knoxville in late March 2026 and produced the series in St. Louis in July. The podcast’s return fills a gap that had stretched since Episode 40, with the long-missing Episode 30 dropped earlier this year as a hint toward another mini-series expected this fall.