there’s just a few days left before our new edition is out to the world. And there’s a small warehouse find below.

New edition

Following the acclaimed Serrisme CD (with Christina Vantzou, Christophe Piette, Jan Matthé, and Lieven Martens) created with cultural organisation Serreklanken, we are proud to present a new collaborative release. This time centred around the nature reserve Doode Bemde.

Over the course of a year, musician and composer Roxane Métayer composed new music shaped by the rhythms of the landscape and the seasons. Featuring vocals by Katya Shirshkova and a booklet with poetry by Sara Eelen.

Pre-order today!

Pre Order

Also, we’re pleased to announce we have a tiny warehouse find of our 2 recent releases. So if you’re on the look-out for a copy of either JC Leisure Group or Adriaan de Roover’s recent ECN outings: get it!

Edições CN Catalogue

Thanks for reading

best, Lieven x

A few years ago, we released the acclaimed Serrisme project, together with our friends from Serreklanken in Hoeilaart. That record brought together sounds, photography and texts by Jan Matthé, Christina Vantzou, Christophe Piette, and Lieven Martens; singing Hoeilaart’s historic glasshouse table grape cultivation, a tradition initiated in 1865.

Today, we are excited to present our second collaboration, this time centered around a local nature reserve: Doode Bemde.

Initiated by Roxane Métayer, this work unfolds across a year of field recordings, w/ violin, voice, and text. It sings a landscape gradually freezing, and slowly returning to life.

The album features solo recordings by Roxane, and duo-recordings with Katya Shirshkova. It comes with a long poem by activist/poet Sara Eelen of De Klimaatdichters.

The CD comes with a DL Code, and a beautiful 32-page booklet of poems, photographs, and notes from the project with lay-out by Jeroen Wille.

Limited edition! Judging on how fast the Serrisme edition sold out, don’t wait too long … It’s available now to pre-order, at a special low introduction price:

Order here

enjoy,

Lieven

a short note to share two upcoming events. And, for the effort, scroll down for free DL codes …

Two events

This Saturday, I’ll be performing live, together with Mich Leemans, at 242hz. Mich is a wonderful person, and 242hz (aka Radio (z)Onderdak) is grand. I’m looking forward to it.

Come Come Come

Then next Wednesday, we’ll receive a prize from the King Baudouin Foundation for our experimental Soundvoice research, developed with beautiful support from Boslabs. The award ceremony will take place at Het Bos and includes talks, performances, an early evening dinner, …

You want to join?

You’re warmly invited to join either, or both.

About Soundvoice

Soundvoice grew out of an ongoing curiosity about the organic symphonies our cities are.

At its core, Soundvoice questions the middle-class, consumerist idea of what a city should sound like. That idea overlooks the stories, relationships, and information carried by every sound and silence.

Soundvoice borrows from the visual method Photovoice, but shifts the focus toward listening. It’s an attempt, among many others, to support a shared way of inhabiting space. Many of us already have experience with “just listening”, whether in concert settings, or simply by noticing everyday sounds like traffic, the neighbours, voices, ocean waves, music, parties, arguments, joy, transportation announcements, ... This method tries to build on that familiarity and bring it into dialogue with broader social contexts.

Soundvoice will be explored as an arts-based approach within social work, urban studies, anthropology, city planning, ... We conducted a pilot study (the one that got the reward) at the University of Antwerp, and from September 2026 onward, Soundvoice will be part of the Stadskracht research group at AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts Antwerp.

The project remains very open: especially to unexpected directions. If you feel like engaging with it in any way, you’re more than welcome to reach out or come by. Yes, please!

