Sound and color are both waves that physically alter our environment, each capable of evoking the full spectrum of human emotion.

The phenomenon of synesthesia is literally the interpretation of sound as color. Synesthetes and non-synesthetes alike experience music-color association — on dancefloors, in dreams, through psychedelia, or in moments of surprise and inspiration.

Hearing Color asks the question: What does it mean to view sound through color instead of genre, and to explore every color in a contemporary sonic palette? What does colorful music sound like?

For this episode, James invites Massimiliano Pagliara on Hearing Color.

Stemming from Lecce, Massimilano Pagliara has been based in Berlin for decades where he’s been one of the main forces behind recombining the city’s hardboiled techno scene with an often overlooked sensibility for the soft and the tender. Call it underground disco passion. Since 2003 when Massi began to pursue DJing with a passion, he’s been spinning records around the world as well as in some of the most popular underground venues in Germany — among them Tape Club, Tresor, ://about blank, Robert Johnson, and of course, Berghain / Panorama Bar, where he holds a residency.

Massi describes his style as an eclectic mix of house, disco, electro and techno – one may call it current-yet-classic. DJing has since led to production. These days Massi lets his obsession with analog synths run wild – usually he’s holed up in his apartment studio, working on his latest productions. His latest album, “See You In Paradise,” was acclaimed worldwide and earned the German Records Critics.