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.

Bit of a different format this month, a live discussion about the intersections of arts and science, imagining futures with sound, and the agency of water. I was excited to be part of this roundtable along with exhibiting artists and researchers Mariko Hori and KWR Water Research Institute researcher Sabrina Keinemans, sound artist Stijn Demeulenaere, and researcher Moniek Driesse. In a conversation moderated by Jonás Bisquert, we explore questions like how does sound help us transform ecological uncertainty into tangible future scenarios, and how do we give a voice to the water itself? Co-organized by Gaudeamus Festival with Utrecht University’s Urban Futures Studio, it was a fascinating conversation on how collaborations between scientists and artists can help expand the imagination. Apologies for the quiet audience questions, the microphones were not set up to catch that well.

Links

Artist installation details https://gaudeamus.nl/en/events/gaudeamus-2026-sunday-afternoon/resisting-waters-installations/

Gaudeamus https://gaudeamus.nl/

Urban Futures Studio https://www.uu.nl/en/research/urban-futures-studio

Mariko Hori https://www.instagram.com/korimariho/

Sabrina Keinemans linkedin.com/in/sabrinakeinemans

Stijn Demeulenaere https://www.instagram.com/zzztijn/

Moniek Driesse (University of Antwerp) https://www.instagram.com/moniekdriesse/

Steve Williams / drusnoise https://instagram.com/drusnoise

Jonás Bisquert https://jonasbisquert.com/

Listening with glaciers? Auscultation and planetary health? Climate data turned into percussion performances played on glacial ice? Tune in for all of that and more in a fascinating conversation with Konstantine Vlasis. Konstantine is an environmental composer, audio researcher, musician and writer currently based in Iceland whose work explores how sound, music, and listening mediate experiences of changing landscapes and ecologies, and how music can be a form of climate communication and environmental storytelling. With collaborations, compositions, and publications with a wide range of people and places around the world, I really enjoyed diving into his world and his sounds.

Links and Bio

Artist website https://www.konvlasis.com/

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/konvlasis/

Time and Water https://scienceandfilm.org/articles/3747/the-sounds-of-time-and-water

Life of the Glacier https://intotheblue.is/life/

After Ice film https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsQoCVlgGn8

2124

Composer & Project Lead: Konstantine Vlasis

Produced by Jake Lyons Performed by Chris Parker Audio by Yi-Wen Lai-Tremewan Directed by Marcus Neudigate

Ablation

Composer & Project Lead: Konstantine Vlasis Videography: Josh Flint Recording & Mixing: Yi-Wen Lai-Tremewan Video Editing: Jake Lyons Color Grading: Marcus Neudigate

Bio

Konstantine Vlasis is an environmental composer, audio researcher, percussionist, NYU Torch Fellow, Leifur Eiríksson Foundation Fellow, Fulbright-NSF Arctic Research Fellow, and Fulbright-Nat Geo Award recipient. His projects, public talks, and performances center on the ways that sound and listening mediate experiences of changing landscapes, and how music can be a form of climate communication and environmental storytelling.

As a composer, Vlasis has become a leading voice within environmental, art-science, and audiovisual composition. His music blends complex rhythmic structures, minimalist textures, and sound design to create environmentally conceptual and immersive pieces. In this regard, Vlasis explicitly builds his works upon pre-existing musical textures created by nonhuman entities, natural soundscapes, and environmental phenomena. His recent compositions expressly focus on ecological awareness, creative approaches to musical sustainability, and the efficacy of art-science collaboration. Vlasis is a visiting lecturer at Listaháskóli Íslands, a research affiliate of Háskóli Íslands, an Innovative Percussion Artist, and a performing member of APEX Percussion.