Free DL codes

Just pick your fave, some random recent items. First come, you know, … :

Music from the Guardhouse
3qch-kdhz
5gss-ghpg
8k4s-3jb3
tnpc-ckd4

Terraform
rwwa-efl8
fa3h-jxeg
57ap-gpr3
g5f8-3fw4

Learning
chnn-xh2v
sc9k-bcyh
ss2u-xx2v
jl6s-w884

Chamber Music for Lawn Mowers
9jwz-e98z
zbhz-u876
2z9e-bkak
aytf-c9f8

Love,
Lieven

Over the weekend I read a collection on friendship by ECN heroine Maggie Nelson. I also spent time with Nelson’s recent booklet in which the writer compares Taylor Swift to Sylvia Plath. I like some of Swift’s music, yet look at it as society. One that seems to embody both the best and the worst of our contemporary society. When it comes to examining those extremes, Nelson resists the easy move of tearing Swift apart, the kind of gesture many “highbrow” intellectuals (and probably record collectors and underground music afficionados) might be tempted by.

Yet, if you’re curious about the “worst” side of Swift, i know you are, I’d recommend The Sonic Episteme, where Swift is butchered as an apex figure of neoliberal, conservative normcore.

However:

Tomorrow, Thursday April 2 at Het Bos, Adriaan de Roover performs the final edition of his Chansons de Trottoir / Stoepliedjes concerts. I’ve had the pleasure of seeing these performances in Ghent, Brussels, and Rotterdam. This is your last chance to catch it. He’ll be joined by Mark Templeton, which promises something special.

Info + tickets

If you’re looking to pick up Adriaan’s cassette release, this concert is the perfect moment. Otherwise, you’ll have to search online: there are still a few copies circulating through various distros.

Also, read on De Roover’s release on Bandcamp’s best of Field Recordings of the month March, here. It’s in there, together with JC Leasure Group’s album.

Best of the best

Next week I’m flying to New York City to perform on April 9 at Montez Press, in the careful curatorial hands of Jef’s In Vitro. The evening also features music by Hiele (of Hiele Martens, duh), alongside ECN recording artist Florence Cats and Augustė Vickunaitė. I’m very grateful for the invitation and excited to return to the Heart of Darkness.

On April 25, I’ll perform with Mich L (the mind behind AB Salon) at 242hz in Antwerp, also known as Radio Zonderdak. It’s a project I feel closely connected to, especially through Alex’s work at the intersection of art and social practice.

A few days later, on April 29, there’s an award event at Het Bos. I don’t usually care much for awards, but I’m genuinely honoured that last year’s Soundvoice research is being recognized with the Fonds Piet Cleemput prize, particularly meaningful if you’re engaged with welfare research. The event also marks 20 years of the fund.

I’m deeply grateful to the incredible participants from Boslabs, ethnographer Marjan Moris, sociologist Pieter Cools, and Karen Coosemans. Thanks to them, I was able to develop a long-standing idea into something that can contribute meaningfully to social research. I remain indebted forever.

In short: Soundvoice is an ongoing project, an auditory remix of the Photovoice method developed by Caroline C. Wang and Mary Ann Burris. It uses field recordings and soundwalks both to generate social data and to function as a creative bridge or conversational catalyst. It’s also a powerful tool for experience and action research.

The best news: starting September 2026, Soundvoice will be institutionalized and supported with further research funding. I’d love to tell you more about it, but let’s save that for another time.

Circling back to the catalogue: most items are now gone, but a few remain:

• ECN46 Slow Reading Club & Charlie Usher LEARNING (2CD + poster)

• ECN41.2 Miaux, Lieven Martens Het Pels-orgel en de Hemony-beiaard… (CS)

• Final copies of Lieven Martens Three Amazonian Essays (LP, on EM Records, 2019)

• Warehouse stock of Lieven Martens Music from the Guardhouse (LP, Kraak, 2013)

This is your chance to pick these up before they disappear entirely.

Go to the catalogue

Much love,
Lieven

ECN46 Slow Reading Club & Charlie Usher “LEARNING” 2CD + Poster

ECN41.2 Miaux, Lieven Martens “Het Pels-orgel en de Hemony-beiaard van de Sint-Katharinakerk te Hoogstraten. Registratie van de onthulling van een kunstwerk van Joris Martens” CS

Last copies of Lieven Martens “Three Amazonian Essays” LP (on EM Records)

And a warehouse stock of Lieven Martens “Music from the Guardhouse” LP (on Kraak). This is yr change to cop this album, released back in 2013.

