Andrea Zarza Canova is an archivist and curator based in London. She is currently researching for a PhD, with an AHRC/M4C funded Collaborative Doctoral Award at University of Nottingham in collaboration with Nottingham Contemporary. She is a curator at the British Library's sound archive and co-runs record label Mana, which publishes works with an archival and contemporary sound.

Independently, she has curated exhibitions and listening installations which explore sound as a cultural, political and social phenomenon. She also produces shows for NTS Radio, highlighting ethnographic sound recordings from the British Library’s collections.

RECENT WORK

ANDREA ZARZA Archives Curation Radio Mana Inspiration Research

Sonic Time Capsule

Instruction manual for making a sonic stime capsule. Written in London in 2012 and used at a workshop organised by Seismograph and The Lake Radio in 2017, Copenhagen, Denmark.

This document attempts to lay out a path towards the creation of a sonic time capsule. It can be read like a map, a score, or an instruction manual. It is a prototype for action, and hopefully, through time, it will grow and multiply with the experiences of others.

British Library

We document, preserve and make accessible one of the world's largest collections of published and unpublished recordings of music from all over the world dating back to as early as the 19th century. The collection represents commercial and ethnographic archival recordings variously described as traditional, folk and ‘world music’.


Andrea Zarza Canova

Curator, World & Traditional Music

https://www.bl.uk/collection-guides/world-and-traditional-music

@BL_WorldTrad

Listen to Sounds!

+44 (0)20 7412 7455

Highlighted Projects

Percy Grainger's collection of ethnographic wax cylinders

The British Library is pleased to make available online around 350 English folk songs recorded by composer Percy Grainger in different regions of England between 1906 and 1909. (...)

Embedded Live

Since autumn 2015, the British Library Sound Archive has hosted Aleks Kolkowski and Larry Achiampong as composers in residence through Sound & Music's Embedded Residency scheme. (...)

British Library Sound Archive 10 chart for WIRE Magazine.

View

World Day for Audiovisual Heritage

27 October is World Day for Audiovisual Heritage. UNESCO designated this day to highlight the work of archives worldwide in preserving and making accessible their unique audiovisual collections that are at risk of decay. (...)

Five European Villages

To celebrate World Listening Day, the World and Traditional Music section has made available to listeners in British Library Reading Rooms, a collection of field recordings from five European villages, which form part of the World Soundscape Project Collection. (...)

The London Musicians’ Collective (LMC) was founded in the mid-1970’s by a small group of experimental and improvising musicians in London, United Kingdom. In tune with the nature of improvisation and the cultural politics of the time, the organisation was based on collective principles, with an open membership whose responsibility it was to decide policy and initiate activities through attendance at monthly meetings.

The London Musicians’ Collective Archive is currently housed at the University of the Arts London Archives and Special Collections Centre. Posters, newsletters, calendars and photographs illustrate the activities and evolution of the LMC over the three decades of its existence. Since 2012, I have been working with the archive intermittently, cataloguing and making accessible its contents.

In 2017, David Toop and I interviewed founding members of the collective about its history and added this material to the archive.

Co-curated with José Luis Espejo, Charivaria was an exhibition that took place between October 2017 and January 2018, at CentroCentro Gallery in Madrid, Spain.

Through more than 200 mixed media works from over ninety contributors, the exhibition traced hypothetical genealogies on how people use sound to position themselves in public space. The exhibition focussed on Europe from the early Modern Age to the present day and told stories of blacksmiths, church bells, cowbells, festivals, skimmington, protests, travelling musicians and carnivals and rites.

Exhibition Page

No Play Listening Lounge

The No Play exhibition took place from 21 May to 24 June 2016 at the neue Gesellschaft fur bildende (nGbK) Kunst in Berlin, Germany.

Co-curated with Miranda Iossifidis, the No Play Listening Lounge expanded the overarching themes of the exhibition and its event programme through field recordings, interviews, oral histories and contemporary music sourced from the British Library Sound Archive, Pacifica Radio Archives and others. Five headphone sets were built into a playful physical structure allowing the listener to spend time listening to this sonic resource.

Read the listening lounge notes.

Read a press review in Taz.

Meltdown Listening Lounge

David Byrne’s Meltdown Festival took place in August 2015 at the Southbank Centre in London, United Kingdom.

As part of Meltdown Festival, Byrne shipped 250 books from his personal collection – those that had most shaped his thinking and approach to music – to the Southbank’s Poetry Library. Throughout the festival, you could borrow these books for free.

The Meltdown Listening Lounge took eight books from his library as inspiration for eight headphone sets featuring playlists of archival sound recordings from the British Library Sound Archive.

Read notes about the sound recordings here.

Miscellaneous

All In A Day's Work

All in a Day’s Work, a listening lounge curated by Andrea Zarza at Rhubaba Gallery (27 July – August 18, 2018), invites visitors to engage with curated playlists of archival and contemporary sound recordings that explore ‘labours of love’, such as artistic, affective and domestic labour.

