For SPOR Festival, Aarhus, Denmark during April / May 2022, I led a series of Deep Listening Walks exploring the waterways of Aarhus. I devised two listening routes, one along the canal, starting just at the edge of the city centre, wandering towards the outskirts, and a second walk around the active dock area. The listening walks aimed to create space and time to listen deeply to underwater sounds through hydrophones, and other microphones that reveal the hidden or overlooked sound worlds of the city, alongside reflections on what we might be listening to, how sound travels, and speculations about listening from the perspective of other species. I mixed the sounds live and broadcast them to wireless headphones worn by the audience so they could listen and walk with me at their own pace.

I also created a site specific soundscape installation composed from underwater and hidden sounds of Aarhus playing through handmade metal rustic ‘Listening Horns’ along the side of the canal for the duration of the festival to share the mysterious, underwater soundworld of the city with more people. The speakers hidden in the horns were all powered by solar energy.

My contribution to SPOR festival was part of the European Sounds Now programme of sound art in public space curated by Raquel Castro. Huge thanks for everyone who contributed to making this experience such a creative joy from SPOR, Sounds Now , Raquel Castro, Papagallo and the people and visitors of Aarhus who joined in. Listening Horns are a development of a Cryptic commission in 2019 for ‘Below the Blanket’.

Below are two soundscapes created from material from both walking routes, followed by some photographs from the festival by Gorm Branderup and a movie created by Spor festival team.