Out today:

JC Leisure Group Low Tide, Hi Grypus!
Adriaan de Roover Chansons de Trottoir / Stoepliedjes

Only a small handful of copies of each remain: click below for info and ordering.

Adriaan presents Chansons / Stoepliedjes this week in Brussels and Rotterdam, scroll down and win free tickets!

Order here

We’ll see you Wednesday 18 March at Beursschouwburg for the release concert of Adriaan’s album. The first two people to reply to this newsletter will receive a free ticket.

For Chansons de trottoir / Stoepliedjes, Adriaan de Roover starts with a record player, LPs by STIKSTOF and a recording of his walk from his home to the Beursschouwburg on the day of the concert. With these elements, he composes a live sound collage, as a unique performance of the work of the same name, which will be released on 17 March on Lieven Martens' record label Edições CN. (Beursschouwburg)

Info + tickets

On Friday 20 March, we’re organising an evening at Roodkapje in Rotterdam, together with our friends from Futura Resistenza. Adriaan brings Chansons de Trottoir / Stoepliedjes, next to grande capitano and Edições CN member Francesco Cavaliere, Les Certitudes, and Laura Kampman.

Same here: the first two people to reply to this newsletter get a free ticket. Enjoy :-)

Info + tickets

And there’s more, the JC Leisure Group plans a couple of concerts in Germany and the UK to present Low Tide, Hi Grypus! Here you go:

24/3 Glad Cafe, Glasgow
27/3 Snapes Printworks, Preston
29/3 Haus Show, Liverpool
08/4 Die Verabredung, Köln
09/4 90mil, Berlin

thanks for reading!

all best, Lieven x

Today at 6PM CET, JC Leisure will be live on NTS Radio, playing excerpts from the upcoming album, sharing some of the inspirations behind it, and talking about the process of making the record.

Tune in to the programme

"During weeks living off-grid with a colony of Atlantic Grey seals on Wales's Porthdinllaen Peninsula, an extensive archive of seal vocalizations was recorded. A responsive system was then developed allowing a performer to activate the recordings through gestures of pitch, timbre, rhythm and presence"

Check out the music

Since it was BC Friday yesterday, we’re running a small discount campaign over the weekend. Enter the code “rant” at checkout to receive 25% off everything: valid on all digital and physical items. Act fast, the code expires on sunday …

Take me to the catalogue

And don’t forget these Chansons de trottoir / Stoepliedjes presentation shows by Adriaan de Roover. They’re coming for you!

11/3 Objects & Sounds, Ghent
w/ support by Li Qihang, Lieven Martens

18/3 Beursschouwburg, Brussels
w/ Lieven Martens

20/3 Roodkapje, Rotterdam
w/ Francesco Cavaliere, Laura Kampman, Les Certitudes

2/4 Het Bos, Antwerp
w/ Mark Templeton

Check out Adriaan's music

Thanks for reading,

All best, Lieven x

Adriaan de Roover’s new album will be released on March 17. To mark the occasion, Adriaan presents a series of special live shows, rendering Walking Through the City of Brussels and the Music of STIKSTOF live in the following concert halls (check the links for ticket info) :

11/3 Objects & Sounds, Ghent
w/ support by Li Qihang, Lieven Martens

18/3 Beursschouwburg, Brussels
w/ Lieven Martens

20/3 Roodkapje, Rotterdam
w/ Francesco Cavaliere, Laura Kampman, Les Certitudes

2/4 Het Bos, Antwerp
w/ Mark Templeton

Did you get a chance to listen to the album yet? Today I was listening to Music Promenade by Luc Ferrari, and as the title suggests, well …

Where Ferrari’s piece deals with the violence that surrounds us, suggested through military music and noises of people arguing, de Roover’s Stoepliedjes seems to focus more on the inner life of the walker, presented by the sound of footsteps on the pavement: the mindset of one trying to find their place in a new city. In that sense, both works are about finding one’s place, yet from very different angles.