Organised into five different sub-themes – All four(s), Stooping, Hands on the Machine, Cradling and Lying down, Looking up – the visitors are invited to take a specific position to listen, a position associated with the labours described in each sub-theme. This embodied listening asks one to put themselves in the position of the other to to achieve a more empathetic connection with the voices and songs in the recordings.

All four(s) relates to ‘labours of love’ implicit within the structure of the nuclear family, typically associated with the number four – the mother, the father, and two children; Cradling finds its focus in lullabies, the work song of female affective and emotional labour; Stooping explores women’s roles in labour; in Hands on the Machine, sound recordings reveal the relationship between women and skilled, machine-led labour: from waulking cloth to computer music; finally, Lying down, Looking up invites the listener to pause and look up into the open possibilities of different futures.

Exhibition Page

RADIO

Listen back to some radio and mixes ☺︎

24.08.16

Mediateletipos

El Estado Mental nº2

Listen

17.05.16

BBC Radio 3

Late Junction

Archive

2023

30 November

Vessels in July [GMT 60] cassette tape release with Matthew Kent

Good Morning Tapes

Link

12 November

'Plant the seed to harvest the song' listening session as part of The Listening Affect

Galeria Municipal do Porto

Link

November

Residency

Fonoteca Municipal do Porto

Link

11 May

Presented 'Rhythms of Venezuela: the re-materialisation of folklore' with Carlos Colmenares at Critical Perspectives on Petrosonics

King's College (London, United Kingdom)

Link

30 March

Guest on The Early Bird Show w/ PAM

NTS Radio (London, United Kingdom)

Link

2022

18 - 22 October

Report paper at ICTM Historical Sources Study Group Meeting

Musical Instrument Museum (Brussels, Belgium)

Link

1 - 4 September

DJ Set with Matthew Kent

Meakusma Festival (Eupen, Belgium)

Link

12 July

DJ Set at Milano Re-mapped Summer Festival

Pirelli HangarBicocca (Milan, Italy)

Link

24 March

Guest mix on A Colourful Storm radio programme

Rinse FM (Paris, France)

Link

17 March

Radio Amnion: Sonic Transmission of Care

CREAM, University of Westminster (London, United Kindgom)

Link

2021

29 May

Selection, script and voice for radio programme on work songs

NTS Radio (London, United Kingdom)

Link

1 June

Wrote '20th century female ethnomusicologists' with Janet Topp Fargion for History of Recorded Sound webpage

British Library (London, United Kingdom)

Link

15 June

Wrote 'The rhythm of the archive' for Sonic Continuum, published in The Contemporary Journal

Nottingham Contemporary (Nottingham, United Kingdom)

Link

11 August

Guest mix on Okonkole y Trompa radio programme

NTS Radio (London, United Kingdom)

Link

18 - 20 November

Contributed a guest mix to Radio Amnion

Pacific Ocean: Juan de Fuca Plate; Cascadia Basin - 47°N 127°W (-2600m)

Link

2020

14 January

Wrote editorial and created mix on Ursula K. Le Guin's novel Always Coming Home

NTS Radio (London, United Kingdom)

Link

30 January

Guest lecture in the Sound Arts Visiting Practitioner Series

London College of Communication (London, United Kingdom)

Link

1 February

Last Eruption guest mix on Coby Sey's radio programme

NTS Radio (London, United Kingdom)

Link

4 March

Listening session: Wandering through the enchanted forest

La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain)

Link

12 April

Guest mix with Matthew Kent for Cafe OTO's 12th birthday party marathon livestream and fundraiser

Cafe OTO (London, United Kingdom)

Link

15 April

Short piece on David Hockney's 'Homage to Michelangelo' for website exploring the art & architecture of the British Library

British Library (London, United Kingdom)

Link

* * *

9 - 15 September

Created and wrote interactive essay 'The Song of the Shepherd' exploring the sound of sheepherding through the work of artist Nader Koochaki

Open City Documentary Festival (online edition)

Link

September - November

Translation of interview 'On indigenous knowledge as ecosystem conservation: interview with Faustino Banjamin Londoño and Nelson Ortíz' for 'Formafantasma: Cambio' exhibition catalogue

Serpentine Gallery (London, United Kingdom)

Link

12 December

Wrote essay 'Pathways toward decolonising the sound archive' in Inward Outward, Critical Archival Engagements with Sounds and Films of Coloniality

Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (Hilversum, Netherlands)

Link

2019

January

Secrets of Mana [QUEESTE001] cassette tape release with Matthew Kent

Planet Queeste (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Link

25 January

Opening DJ set for Lauren Hansom

berlinClub (Madrid, Spain)

Link

11 February

In conversation with Jacqueline Caux & Andrea Cohen on Luc Ferrari's radiophonic works

Cafe OTO (London, United Kingdom)

Link

28 March

Listening session: A sonic journey from Kesh

La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain)

Link

4 April

Guest tutor at PUB e-PUB 2 Workshop

Sandberg Instituut (Amsterdam, Netherlands)

Link

* * *

15 August

Guest mix with Matthew Kent on International Tribe

Worldwide FM (London, United Kingdom)

