Crickle Crackle Pop. (Rush Roar)
In Crickle Crackle Pop. (Rush Roar), Belgian sound artist Stijn Demeulenaere explores the notions of heat, hearth and home by bringing together three very different sets of recordings in a site-specific surround-sound performance developed especially for The Hearth Room, an exhibition by Christoph Meier & Ute Müller at Casino Luxembourg.
Demeulenaere uses some of his earliest and most personal recordings: the sounds of the fireplace in his mother’s home, which no longer exists, and the clicks and hums of its boiler and radiators. In a surround-sound performance, he combines these sonic memories with the noises of the kiln in The Hearth Room and with his recent sound field recordings of melting glaciers in Iceland. Heat can mean the warmth and cosiness of a family home, but it can also mean destruction – that of the glaciers – in connection with the human-caused warming of the Earth, the home we all share.
A fire crickles, crackles, and pops; it can rush and roar, it can whisper and howl. Crickle Crackle Pop. (Rush Roar) .listens to our changing homes along the fault lines between warmth and heat.
.Crickle Crackle Pop. (Rush Roar) is a commission by rainy days and Casino Luxembourg. rainy days is curated by Catherine Kontz.
Stijn Demeulenaere (lives and works in Brussels, Belgium) is an award-winning sound artist. He has a background in sociology and journalism. Since 2009, he has created installations, soundscapes and performances. He frequently collaborates with choreographers, theatre- and film-makers, and scientists. His work researches the relationship between identity, sound and listening. Combining field recordings with scientific narratives and local knowledge, he explores the bonds between space, sound and listening. From remote, pristine nature areas, over sleepy villages, the sonic onslaught of a metropolis, to the umwelt of more-than-human spaces: Demeulenaere tries to understand places by listening to them.
He thinks of hearing as a sense of touch: sound is direct, but also malleable and mysterious. Through listening, he tries to unravel social structures, personal histories, economic pressures, and unconscious imaginations. Figuring out how we give meaning to sound, and how sound gives meaning to places, using listening as a lens to understand our times.
Demeulenaere’s work was shown at Ars Electronica, Fiber Festival, Concertgebouw Brugge, Rencontres Internationales, IFFR, STUK, Bozar, and Ancienne Belgique, among others.
© Stijn Demeulenaere, Marisa Cabal