And while Music Promenade was one of Ferrari’s early explorations of aleatory, Stoepliedjes feels like a highly deliberate and precise composition. Both unfold on the pavements of our dream-states, yet they remain distinctly different.

Another work that crossed my mind, we’re scraping a bit of the obvious, are the Sound Maps works by Annea Lockwood. While Lockwood maps rivers and the roles they play for those living along their banks, de Roover maps the city’s pavement and the music that emerges from it. Replace interviews with shore dwellers with music by a hip-hop crew singing the city.

Samples and pre-order

Also, don’t sleep on this seals and improvisers lovesong by JC Leisure Group. We’ll send you an update about presentation shows for this one in the coming days. There’s already a first review online at The Quietus:

“(…) they decided they wanted it to become more than field recordings, so built a system that would trigger seal sounds “in aleatoric and unrepeatable ways” in response to musical gestures from humans. Low Tide, Hi Grypus! documents a night-long recording session at 90mil in Berlin, where different ensembles of local improvisors interacted and responded to the seal system. The human component sees judicious use of pedal steel guitar slither through harp, organs, flutes, piano and AutoTuned voice. The seals deliver an array of gurgles, whoops, squeaks and cries which nudge the musicians into ever looser and more peculiar shapes. The results oscillate between sounding like a ramshackle sci-fi country jam band and sparkling levitation, while the vocal led ‘Sonata i’ beautifully encapsulates the bizarre space that emerges when humans try to adapt to animal lexicons.” Spool’s Out: Cassette Reviews for March by Daryl Worthington

samples and last copies!

Much love, Lieven

thrilled to announce two exciting projects joining the Edições CN roster this March. Both available for pre-order now and arriving on March 17, 2026.

Catalogue

Before we go into the details: I’d like you to come to Het Bos (Antwerp) tomorrow (wednesday) for an afternoon and evening hosted by Het Bos and Edições CN for the Semaine du Son (week of sound). There’s a special concert by Heleen Van Haeghenborgh, a sound installation / performative work by Lieven Martens, a kid’s sound show, etc. Come come!

Installation and soundwalks (register with a reply or trough the Semaine du Son website) happening the whole afternoon. The performances start at 7.30 pm sharp!

Infos

Low Tide, Hi Grypus!
JC Leisure Group

With Low Tide, Hi Grypus!, JC Leisure Group presents a playful encounter between human improvisers and the vocalisations of Atlantic grey seals.

The project transforms marine field recordings into an interactive performance system in which musicians on pedal steel, flute, piano, organ, and voice respond in real time to seal sounds captured at low tide in Wales.

Rather than treating field recordings as static material, the archive of seal vocalisations functions as an active collaborator, shaping form, pacing, and interaction as the performance unfolds. Now that’s marine biology meets human communication!

Samples and more!

Chansons de Trottoir / Stoepliedjes
Adriaan de Roover

Adriaan de Roover transforms the everyday act of walking through the city into composition. Rather than foregrounding recognizable landmarks, the piece focuses on the pavement underfoot: the steady, repetitive rhythm of footsteps on sidewalk tiles.

Two field recordings made during walks through Brussels are mixed with samples from the music of the Brussels hip-hop group STIKSTOF. In this way, the piece unfolds as an exploration of how a personal voice can be articulated within the music of others.

Originally conceived as a radio play for Resonance FM, this album blurs the boundary between reportage and dreamstate.

Listen here!

Pre-Order Now!

Both albums are available on limited edition cassette (with risograph cover and liner notes) and digital formats. Pre-order now to receive the release in time for March 17!

Take me to the catalogue!

Thanks for reading,

And let me know how you’re doing!

best, Lieven x

I’d like to invite you to following event:

This Wednesday 4 february:
Ediçoes CN and Het Bos host Week Van De Klank in Antwerp.

What’s happening?

