Listening Together

A soundwalk to listen together to the city, its spaces, its architecture and the environments that inhabit it.

Together with Peter Cusack and Valeria Merlini (aka JD Zazie), we will explore the local area of Brussels around Flagey (Etangs d'Ixelles, Jardins de l'Abbaye de la Cambre) through attentive and shared listening. Walking through the city, we will pay attention to the sounds around us and to how they change as we move between different spaces: streets, squares, passages, buildings and other urban environments.

We will listen to how architecture and materials shape sound — how it resonates, reflects, travels across spaces or is absorbed — while also noticing the rhythms of everyday life, human activity, weather, vegetation and other forms of life that contribute to the city’s acoustic character.

Rather than recording or collecting sounds, the soundwalk is an invitation to listen to what is already there. By slowing down and listening together, familiar places may become newly perceptible, revealing unexpected relationships between sound, space, architecture and everyday life.

JD Zazie and Peter Cusack create live performances using field recordings, keeping the recordings in their original form with minimal alteration. Recognisable sounds tell their own stories and narratives, while unexpected combinations and juxtapositions create playful and surprising connections. Their recordings have a strong sense of spatiality and depth, creating vivid images in the listener’s imagination. The duo explores the space between music, storytelling and sonic filmmaking, carefully selecting recordings to create immersive and evocative performances. Peter and Zazie also enjoy engaging with audiences through talks and discussions, as well as facilitating workshops and soundwalks, extending their exploration of listening, place and the creative possibilities of recorded sound.