Link

September

Wrote critical review of Nader Koochaki's archive of sheep bell field recordings Dorsal Landscape

Papeles del CEIC. International Journal on Collective Identity Research

Link

30 October

Conversation with Steffanie Hessler, Joan Jonas and Francesca Thyssen-Bornemisza on the exhibition More-than-humans

Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza (Madrid, Spain)

Link

1 November

Presented paper at Music, Sound, Space and Place: Ethnomusicology and Sound Studies conference

City University (London, United Kingdom)

Link

3 November

Spoke at the Lydarkæologisk Salon hosted by The Institute for Danish Sound Archaeology

Gong Tomorrow Festival (Copenhagen, Denmark)

Link

23 November

DJ set at Nodo Invisible III. Oasis Secreto

Invernadero del Palacio de Arganzuela (Madrid, Spain)

Link

27 November

DJ set at Volcanoes & Regret, Last Eruption

SET (London, United Kingdom)

Link

2018

23 February

Points of Listening #39 Improvise, because you’re not a record! An introduction to the London Musicians’ Collective archive

London College of Communication (London, United Kingdom)

Link

7 March

Historias silenciadas, sonidos olvidados. Conferencia por Andrea Zarza y José Luis Espejo como parte del curso PERO… ¿ESTO ES ARTE? X CURSO DE INTRODUCCIÓN AL ARTE ACTUAL

CA2M (Madrid, Spain)

Link

19 March

Wrote a text for the exhibition catalogue of The Futch curated by Neme Arranz Ruíz and Marta Echaves

Sala de Arte Joven (Madrid, Spain)

Link

April

Judging panel for OTO Projects UK Artists Development Foundation Fund

Jerwood Charitable Foundation / Cafe OTO (London, United Kingdom)

Link

17 April

¡Y se hizo (y deshizo) el silencio! Conferencia por Andrea Zarza y José Luis Espejo

La Térmica, Centro de Cultura Contemporánea (Malaga, Spain)

Link

18 April

Taller de escucha y observación del espacio urbano. Impartido por Andrea Zarza y José Luis Espejo

La Térmica, Centro de Cultura Contemporánea (Malaga, Spain)

Link

19 April

Taller Charivaria. Impartido por Andrea Zarza y José Luis Espejo

Auditorio de los Basilios, Universidad de Alcalá. (Alcalá de Henares, Spain)

2 June

DJ set at CATA001

Vaciador 34 (Madrid, Spain)

3 July

DJ set at Ata Kak residency

Cafe OTO (London, United Kingdom)

Link

27 July -
19 August

All in a Day’s Work exhibition

Rhubaba Gallery (Edinburgh, Scotland)

Link

8 November

Talk at Jornada AEDOM sobre ética y propiedad intelectual: grabaciones de campo inéditas y etnomusicológicas, organizada por la Comisión de Registros Sonoros de AEDOM

Biblioteca Joaquín Leguina (Madrid, Spain)

Link

17 November

Participating in Archival Disruptions with Frances Morgan, Paul Purgas and Jennifer Walshe

Somerset House (London, United Kingdom)

Link

17 December

Guest lecture as part of the MA in Music Industry and Sound Studies

Universidad Carlos III (Madrid, Spain)

Link

Music research

As a researcher, I explore how sound and music connects us with places, whether imaginary or real. My creative research often takes archival sound recordings as a starting point to tell stories across various media.

Here are some of my favourite projects

The song of the shepherd

Article about the role of sound and music in sheepherding, commissioned by Open City Documentary Festival. I explored the relationship between shepherd, flock and dog through artist Nader Koochaki’s audiovisual archive documenting traditional sheepherding practices in the Basque Country. (...)

Always coming home: A sonic journey from Kesh

Editorial and mix for NTS Radio exploring the soundscapes and music in Ursula K. Le Guin’s fictional ethnography Always Coming Home. (...)

L’Escalier des Aveugles

Direction, archival research, licensing and liner notes for reissue of Luc Ferrari’s L’Escalier des Aveugles, a series of short radiophonic stories recorded with six actresses in locations across Madrid, Spain. Commissioned in November 1990 by Spanish National Radio / Radio Nacional de España. (...)

Rose des Vents

Direction, archival research, licensing and liner notes for reissue of Pierre Mariétan’s Rose des Vents. This LP publication evolved out of recordings made during a six year project commissioned in 1981 by the French Government, for which Pierre Mariétan and a team documented and musicalised the sound environments of various cities and towns in France. (...)

Andrea Zarza Canova is an archivist and curator based in London. She is currently researching for a PhD, with an AHRC/M4C funded Collaborative Doctoral Award at University of Nottingham in collaboration with Nottingham Contemporary. She is a curator at the British Library's sound archive and co-runs record label Mana, which publishes works with an archival and contemporary sound.

Independently, she has curated exhibitions and listening installations which explore sound as a cultural, political and social phenomenon. She also produces shows for NTS Radio, highlighting ethnographic sound recordings from the British Library’s collections.