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. 

Catch Replay of "Desert Suburb" on Radiophrenia Rewind

Happy that “Soundsketches of a Desert Suburb” was selected to be re-broadcast on Resonance.Fm as part of Radiophrenia’s REWIND of its fantastic 2025 festival. You can hear it August 10 at 8:20 GMT. SO MUCH GREAT WORK HERE!!! Definitely going to make some time to do some deep and serious listening. Please, please check all this amazing stuff out! And thanks to Radiophrenia for making all this possible.

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.

Powered by Squarespace. Background image by Thomas Catlaw