Klankvorm presents Sensing the Void

Klankvorm presents Sensing the Void
Doors: 20:00h
Venue: UBIK Theater
Boomgaardsstraat 69, 3012 XA Rotterdam

At the heart of the experience is a specially designed multichannel sound system, crafted to deliver immersive, spatial soundscapes. This unique setup invites participating artists to create compositions that emphasize the physical dimensions of sound, manipulating audio and layered recordings to evoke textures, distances, and depths in the listener’s mind. Set within a fully darkened environment, ‘Sensing the Void’ encourages the audience to surrender to their auditory senses, exploring a deeper awareness of the unseen.

Participating artists:

• Izabela Dłużyk

• Cucina Povera

• Mehrnaz Khorrami

• Rotor

This programme is made possible with the generous support of Mondriaan Fund and Gemeente Rotterdam.

Izabela Dłużyk
Izabela Dłużyk is a Polish nature sound recordist and a graduate in English and Russian studies from the University of Gdańsk. Born blind, Dłużyk developed interest in birds, particularly parrots. She began recording bird noises at the age of 12 after getting a cassette recorder from family and has developed a specific sensitivity to birdsong ever since. Among her credits are an album made in collaboration with the Australian firm Listening Earth including sounds from the Białowieża Forest, and three albums on Slovak experimental field recordings label LOM.

In September 2023, BBC World broadcast a documentary about Dłużyk titled Isabela in the forest. We, humans, focus more on visual aspects. “When observing birds, we mainly think about photography. For example, we identify species based on their appearance rather than their sounds. When I listen not only to birds, but also to trees, I simply feel in the right place, with a sense of the deepest meaning of existence.” She was named to the BBC 100 Women list in November 2023.

Cucina Povera
Cucina Povera is the solo project of Karelian-Luxembourgish medic and composer Maria Rossi, focusing on the marginal and the observational. The repeated motifs in their work are an uncanny testament to the beauty of banality, infused with the mysticism of everyday life and a love for accessible sound sources like creaky tenement floors, boiling kettles and leaky taps – stories told by means of rudimentary synthesis of voice and field recording. Like in the titular practice of peasant cooking, Rossi takes simple ingredients and makes a stylistically resourceful, spontaneous hermeticism that primarily makes for a creative respite from the hubbub of the metropole. For this project Cucina Povera is looking to create gauzy layers of vocals, highlighting the dynamic of gleaning whilst exploring the notions of composite sound and sonic artefacts. The idea is to explore parallels between architectural space and sonics through organised and aesthetic sound.

Mehrnaz Khorrami
Mehrnaz Khorrami is an electro-acoustic composer based in the Netherlands. She studied Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague and has a foundation in classical music.Her artistic work spans sound installations, audiovisual performances, and live electro-acoustic improvisations. Mehrnaz’s compositions blend a variety of sounds, incorporating custom-designed acoustic instruments, urban environments, and synthesized audio. With a deep passion for innovation, she continually explores new possibilities, pushing boundaries to develop unique synthesized sounds and integrate advanced technology into her creations.

Rotor
Rotor is an experimental sound collective initiated in 2017 by Eelco Ottenhof and Joris Strijbos. Within the project, the duo experiments with performative installations consisting of rotating sound sources, multi-speaker setups, feedback systems, and modular synthesizers.

LINKS

• Izabela Dłużyk - The Amazon, Where the Moon Wept album
• Cucina Povera bandcamp
• Mehrnaz Khorrami soundcloud
• Rotor website