Mixtape_01: Yasmin is Wandering & Pondering

Yasmin Abedrabbo is a multimedia designer with a love for nature, whimsical technology and music. I asked her to make a mixtape for SO and to answer some of our burning questions. 

How would you describe your playlist?

Wistful jams for wandering & pondering <:)

What are some favorites from the playlist?

So many of the songs on this playlist were pivotal to me this year, they hold memories, or bring me right back to moments that mattered. Its hard to pick just one, a lot of these hold that place for different reasons, but two stick out the most.

The one I hold closest to my heart is ‘Sea, Swallow Me’ by Cocteau Twins.

 It was the first song of theirs I ever heard back in school, and it completely pulled me under. Its barely even a song, more like floating in a room made of static and reverb. That was the gateway into everything — the band became one of my favorites, and Elizabeth Fraser’s voice became one of my favorite sounds. There’s this funny irony every Cocteau Twins fan knows: you cannot understand a single word she’s singing. But that song taught me that you don’t need the words to feel the weight of it. That’s the whole power of her voice, of their music. It bypasses language completely and just goes straight for something deeper.

The other one I have to mention is ‘blade bird’ by Oklou. I stumbled on it over a year ago and its been an obsession ever since. This year, ‘choke enough’ has basically been my album. That song specifically does something strange to me, it makes me feel like a kid again, but with grown feelings attached to it. Like nostalgia and adulthood colliding at the same time. Like touching an old memory while wearing new skin. Its a feeling I hadn’t really experienced through music before, and i’ve just been holding onto it since. 

I know you play some instruments, can you tell a little bit about what you play and how you got into that?

I grew up in a very musical household, everyone played something. I was classically trained in piano for most of my childhood years, and beyond just playing, learning music theory and understanding how music is actually built gave me this deep appreciation for it that’s stayed with me ever since. Lately, that’s evolved into experimenting with producing and creating new sounds of my own, mainly for my animations and interactive audio projects, so its come full circle in a way, from learning the fundamentals to actually building with them now. 

I know you personally but I’m also a huge admirer of your work, I’ve seen your collage prints, animations, and now more of your work coming to fruition through local brands and spaces. 

So, I’m curious, what’s your current hyperfixation? 

Thank you that means a lot. Right now I’m deep in this world of interactive multimedia, and I recently started weaving audio into it, which has honestly been one of the most satisfying things, getting to merge the two things I love most: music and animation.

I’ve been building visuals that try to capture the feeling of a song or a sound — what it looks like, not just what it sounds like. Really just finding new ways to let music live inside my art instead of alongside it.

Thank you Yasmin for making us a mixtape! Now I have something to look forward to on my next wander and ponder session.