August 2025

In The Wire 499, the Moreskinsound duo of musician and writer David Toop and performance artist Ania Psenitsnikova argues that categories like music and dance limit our understanding of sound and movement

Book Extract

Read an extract from Two-Headed Doctor by David Toop

September 2024

In an exclusive extract from his new book, Two-Headed Doctor: Listening For Ghosts In Dr John’s Gris-Gris, David Toop follows anthropologist turned writer Zora Neale Hurston into the New Orleans of the late 1920s to sample the beliefs, tall tales and magical workings that comprise the mythopoetic substance of Dr John’s peculiar character and sound

Interview

Symphony of sirens: an interview with Aura Satz, David Toop, Elaine Mitchener, Evelyn Glennie and Raven Chacon

April 2024

The Wire’s Caroline Whiteley speaks with the acclaimed sound artists ahead of a symposium around Aura Satz’s debut feature length film Preemptive Listening at Tate Modern

Essay

Life, Life: David Toop remembers Ryuichi Sakamoto

April 2023

Writer and musician David Toop pays tribute to his friend and collaborator Ryuichi Sakamoto, who died on 28 March

Essay

Time out of mind: a short story of longform music

January 2022

David Toop meditates on what happens when the performance of music is extended over long durations, from all night concerts to sacred rituals that last for weeks

The Portal

Music By Any Means

December 2021

Films of two Wire events, featuring O YAMA O and Elaine Mitchener, plus a podcast of a third, featuring Vicki Bennett aka People like Us, have been posted online by Somerset House Studios

Essay

Chasing Rainbows: David Toop on the early films of Jeremy Marre

April 2020

“Really it begins with instinct.” David Toop traces how the documentary film maker got unheard musics from around the world onto mainstream TV

Issue 427

September 2019

Buy - £7.00
Read Online

Issue 426

August 2019

+ The Wire Tapper 50

Buy - £7.00
Read Online

Issue 422

April 2019

+ The Wire Tapper 49

Buy - £6.00
Read Online

Issue 414

August 2018

+ The Wire Tapper 47

Read Online

Issue 400

June 2017

Buy - £6.00
Read Online

News

David Toop autobiography to be published in Japan

24|04|2017

Longrunning Wire contributor's book released in Japanese language edition this June

Issue 381

November 2015

+ The Wire Tapper 39

Buy - £6.00
Read Online

News

David Toop’s 1978 Yanomami recordings compiled by Sub Rosa

11|05|2015

Ritual songs, shamanistic ceremonies and rainforest sounds collected

Issue 363

May 2014

Read Online

News

Sub Rosa releasing collection of David Toop recordings

07|04|2014

Double CD collection of works made by Toop between 1996–2003.

News

David Toop starts new events series in London

27|02|2014

Toop, newly appointed as Chair of Audio Culture and Improvisation at University of the Arts London, running events with Rie Nakajima,

Gallery

Contact sheets: Lost photos from The Wire's archive

December 2013

Recently we discovered a large cardboard box of negatives, transparencies, contact sheets and photos which had escaped filing, from Rammellzee through David Byrne to Whitehouse.

Issue 352

June 2013

Read Online

News

David Toop donates interview tapes to British Library

20|03|2013

From David Lynch to Sun Ra, Kate Bush to Erik Sykes, John Zorn to Luther Vandross, David Toop donates his interview tapes to the National Sound Archive.

News

David Toop: Flat Time/Sounding at Raven Row, London

12|12|2012

A composition by David Toop based on British conceptual artist John Latham's idea of "Flat Time" is being performed tomorrow by John Butcher,...

News

Music From The Lost Worlds II with David Toop

10|12|2012

We had so much fun with last year’s ethnographic music special Music From The Lost Worlds (20 October 2011) that we decided to do it all again....

News

Touch hosting Thomas Köner, Bruce Gilbert, David Toop, Fennesz and others in London

25|09|2012

Touch music continues its 30th anniversary celebrations with a two dayer in London. Atmospheres 4 will host performances by Thomas Köner,...