Sustain.fm

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.
SoundtracksHopstraat 401000 BrusselsBelgium
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 LyonsPerformed by Chris ParkerAudio by Yi-Wen Lai-TremewanDirected by Marcus Neudigate
 
Ablation
Composer & Project Lead: Konstantine VlasisVideography: Josh FlintRecording & Mixing: Yi-Wen Lai-TremewanVideo Editing: Jake LyonsColor 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.

Fresh off an amazing sound workshop in Norway last week called Soundshed, we hear sounds reflecting sonic presence and absence, hauntings, ruins, and imaginaries. The project, funded by the Oslo Center for Environmental Humanities, explored sound at the intersections of art, ecology, and energy production at Kistefos, a sculpture park and museum located on the site of a former paper pulp mill about an hour outside Oslo. I was excited to be part of this project led by Sadie Menicanin from University of Oslo and can’t wait for you to hear the sonic collages created by the participants.
Co-creators
Sadie Menicanin
Steve Williams
Kyle Devine
Megan Gette
Cristina Archetti
Moa Hjärtström
Elise Matilde Malik
Alexander Refsum Jensenius
Parisa KhoeiLucy Cathcart Frödén
Vicky Mikalsen
Nikos Baskozos
Chryso Nikolaou
Sofia Shuvanova
Kahena Wilhite
 
Links
IMV Instagram @unioslo_imv
Kistefos https://www.kistefosmuseum.com/
Soundshed project page https://www.hf.uio.no/ikos/english/research/projects/oceh/research/teams-phase-two/junior-collaborative-research-teams-1/soundshed.html
UNRULY Sustainability https://unrulinesss.com/

Thumper trucks and dowsing rods. Seismic listening and fraudulent maps. Ham radio and silence. Just a few of the ideas we cover in today’s show with Megan Gette. Megan is an artist, a writer, a poet, an editor, interested in how sensemaking is articulated and given material form. Playing with technologies of listening, fluidity and im/materialisms , her artistic and academic works made for a fascinating conversation. Check out our chat and listen to some of her sounds.
 
Bio
It is hard to name the various crises of the present to which theory promises to attune. The worlds of others are incoherent. Thought is immanent to material processes and their social fragmentations. I am interested in how sensemaking is articulated and given material form. I examine techniques and technologies of listening through which extractive atmospherics shapes perception and ordinary life.
Links
Instagram https://www.instagram.com/808omega/
Artist web site: https://atrace2.cargo.site/

Today I am thrilled to have on the show Natalia Escobar. Natalia is a Colombian interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and DJ whose practice spans moving images, sound, performance, and installations. Her work explores Abya Yala phenomenology, Indigenous cosmovisions, identity, and memory, drawing from decolonial and intersectional feminist perspectives. Since 2021, she has been developing pedagogical projects and collaborations with different Indigenous communities in South America, notably with Las Traviesas, a community of trans-Indigenous women from the Embera people in Colombia. Together, they have developed initiatives that promote social and ecological transformation through artistic processes, emphasizing transdisciplinary collaboration as a strategy to challenge colonial norms and reimagine alternative realities and spaces for knowledge exchange. So you can imagine how excited I am to speak with Natalia today.
 
Bio
Natalia Escobar is a Colombian interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and DJ whose practice spans moving images, sound, performance, and installations. Her work explores Abya Yala  phenomenology, Indigenous cosmovisions, identity, and memory, drawing from decolonial and intersectional feminist perspectives. Since 2021, Escobar has been developing pedagogical projects and collaborations with different Indigenous communities in South America, notably with Las Traviesas, a community of trans-Indigenous women from the Embera people in Colombia. Together, they have developed initiatives that promote social and ecological transformation through artistic processes, emphasizing transdisciplinary collaboration as a strategy to challenge colonial norms and reimagine alternative realities and spaces for knowledge exchange.
 
Links
https://www.instagram.com/discobar/
https://www.instagram.com/poison.arrow/
https://www.instagram.com/awera___/
https://www.instagram.com/pierce_with_arrow/
Artist Web site https://www.nataliaescobar.com/
Awera project https://www.nataliaescobar.com/awera

Today on the show I’m happy to have Robert Willim as a guest. Robert is an artist and a researcher working at the interplay between art, research and dialogue. His practice explores imaginaries, media-related practices and human experiences of technology. In our conversation we explore sound, technology, media, artistic research, industry and society, and questions around digital and material culture.
Links
More about Robert’s work: http://www.robertwillim.com/
https://www.instagram.com/willimworks/
About Mundania: https://mundania.se
The audio paper Mundania – Just Above The Noise Floor:
https://seismograf.org/fokus/sonic-argumentation-ii/willim
A video of the Fields of Unknowing performance in Malmö:
https://vimeo.com/950990832?share=copy&fl=sv&fe=ci
Info about the performance from the Intonal website:
https://www.intonalfestival.com/artists-2024/robert-willim

We have a special edition this month, a look – actually a listen – back to 2025. Thanks to all of you and my amazing guests, we have quite a collection of sounds to listen to. Enjoy listening to everything from Bristol beats to pond soundscapes to raw heartbeat driven noise. Today we have some sounds from a live broadcast of the show at RBL with me drusnoise, then sounds from Xayide, a livestream recording provided by Mort Drew and Grant Smith from the Soundtent collaborative, JacqNoise & Dan Graveyard live set, Zuzana Hamm / FridaY playing live, Andreas Kühne & Paulina Medvedeva, Hendrik Klatte, and closing with another live set by Jeannette Petrik / Chebedajha. Looking forward to another year of sound and conversation. Until next year, see you on the dance floor.
 
