Habitat Sonore: Autumn Resonances with Jen Reimer and Ludwig Berger

Song of Air (2026) by Jen Reimer Song of Air documents a live, site-specific performance in the Humboldt Water Tower in Humboldt, Saskatchewan. Over three years, Jen Reimer recorded the tower's sounds and developed a custom digital instrument shaped by its architecture, highlighting its resonant interactions with the wind. Repeated encounters with the tower and its physical and acoustic responses guided the composition of Song of Air, which unfolded through cycles of recording; layering; and playing the instrument back into the space. During the performance, loudspeakers lined the tower's spiral staircase and tactile transducers pushed vibrations through its steel and wood surfaces, activating it as a large-scale musical instrument. Structured in four movements, the work explores the water tower as both instrument and composition, revealing the resonances of its material structure and the air within. Ecotonalities: No Other Home Than the In-Between (2025) by Ludwig Berger “I like to think of my microphones as musical instruments that are ‘played’ by the beings, elements, and objects in an environment.” —Ludwig Berger Created as the centre piece for Luxembourg’s contribution to the 2025 Architecture Biennial, Ludwig Berger’s field recording composition Ecotonalities: No Other Home Than the In-Between weaves together recordings from distinctive locations across the territory. The piece investigates how ongoing developments are shaping the country’s landscape. The concept of Ecotone — a transitional space between two ecosystems — guides the process, attuning listeners closely to frictions and co-existences within the environment. Equipped with an ‘orchestra of microphones’, Berger explored 15 different sites; among them an artificial lake, a floating solar plant, a hydroelectric dam, a wind farm, a satellite park, a natural reserve and data centres. The locations were captured in a meticulous process. Berger divided his orchestra into a ‘vibrational section’, microphones that are ‘played’ by the materials themselves, uncovering the hidden resonances of structures, surfaces, and even the vibrational communication of animals (biotremology); a ‘airborne section’ that is ‘played’ by sounds travelling through the air, and an ‘electromagnetic section’, that is ‘played’ by the invisible electromagnetic fields generated by infrastructure. In the composition, Berger reconstructed these experiences in a process of place-remaking. He mixed the recordings to create a balanced sonic image and to offer a multidimensional experience of the environment.