• An interactive cityscape listening spot outside Het Bos, featuring sounds from the award-winning Soundvoice project (Piet Cleemput prize for groundbreaking social research, by King Baudouin Foundation).
It plays continuously from 2–10pm: a city symhony that’s constantly changing.

At 7.30pm there’s a performance under the installation by Lieven Martens. Smoke, fire & sound.

Cityscape Soundvoice

• 8pm. Esteemed composer Heleen Van Haegenborgh presents a special concert, based on Symphony for 100 Citizens and a Traffic Light, what she recently created for De Singel in collaboration with Thomas Verstraeten.
This is a duo performance with Saori Miraku.

Heleen Van Haegenborgh

• During the afternoon: Join a Soundvoice soundwalk and experience part of the Soundvoice methodology. Register via an answer on this email or through the Semaine du Son website. Together we rethink a city sound.

Soundvoice Soundwalk

• 3pm: a listening show for children aged 2–6 by Keren Levi & Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman.

Klankkast Kids Concert

Come listen. See/hear you there?

I’ll write you again next week regarding new releases ;-)

much love, Lieven

How’s it going?

It’s December, and our selling platform is doing another one of their Fridays. So yes, we’re jumping on the bandwagon.

🎉 Get 25% off all weekend long on everything: physical releases and digital.
Use the discount code: water

Check: https://edicoescn.bandcamp.com/

Below you’ll find a list of the available physical items. We’re making a bit of space for some very exciting upcoming releases. And even better: many of these future releases will be presented as live events too. So stay tuned.

OK.
Love you all,
Lieven x

Available physical items

I’ve spent the past year and a half studying the social dimension of the city soundscape. Questions like: Who is allowed to make sound? Who is allowed to listen? Is the term “noise” being misused by real estate planners, police, or governments to suppress certain groups? And perhaps most importantly: how can we invite people to listen, and turn that listening into a political tool? …

On the social-professional platform Sociaal.Net, I dive into how the same sound can feel like ‘noise’ to one person and ‘home’ to another. And how our ideas about noise expose deeper layers of class, identity, culture en belonging.

Je kan het hier lezen (in het Nederlands): https://sociaal.net/achtergrond/wie-mag-geluid-maken-in-de-stad-wat-voor-de-een-lawaai-is-klinkt-voor-de-ander-als-thuis/

Uhm, probably should’ve told this earlier, but the article is in Dutch :-)

Enjoy !

PS We are currently developing multiple new releases for Edições CN. Sounds from Tokyo, Brussels, Italia, and the ocean are on its way ;-) Keep an eye on this blog.

Hey reader,

Exactly one year ago, I traveled to eastern Congo as a humanitarian aid worker. I visited the city of Bukavu and surrounding villages, where I conducted interviews, supported Congolese colleagues, and oversaw a documentary about survivors of sexual violence: girls & women deliberately targeted amid an ongoing and brutal conflict.

Out now: a free collection of small collages and recordings from this visit. Read on for more info…

The conflict in eastern Congo is fueled both by neighboring countries and by ‘the West’. Many play their part in this burden, all at the expense of the Congolese people.

The tactic is chaos. To create that chaos, sexual violence is used as a weapon of war: to tear apart communities, destroy families, and break lives.

To justify our indifference in ‘the West’, the same old colonial narrative is being echoed: fill in your favorite neolib, conservative excuse.

This narrative allows business as usual to continue. For instance, Apple signs contracts with Rwandan companies that, in turn, violently extract the contracted mineral resources, stolen from Congolese soil. None of this is hidden. The materials are smuggled across Lake Kivu in boats, protected by armed rebel groups that leave devastation and despair in their wake.

I was standing at a roadside as they passed: motorcycles driven by heavily armed men, leaving only silence and fear in the village. Then trucks, one after another. On their way to earn some cash.

But this conflict is not merely an economic struggle over minerals and money. It runs much deeper, and darker. It is also a battle of narratives.

