Hosted by artist and composer Byron Westbrook, Chromatic Fields explores threads of overlap between ideas in contemporary art practice and music making. The program features new and historical avant-garde music ranging from minimalism to maximalism, including intermedia works, sound sculpture, electro-acoustic music, deep listening and sound artists operating in a conceptual field.

This month’s special episode of Chromatic Fields showcases guest DJ Aki Onda.

Statement from Aki Onda:

These are the tracks that resonated deeply with me before I began making music and, in a sense, shaped my cassette practice, which engages with the notion of memory.

I’ve been drawn to Black music culture since my early teens. The first record I truly loved was People in Sorrow by the Art Ensemble of Chicago. I was in my mid-teens when I encountered it, and it led me to explore other jazz musicians—John Coltrane, Albert Ayler, Don Cherry, Cecil Taylor. That was only the beginning; my curiosity about jazz continued to expand, eventually leading me to the early and old-school hip-hop from the 1970-80s.

I became especially interested in how these hip-hop artists engage with “memory.” They draw from Black cultural heritage and beyond, lifting sounds from their original contexts to create new compositions. In doing so, they archive past memories while editing, rewriting, reciting, and remixing them for future use. As their music evolved, I sensed both a reverence for their ancestors and a willingness to break codes—even to transgress. These impulses collided in chaotic yet generative ways, producing an extraordinary energy. Without these encounters, my cassette practice would likely have taken a very different path.

I was also a record collector in my youth. When I moved from Japan to the U.S. in 2000, I sold most of my collection to help fund the move. I kept around 150 records—the ones I love most—and the tracks here are selected from those.

- Aki