Thomas Catlaw

Thomas is a sound artist, field recordist, and musician
based in Arizona’s Sonoran Desert on the
ancestral lands of the O’Odham (known as the Pima),
Piipaash (known as the Maricopa), and their ancestors. 

New Digital Release: Traces of Aulus

Happy to announce the release of Traces of Aulus: Four Soundsketches. These pieces are based on recordings made last summer in and around Aulus-les-Bains, France while at CAMP. As the project evolved, they came to be sonic mediations on the effort of memory-(re)making and remembering. Available now via Bandcamp and, shortly, all the usual digital streaming services.

New Adventures in Sound Art Field Recording Workshop

Big, warm thanks to New Adventures in Sound Art in South River, Ontario for an inspiring and invigorating immersive field recording workshop on its beautiful Warbler’s Roost property at Deer Lake. So enjoyed meeting everyone and hearing how these artists engaged the rich soundscape around us. Please check out some of their work at marymcdonald.ca, @juliawhitesculpture, @adamartdump, patriciodavila.com, johanneszits.com, hcenteno.net, antonpickard.com, Victoria Fenner. Particular appreciation goes to Darren and Nadene Copeland for making it and NAISA possible.

Compost X featured in Austria's komplex-KULTUREMAGZIN

My sound art composition with Vienna’s Evamaria Muller (@gmorrk) is featured in the new digital edition of the Austrian arts and culture magazine, komplex. Appropriately, the group publishes a year-end print publication called, komPOST. Eva and I continue to work on our broader compost project and just finished up our second piece for what we expect will be release towards the end of 2025, early 2026. Thank you, komplex!

Desert Fence Busting

Great day removing legacy barbed wire with Desert Fence Busters. This is a powerful collaboration among Arizona Fish and Game, Friends of Ironwood National Monument, and many other local partners to create wildlife corridors in the Sonoran Desert. The seven teams, with 48 total workers took down about 2.5 miles of unused fencing.  Tucson Audubon Society also capped 52 "death pipes.” A local rancher removed most of the t-posts on which fencing was strung. 

Back in Arizona

Photo credit: Suzanne Fallender

I had a wonderful time visiting family on Cape Cod over the holidays. Quiet (and COLD) beaches meant quiet time to record. Hopefully this stuff will find its way into some future projects.

Upper Verde Wildlife Area with Gary Beverly

We had an incredible afternoon with Gary Beverly, chair of Citizens Water Advocacy Group, hiking around and learning about the Big Chino Watershed and the Upper Verde Wildlife Area, hosted by Prescott’s Natural History Institute. No one has done more to help protect the Upper Verde and a sustainable water supply for Arizona than Gary. He is really remarkable. Focus today on the amazing efforts to designate the Upper Verde as a “wild and scenic” river, as much of the section below Beasley RAP and Horseshoe Dam is. The Verde needs our help — without conservation and attention to overdraft from the aquifer, the Upper Verde will likely go dry within three decades.

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