Track listing
drusnoise – There is no separation (live broadcast from RBL) @drusnoise
Xayide – Marginal Disc and ERß @ xayidexadiyei
Soundtent - Jasper Ridge Livestream
 https://locus.creacast.com:9443/jasper_ridge_birdcast.mp3  @ mort_drew  @sound_camp
JacqNoise & Dan Graveyard – Live performance @jacqnoise @dan.graveyard
Zuzana Hamm / FridaY – Soundtrack to Flora (Live at bitumen lichen) @friday_musik
Andreas Kuhne & Paulina- The Informals II 360 (2023) Live a/v performance with Bobbie Johnson, Phonetic, and Marshall Mandiangu @andreaskuhne_ @p.a.medvedeva
Gregor Dys – mumstakes @gregordys
Hendrik Klatte – Mucus
Jeannette Petrik / Chebedajha – live performance at Schwankhalle Bremen @jeannettepetrik

Today I am happy to have Jeannette Petrik on the show. Jeanette is an experimental noise maker performing as Chebedajha, writer, and cultural worker based in the Netherlands. I have been fascinated by Jeannette’s work ever since I saw their live performance in Enschede using heartbeats to clock a live modular synth show.  We talk about live performance, working with environments, and building community and hear some of their incredible live sounds.
 
Links and Bio
Bio:
Drifting off while in the moment, a raw and unfinished collage of harsh and intense analogue and digital electronic sounds emerges from the delicate interaction between a human and a collection of sound devices—sensitively modulated noise with a slow, yet driving pace, embracing the unexpected with a situationist attitude. Chebedajha means “not from here” in an imaginary language. Chebedajha is the solo sound art project of cultural producer Jeannette Petrik, mental child of situationism, adhocism and punk. With a curiosity for sound design, experimental noise and meditation practices, they consider language, sound and design as an opportunity for public empowerment. Operating in the vicinity of intense states of anxiety and pleasure, discomfort and relief, the experimental sound of Chebedajha aims for increased levels of perception and sensitivity to become part of the collective everyday. Petrik is a cultural producer concerned with collective spaces and processes, who challenges hierarchies and structures of dominance. Their practice spans across disciplines which include text, sound, performance and the organising of collective events of doubt. Since 2013, they’re part of Dutch and German D.I.Y. scenes and are active in a loosely organised network of tekno soundsystems. Petrik was an organiser at the squatted D.I.Y. venue The Loch in Enschede. They’re part of the feminist network fem*noise and are active as an experimental sound artist under the pseudonym Chebedajha.
 
Photo credit: Paulus  https://www.instagram.com/by_pauluz/ https://www.by-pauluz.nl/
 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeannettepetrik
Linktree: https://linktr.ee/chebedajha
 
Recordings
sw9mep: excerpt of a live recording that was produced as part of the podcast 'Conversing our Soundscapes of Fear' hosted by studio calh at Z33 in Hasselt, BE (2021): Invited as the show's accompanying musician, I was tasked to try and acoustically articulate their approach towards contemporary sounds of fear.
Quantum Inspired Sound: https://jeannettepetrik.com/quantum-inspired-sound
Recording of live performance at Schwankhalle Bremen as part of the series Anachronism: using a modular synth and other sound devices (2023
Recording of live performance from Voltage Control Amsterdam (January 2025): using the heartbeat together with a modular synth and a Lyra-8

Today I’m happy to welcome Hendrik Klatte to the show. Hendrik has science background and is also an artist, curator and also the founder of re:natura, a non-profit artist collective, music label and experimental laboratory. We get into the intersections between science and sound along with talking about the role of curators in building community and engaging audiences with sustainability through sound.
 
Links and Bio
After studies in biochemistry and pharmacy, Hendrik Klatte applies his scientific background to his sonic, installation, and curatorial work. He studied at the Institute for Music and Media (RSH Düsseldorf) with Heike Sperling, Phillip Schulze and Marcus Schmickler. Here, he deepened his understanding of the connection between science, art, and sound. He completed his studies with a multimedia installation inspired by the slime mold Physarum Polycephalum and a scientific thesis on the representation of biodiversity in experimental musics.
 
re:natura is a non-profit artist collective, music label and experimental laboratory with a clear, shared vision. With a focus on topics of biodiversity, we explore animals, plants, landscapes and natural phenomena. In the critical tradition of naturalists, we compose, publish, perform and convey experimental musics that are concerned with the specifics of life. https://www.instagram.com/label.re.natura/
 
Links
Crescere Release Event
 
Crescere Preorder  / Listening Party (available fromm monday, 13th)
 
Featured artists: IDRA  / Samaquias Lorta / Berenice Llorens
 
Experimontag
 
Release Lapis Elle – Hyphae
 
Release Deniz Dortok – Nocturna
Gregor Dys on Instagram
 
Music For Cinemas on Instagram
 
 Listening Party
 
 
Music credits
from Gregor Dys – Anguilla Anguilla [re:natura]
Gregor Dys – stroemung
 
from Gregor Dys – mumstakes
Gregor Dys – tuer
 
Excerpt from Hendrik Klatte – Mucus [will be released on re:natura]
 
from re:natura #04 – Æther
Laure Boer – Connecting Winter and Spring
Music: Laure Boer
Mastering: Jannis Wolff
 
from re:natura #05 – Crescere
cosmic swarm, Walter Magi – coral nursery: 
Music: Chiara Pitrola, Luca Ventrini
All field recordings are from coral reefs recorded by Dr. Aran Mooney / © Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. To donate to their coral reef restoration projects, follow https://explore.whoi.edu/giving 
Mastering: Jannis Wolff