Ecoes is Sonic Acts’ magazine, established in 2020. Published on this occasion as the Biennial reader, Ecoes #8 delves into the theme of Melted for Love through essays, visual contributions, and exclusive in-depth interviews with artists and performers presenting their work across the Biennial’s programmes.

You can purchase the magazine in the Sonic Acts Press Shop.

With only a fraction of the 200 names represented in this volume, emphasis is placed on the Symposium at the Stedelijk Museum, the multi-gallery exhibition, and the live concerts.

Among the many texts in this extended, book-length magazine:

Confront sonic warfare with Steve Goodman, keynote speaker at the Sonic Acts Biennial Symposium, who appears in Ecoes #8 through an interview and an essay adapted from his forthcoming publication Notes on the Third Ear.

‘Private Ear’ Lawrence Abu Hamdan in the script for his audio essay Zifzafa, focuses on the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights. During the Symposium, Abu Hamdan will deliver a live rendition of Zifzafa, composed by Busher Kanj, who will perform alongside saxophonist Amr Mdah and video designer Fabio Cervi.

Also appearing at the Symposium: researcher and curator Margarida Mendes' essay Deep Time Soundings listens to the Tagus River, the longest on the Iberian Peninsula, and once a thriving estuarine ecosystem.

Jeremy Deller sees folk traditions as vessels of solidarity, defiance, and collective joy. His images in the magazine draw on his Folk Archive project, depicting carnivals, horse-skeleton processions, and ‘gurning’ contests. Deller continues this line of inquiry in a live artist talk and Q&A at the Singelkerk.

Dylan Kerr, in conversation with Franek Dziduch, discusses their performances in churches – resonant architectures built for echo and reverberation, where voice meets the materiality of stone, timber, and air. Experience Kerr live at the Singelkerk as part of the concert As We Tremble.

In dialogue with Arie Altena, composer and theorist François J. Bonnet introduces the Acousmonium Handbook. The Acousmonium is also the name of the world-famous orchestra of around 60 loudspeakers, brought to Amsterdam for the Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 by INA GRM, the Musical Research Group of the French National Audiovisual Institute, which Bonnet directs.

Artist Sondi talks with Tiiu Meiner about AI, video games, and speculative world-building. Developed as part of SPRINGS, Sonic Acts’ new commissioning platform, Sondi will debut the audiovisual performance Non-User Friendly during the Biennial.

Journeying into the cosmos – guided by the words of curator Guillermo Canek García – learn about the spellbinding sound practice of Leslie García, whose work Saturn Spectrums unearths Sun Ra’s archival recordings, bending cosmic jazz into new spectral frequencies. García’s compositions will be audible at the Listening Room, and as a live concert.

Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 takes its title Melted for Love from a poem by the Palestinian national author Mahmoud Darwish. His words drift through this issue as quiet markers of exile, longing, and the desire for home.

Ecoes #8 will be available for pre-order online via the Sonic Acts webshop from January 2026. Copies will be on sale at Biennial venues, via the Underbelly stall and pop-up bookshop, and at Athenaeum Nieuwscentrum – Amsterdam’s renowned independent magazine shop located on Spui in the city centre.

Editor in Chief: Mirna Belina
Editor: Hannah Pezzack
Copy Editor: Andrea Rožić
Design: Rafaela Dražić