How do music and sound affect sleep? To what extent can time be experienced on different levels? Fascinating possibilities emerge when we take a closer look at listening as an introspective, mental, and physical experience. An extraordinary musical event invites audiences to do just that: »Lullabyte« is a night of live music for listening, slumbering, and dreaming. From 10pm to 7am, Alice Eldridge and Kirsten Reese create soundscapes and eco-acoustic landscapes composed of nature recordings, electronic textures, and live-generated sounds. At the end of the shared night, participants have the opportunity to reflect and exchange thoughts over breakfast. The Lullabyte project explores the relationship between sleep and music through a combination of scientific experimentation, artistic practice, and an interdisciplinary research team from the fields of musicology, sleep research, neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, and computer science. The concert is presented as part of the MSCA Lullabyte project in collaboration with the Ernst von Siemens endowed Professorship for New Music at the Freie Universität Berlin directed by Miriam Akkermann.
lullabyte.eu

Heimat:Habitate
for saxophone, accordion, trombone, trumpet, cello, and audio playback (2021/2022, version for
LUX:NM 2025)

Saturday 5 July, 2025
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The idea of revealing ›the large within the small‹ guided the design of the Schwesternpark in Witten, developed between 1906 and 1915 on a former slag heap located on the grounds of a Protestant hospital. Each garden area was intended to evoke the ›homeland‹ of the deaconesses working at the hospital. Today, these gardens continue to serve as habitats for native insect species – butterflies, bees, flies, ants, beetles, grasshoppers, bugs, aphids. Many insects are small and go about their lives hidden from view. In fact, it’s estimated that we humans are likely still unaware of half the world’s insect species, despite their vital role in the ecosystem: the small that sustains the large.

In a situational composition set around the pond at the »Tiefental« notions of homeland and habitat, as well as a speculative, post-anthropocentric perspective on both, are explored through a blend of (archived) insect sounds and electronic algorithms. Actual and imagined insect sounds emanate from sixteen-channel mobile loudspeakers, interacting with instrumental and human voices, spatially and acoustically exploring the pond area within the park.

Kirsten Reese is a composer and sound artist who grew up in Hong Kong, the Philippines, and the Rhineland. She studied flute, electronic music, and composition in Berlin and New York. Her work spans electronic media, acoustic instruments, and site-specific settings—often exploring unconventional modes of perception and spatialized loudspeaker configurations. In her research-driven projects, Reese combines archival recordings, historical themes, field recordings, and immersive soundscapes. Her ecology-focused works engage with more-than-human, instrumental, and algorithmic voices and their poetic transformation. Kirsten Reese is a member of the Akademie der Künste Berlin and teaches electroacoustic composition at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).

kirstenreese.de/
instagram.com/kirstenreese

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