By listening intensely, you explore the world around you and the artworks in an even more conscious way. Put on your headphone and forget everything around you.

Pepijn Gyssels sound design, mixing & mastering
Maud Gyssels text
Gemma Allen voice
Tijn Driessen extra sounds

Pepijn, PiP, how did you go about making this soundscape?

The first step is often to make field recordings. I travel with microphones and record all kinds of sounds. In this sound journey you will hear rain or thunder in Portugal, but also the sound of a street in Venice, with the cries of seagulls, prisoners and children. Keyboardist Tijn Driessen created a series of additional sounds on the synthesizer which I then modified or transformed extensively. My sister, Maud Gyssels, wrote the text, which is brought to life by the voice of Gemma Allen.

How did she create the text?

The text gives rise to a kind of spiral movement that gradually becomes more and more refined and finally distils into a single point. Maud was inspired by Hilma af Klint's spiral temple, which is shown in the exhibition. The words or phrases are repeated, but in an increasingly compact way: you don't hear the whole sentence any more, but only a few words.

How did the temple inspire you from a sound point of view?

Hilma af Klint's temple is a temple for everyone, with a hybrid function between a museum and a church. It reminded me directly of the street recordings I had made in Venice. An old woman walking around, a garbage boat collecting rubbish, a jailer laughing and a child crying, while in the distance prisoners are shouting in a stairwell. I find that the combination of all these things goes beyond what a normal street is. It gives an extra dimension to the moment. But only if you are quiet enough to hear it.

What is the purpose of this sound journey?

Field recordings are a way for me to be silent, to listen, simply to be in the moment. This is the effect I would like people to experience when they visit the exhibition. It is impossible to determine the pace of someone's visit: some people may linger longer in front of a work they particularly like. Each person experiences sound and vision in their own way and at their own pace. This journey should be seen as an additional layer to the exhibition, a non-binding invitation to stop and find peace.