There are places where sound becomes thought. Where a beat holds a question. Where the silence between notes becomes philosophy of life and resistance.
Músicas Sospechosas is one of those places.
This is not merely a project. It is a constellation. A multi-form, ever-shifting platform where music is not only heard—but interrogated, felt, and reclaimed. A sonic inquiry, a poetic method, a space of radical imagination where knowledge does not descend from above but rises from deep vibrations, street corners, vinyl collectors, breath, and basslines.
Here, thinking through music is the principle. Music is not the object to be studied—it is the very method of study. Through rhythms and ruptures, melodies and misalignments, Músicas Sospechosas dismantles the hierarchies of knowing. We ask: What can sound reveal? What truths are carried by the musics we are taught to fear, exoticize, or ignore?
Rooted in the philosophy of the commons, in the rejection of -isms, of borders drawn by nation, canon, capital, and empire, this platform invites a shift in how we listen to music.
We do not ask what music is. We ask: Why these songs and not those ones? Who does it serve? Who does it silence? And who can it set free?
These selected projects offer a glimpse into the methods, collaborations, and questions that animate this platform. Each one listens against the grain.
The first in the series, N’écoutez pas la musique des noirs: De-archiving the Sounds of Haiti, is a unique zine that explores Haiti’s musical richness through a critical and postcolonial lens. This disruptive archive centers Haitian rhythms, their history, and the questions surrounding their disappearance from the global cultural space.
Sarah Ardite invites reflection on thinkers like Mudimbe, Fanon, Césaire, Mbembe, and Davis, exploring African diaspora philosophies that challenge power and inspire critical understanding today.
Active Listening — a series called Escucha Jonda, created to practice deep, shared listening. We spin vinyl on the city’s finest sound system. Inspired in Pauline Olivero´s Deep Listening philosophy. Hosted by Músicas Sospechosas.
Interview with me as editor of Músicas Sospechosas, exploring music as anti-imperial epistemology and ontology, and the journey behind the creation of the project.
A sonic journey through Africa’s musical resistances to neoliberalism. Created and taught by me at La Casa Encendida, Madrid, exploring rhythms, voices, and stories of defiance.
A radio program with Xavier Cazeneuve, celebrating the beauty of film music from the Mare Nostrum.
Músicas Sospechosas is also a methodology—a way of listening otherwise. It challenges sonic hierarchies, opens philosophical wounds, and proposes music as both truth and prophecy. Through deep listening and collective creation of questions, we explore how power distributes sound—and how sound, in turn, might redesign power.
This is a space to unlearn. To sound out new forms of emancipation. A platform that engages, or rather, entangles itself with culture, art, politics, and radical pedagogy.
Suspicious music, indeed.
Music that doesn’t comply.
Music that suspects the official story.
Music that knows too much—and sings it anyway.
