What does it mean to really listen to a place? And how do our bodies, ears, and memories shape what we hear? Stijn and I explore these questions through his fascinating sonic work in the North Sea, from underwater soundscapes and offshore wind farms to oysters, sea shanties, and the changing ecologies of our oceans. We also talk about listening, technology, artistic intentions, and immersive (literally!) performances in the water.

Listen to the full conversation and recording excerpts in the latest episode of sustain.fm on RBL

Links and bio

www.stijndemeulenaere.be

www.facebook.com/stijndemeulenaereart/

www.instagram.com/zzztijn/

Zijlijn / Linea Lateralis https://stijndemeulenaere.be/zijlijn-pro.html

Sounding Lines https://stijndemeulenaere.be/soundinglines-pro.html

Sounding Lines is my latest work, a research into how we humans shaped the seabed of the North Sea over the last 200 years. The track here is an excerpt of the live show at Porous, an exhibition by TBA21 at Villa Arson, Nice (FR) during the UN Ocean days in june 2025. The live show was originally quadraphonic, this is a stereo excerpt.

Latitudes https://stijndemeulenaere.be/latitudes.html

Live set developed for the Everybody Hertz festival in Brussels in 2024.

Soundtracks http://stijndemeulenaere.be/soundtracks.html

I would like to invite you too to become part of the archive, to discover your own sonic memories. Please, take a seat and dig through your memory. Try to remember a sound that was special to you and describe it for me. Write it down on a piece of paper, and snailmail / post it to me on the following address, I'd be very grateful.

Soundtracks Hopstraat 40 1000 Brussels Belgium

Ps: and just to avoid any misunderstandings: the archive requires HANDWRITTEN MEMORIES, so please, no email or typed letters. Apart from that, you are completely free to use whichever form or language you like. Thank you in advance.

Bio

Stijn Demeulenaere is a sound artist, sometimes musician, and field recordist. He holds degrees in sociology, cultural studies and studied radio at the Royal Institute for Theatre, Cinema and Sound. Stijn had several experimental radio shows on independent radio stations and later worked as a journalist for Belgian national radio stations Radio 1 and Klara, and for the independent radio station Radio K Centrale in Bologna, Italy. He was a founding member of the improvisation collective Karen Eliot. Since 2009 he is creating installations, soundscapes, performances, releases albums, and does sound design for dance, theatre and film.

Stijn is attracted to sound because of its directness, its malleability, and its mystery. In sound he tries to understand places and unravel social structures, personal history and the unconscious imagination of people. Stijns work knows two lines of research. On the one hand Stijn researches how people give meaning to sound, and the relationships betweenidentity, sound and listening. Topics are the phenomenology of listening and the personal experience of sound. On the other hand, Stijn is curious about the symbiosis betweenplaces and their sound. He tries to understand places by listening to them.