Language, monologues and dialogues shape the sound art exhibition at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Roskilde. Among the many verbal works, it is an insistent humming that strikes me straight in the heart.

Festival of Endless Gratitude is less a parade of finished works than a living laboratory where musicians are given the freedom to experiment – and to fail.

Sonica Glasgow turned sound into massage, sweets into instruments and Serbian folk song into a psychedelic journey. The festival was most convincing when it dared to go all the way to the edge.

The Oslo-based contemporary music festival Ultima taught me that in a world where everything makes noise, silence can be the most radical expression of all. Perhaps we should send Ed Sheeran to Norway for a study trip?

In Žibuoklė Martinaitytė’s first opera, the Arctic becomes a landscape for music that moves slowly but contains immense power.

On Samsø, Salad Days makes room for sound art, improvisation, noise and experimental music. The festival’s small scale creates a particular openness – but also leaves the project vulnerable, as it depends on the efforts of a few people.