issue 005

Issue 005 is a story about the intimacy of voice. a Voice that comes to us disembodied, but which speaks solely to you; confined, contained, directed to no one else. In this way, a phone call can be much more intimate than talking to someone face to face; you pay attention to the timbre of a voice, an intake of breath; you are almost talking directly in their ear. This interaction between intimacy and distance, between what is seen/unseen vs. what is heard, also made Wen-juenn think of God; that most often, the divine comes as a voice before a sight; a sound from within. using the telephone or otherwise, we always speak across landscapes. whether alexander bell knew it or not, the way we know relations is ever in flux.

written and spoken by Wen-juenn lee. sonic arrangement and field recording by Ben Green.

Ben Green is a multidisciplinary sound artist from Melbourne currently living Coastal. His holistic sound is drawn from loose connections between the neo-classical avant garde, ambient, jazz, improvisation and the great outdoors.

Wen-Juenn Lee writes on unceded Wurundjeri land. In her writing, she is interested in gaps, leaks and spillage, which often take the form of place, memory and divinity. Her work has been published in Meanjin, Cordite Poetry Review, Going Down Swinging, among others. She was a Wheeler Centre Hot Desk Fellow for 2022, and previously served as a poetry editor at Voiceworks. She was awarded the Tina Kane Emergent Writer Award for 2023.