Ode to the Windsor Hum

A defiant chorus of sonic art bears witness to a border town tormented by a mysterious presence in their local soundscape.

Hosts Peter Boisseau and Gabrial Hutchcraft explore the entanglement of life and art in this poetry and music-infused journey that includes Protomartyr, Windsor Hum Band, Brian Garbet, Christine Hume, Eric Welton, Adam Makarenko and Jamaal May. 

For the people of Windsor and nearby Detroit on the US Canada border, the stakes surrounding a mysterious intruder in their local soundscape has become a contest of wills spanning more than a decade. 

It’s a contest that’s pitted neighbor against neighbor, city against city and nation against nation.

The struggle has become the stuff of legend, a David vs Goliath tale of citizen action, environmental studies and viral media coverage, that over time has inspired music, lyric essays and other forms of sonic art.

The latter is the Ode to the Hum, the clenched fists and raised voices of resistance to a sonic plague, a defiant human chorus confronting sound with sound.

Looming over this intersection of life, art and torment: The cinematic specter of Zug Island and the notoriously secretive U.S. Steel works factory, the alleged source of the Hum.

But something else inhabits this soundscape. In the space of uncertainty between knowledge and opinion, perception and reality, the question remains: Is the Windsor Hum gone or is it still lurking?

Sound Design: Brian Garbet
Social Media: Bernadette Rilloraza
Theme music: Playdate
Episode guest presenter: Bernadette Rilloraza

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