what we immerse ourselves in

Estonians Can Truly Compose – Especially for Voice

Estonian Music Days revealed how a young, vocally attuned community of composers in the small country between Finland and Russia combines historical depth with freedom, resonance, and intimacy.

By Jeppe Rönnow

review26.05

An Operatic Vision Lost in Translation

Bent Sørensen’s new operatic collaboration with Jon Fosse falls short of what it might have been.

By Andrew Mellor
review24.05

The City that made Noise into History

At the Copenhagen Museum, the city’s forgotten soundscapes are brought to life – from street cries and gongs to nervous night sirens – in an exhibition that lets the echoes of the past resonate in present-day ears.

By Henrik Marstal
review02.04

Punk is Dead and Opera is Not Feeling Well Either

Damon Albarn’s Mozart spin-off »The Magic Flute II« is replete with synths and spectacle, but does it truly capture opera’s essence – or merely its aesthetics?

By Aleksi Barrière

From Factory Floor to Operatic Frustration

Jenny Wilson’s first opera – an adaptation of Elfriede Jelinek’s »Women as Lovers« – delivers sharp theatricality and biting satire but struggles to find its musical voice.

By Andrew Mellor

review26.03

Who said that simplicity should be simple?

Three albums with music for string quartet – and the likes – by Jürg Frey, Simon Christensen, and Anders Lauge Meldgaard each approach musical simplicity in their own way. But they aim for entirely different things with it.

By Sune Anderberg
review25.03

When Sound Becomes Body and Struggle

»Bodies of Sound« gathers reflections from women and non-binary individuals on sound as experience, strategy, and resistance. This book should be read by anyone interested in sound as something beyond just music.

By Henrik Marstal
review18.10.2024

Head to Venice and Hear Foreign Songs Everywhere

War, refugees, and destruction are inescapable at the Venice Biennale. You can feel it, see it, hear it – it's all-encompassing. Has Venice ever been this filled with sound?

By Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek

review18.10.2024

Head to Venice and Hear Foreign Songs Everywhere

Ersan Mondtagn's opera work »Monument eines unbekannten Menschen«. © Thomas Aurin

War, refugees, and destruction are inescapable at the Venice Biennale. You can feel it, see it, hear it – it's all-encompassing. Has Venice ever been this filled with sound?

By Andreo Michaelo Mielczarek

review06.08.2024

»Ist nix für Frauen«

Powerful Rhythms and Empowered Voices dominated at the opening night of Heroines of Sound Festival in Berlin.

By Giada Dalla Bontà
review24.09.2023

This book asks you to breathe and resonate without words

Salomé Voegelin’s book about our uncurating sound is her most personal and also most difficult to read – however, succeeding with her project, despite almost all odds.

By Morten Søndergaard
review11.12.2021

It is impressed in the body

After a long hiatus due to the covid-19 pandemic, Berlin Atonal has opened the gates of Kraftwerk to the public for the first time. As limitations to collective events endure, the new project Metabolic Rift includes, in addition to the live performances, an exhibition aiming to elicit individual experience with intense stimuli. The exposition presents a convincing curatorial approach to sound, exalting its sensorial qualities and proposing an inspiring model to work with the aural and its (im-)materiality in the context of art exhibitions.

By Giada Dalla Bontà