Norient and Rewire collaborate again for a digital publication, this year dedicated to the theme of environmental listening. Presented in an assembly, Norient invites festival-goers to discover the diverse sonicities of Delhi, Karachi, and Colombo at the festival for adventurous music in The Hague, Netherlands.

When talking about listening in the broadest sense, listeners are usually at the centre of attention, while they actually always already coexist with any other lifeform. So, what if the sound listens back? In the joint new Online Special When the Sound Listens Back, artists and authors from the Rewire and Norient network and performing at Rewire Festival 2024 share they’re thoughts, feelings, and experiences in a collection of essays, podcasts, and a playlist.

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Assembly: When the Sound Listens Back

Fri, Apr 5, 3.30-5pm CET
Venue: The Grey Space in The Middle

Join us for the assembly on the publication at The Grey Space In The Middle, moderated by curators Katia Truijen and Philipp Rhensius.

Invited artists Heloisa Amaral, Justin Bennett, Brandon LaBelle, Golnoosh Heshmati, Saint Abdullah, meLê yamomo, Giada Dalla Bontà, and contributors Anna Kvyl and Salomé Voegelin will bring sonic material to collectively listen to, followed by an informal conversation on modes of listening across different times and territories, and their complex sonic ecologies.

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Environmental Listening in Delhi 

Fri, Apr 5, 1-2pm CET
Venue: Page Not Found

What does it mean to listen to the city in different ways? How does one listen when the sounds of resistance are silenced? What is the soundtrack of a time spent in a prison? Can birds still be heard in the midst of noise pollution? What does the break of dawn sound like? When does the sound of celebration become violent? What is it in all these soundscapes that recalls the past and that proposes alternate futures?

These and other questions will be touched in this listening session. It will present an online publication called Norient City Sounds: Delhi, published in September 2023. It is part of the Norient’s multimedia series of virtual exhibitions and digital publications that explores and portrays the sounds of cities across the globe. After the earlier editions on Nairobi (2022) and Beirut (2022), NCS Delhi unpacks and complicates the notion of Delhi by scattering into many cities of Delhi with the colliding histories, timescales, and spatial arrangements, living archives and echoes of the past. The contributions by 29 artists unconceal the polyphonies within the ocean of sound that is Delhi, moving across eras, genres, practices, and impulses. NCS Delhi is curated by Suvani Suri, a Delhi-based artist and researcher.

On Friday April 5, curator Suvani Suri and Norient curator and editor Hannes Liechti will enter into a conversation on the deeply layered and composite sensorium of a city that both senses and is sensed in a multitude of ways in NCS Delhi and will present and comment on videos, compositions, and images from the publication.

Credit: Ammar

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TIMEZONES: Listening to Delhi, Colombo, and Karachi

Fri, Apr 5, 12.00-12.45pm CET 
Sat, Apr 6, 12.00-12.45pm CET 
Sun, Apr 7, 12.00-12.45pm CET 
Venue: The Grey Space in The Middle

How does sound form, un-form and re-form our meanings and speculative realities during times of crisis? In what ways protest can be voiced with music? And what does it feel to be an artist in a city of a million plus dreams, hopes, and problems?

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We are looking forward to collectively listen to three episodes of Norient’s experimental podcast series TIMEZONES at Rewire Festival 2024. 

Fri, Apr 5, 1-2pm CET Imagining Worlds and Making Meaning With Four Artists From Delhi – introduced by Norient founder Thomas Burkhalter

Sat, Apr 6, 12-12.45pm CET Aragalaya: Inside the People’s Struggle in Colombo – introduced by Norient founder Thomas Burkhalter

Sun, Apr 7, 1-2pm CET Chaotic Karachi: Expressions for Sanity – introduced by Norient curator and editor Hannes Liechti

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By the way: You can listen to these TIMEZONES episodes at a listening station at Page Not Found!

TIMEZONES is co-initiated and co-produced by Norient and the Goethe-Institut.

Credit: Carroll Omuom 

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Instrumental Ecologies: Music Journalism Today

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Sun, Apr 7, 3.30-4.45pm CET The Grey Space in the Middle

Journalists Laura Snapes (The Guardian), Margeaux Labat (Marg.mp3), and Norient founder and director Thomas Burkhalter will enter into a conversation on the state of music journalism today. How can one understand the changing ecology of specialist music platforms, independent media outlets and their struggles, and the shifting role of music journalists? Which editorial formats engage critically and creatively with music today and feel especially effective and valuable? The panel talk is moderated by Hugo Emmerzael and followed by the launch of a magazine, elaborated by participants of the workshop Rewire Reflections covering Rewire Festival 2024.