Listening Room is an exhibition where soundworks are presented on an octophonic surround soundsystem. Housed in the glass pavilion of Zone2Source in Amstelpark, it invites visitors to listen with their whole bodies – to engage with the immersive, relational, and ecological qualities of spatial sound. Think of the exhibition as cinema for the ears: an inward journey shared with others.
Please note that the works are not performed live, but exhibited in an 8.2-channel setup. A single purchased ticket is valid for any Listening Room programme – the tickets are not marked by date or time!
Timetable
Espen Sommer Eide & Signe Lidén – Vertical Studies: Archival Spirals, 2017, 20 min
Clara de Asís – Infinity This Time, 2026, 13 min
BJ Nilsen – Scalar Towers, 2026, 25 min
Vertical Studies: Archival Spirals by Espen Sommer Eide & Signe Lidén traces a line through experiments and field recordings made across the north of Norway and Russia – in Nikel, Sint Jansklooster, Fjell, Bakkehavn, Østensjøvannet, and Mandø – imagining bodies with antennae extending from the ground to the outer atmosphere. Machinery, birds, and weather phenomena appear like signals rising through stacked layers of air, and listeners spiral through our planetary existence.
Developed during her Sonic Acts Spatial Sound Residency, Clara de Asís’ commissioned work Infinity This Time extends this sensitivity through finely tuned interactions between bells, analogue electronics, and spatial acoustics. Guided by microtonal shifts and resonant overlaps, her composition invites a quiet alertness – a state where sound itself becomes an instrument for perceiving time and attention.
BJ Nilsen developed Scalar Towers during his residency at Sonic Acts’ Spatial Sound Studio. Expanding on decades of work with field recording and composition, Nilsen transforms vast architectural and natural structures into resonant instruments. Drawing on recordings made inside a historic water tower in Radio Kootwijk and a feed silo in Friesland, Scalar Towers explores ‘vertical acoustics’ – how sound ascends, reverberates, and reshapes within towering spaces. Immersive, physical, and meticulously detailed, it marks a major moment in Nilsen’s ongoing explorations.
Espen Sommer Eide & Signe Lidén’s piece was commissioned by Sonic Acts and Hilde Methi for the Dark Ecology project in 2017. Clara de Asís and BJ Nilsen participated in Sonic Acts’ Spatial Sound Residency in 2025, where they developed their works. The residency programme is supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL, Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, Cultuurloket DigitALL, Mondriaan Fund, and is part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union. Additionally, Clara de Asís’ work was co-commissioned with the Archipel Festival and realised by Paradiso and Sonic Acts as part of the same EU funding scheme. BJ Nilsen’s work has been co-commissioned with INA GRM, supported by Fonds Podiumkunsten & AFK. The programme is part of New Perspectives for Action, a project by Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the EU.