And me? I was the performative act. That walking cliché of the pathetic white savior stumbling through a nation of metaphors.

A year has passed, yet the memories still blast.

This album gathers fragments, field recordings, small collages made during long nights at Lake Kivu:

Let these sounds and text inspire you to dig not for minerals, but to mine bricks to turn the conversation around. There are many sources out there with vital information about this ongoing injustice.

This album is free. Its sounds are inspired by what I saw, heard, and felt in eastern Congo. It doesn’t feel right to turn those experiences, the incredible people I met & the horrors of the battleground, into a transaction. Instead, I hope the music invites reflection and raises awareness as you listen.

Much love,
Lieven

Make a donation

I was in eastern Congo as a humanitarian aid worker with Mamas for Africa, an organization that provides care and support to survivors of sexual violence. It’s a fully Congolese-run initiative, though we raise funds in Belgium to help sustain operations and wages. If you’d like to read more in my “fundraising voice,” you can visit our website: 👉 mamasforafrica.be

Support Mamas for Africa, donate here: 👉 gift-don.mamasforafrica.be

This Bandcamp Friday, take a piece of the music with you: free to download. Don’t teach us how to do marketing, huh.

⏳ Also: our special discount code celebrating the launch of our new newsletter ends today. Take 15% off everything with entering the code newspot during checkout!

These recordings are woven with rituals. Movements, shouts, shadows, then returning as whispers: volcano, deities, dust.

‘Dust‘ first appeared as a limited edition CD on January 20, 2020. It was recorded between Italy (Ischia, Naples, October 2018) and Ghana (Kumasi, Cape Coast, Lake Bosumtwi, Elmina, Anomabo, February 2019).

Enjoy :-)

Much love, Lieven

We’ve (finally!) left Mailchimp and are excited to welcome you to our new newsletter space. It’s gonna be a bit more bloggy from now on. Oh-ooh? Oh-ooh!

To celebrate the moving to a new spot, we’re sharing free download codes from random Edições CN releases at the bottom of this message. And we’re offering a 15% discount on all available merch items… Scroll on …

Catalogue

Discount code

Don’t miss out! Enter the code “newspot” at checkout and enjoy 15% off your order. Hurry: this code expires Friday!

Shipping to the USA

Since the blockheads decided to pull their tariff stunt, we’ve been a tiny bit flooded with “can I still order?” emails. And yes you can. Parcels seem to move slower, but your orders arrive just fine, no import circus attached.

New music?

No fresh ECN releases just yet, but things are in the works!

We’ve been busy with Soundvoice: an experimental action research tool exploring how urban soundcapes shape our sense of place, invites communities to participate, and challenges authorities to listen.

Soundvoice, a new method

Urban soundscapes are shaped by a white middle-class logic of complaint, erasure, and exclusion. What doesn’t fit is silenced. Cities are remade as fantasy spaces, optimized for capital and “pleasant” living, but emptied of (sound) diversity.

Ignoring the sounds around us means collaborating, knowingly or not, with capital in building these fantasy cities that serve only a dull white middle and upper class.

Therefor we decided to pursue the study of symbols within the city’s sonic landscapes. Because by ignoring and excluding meaning and symbolism in urban soundscapes, one all too effectively marginalizes large parts of the city’s residents.

Soundvoice builds on the Photovoice concept, reflecting community realities through sound instead of images. We wrote a thesis (in Dutch) at the University of Antwerp (Social Work and Welfare Studies) to dive deeper into our approach. If the Dutch puts you off, fair enough, dive into the hefty reading list at the end of the paper. That should eat up a few months of your time.

Read it here

Soundvoice is about conviviality, collective reflection, and reclaiming urban life through listening.

If this resonates with you, we’d love to hear it! The Soundvoice methodology is new, and there’s a few new implementations coming soonish. If you’re open for it, we are too :-)

More soon!

Thanks for your ongoing enthusiasm and nice feedback,

All best, Lieven

PS: Download codes below: first come, first served!

Redeem

Terraform

3ra3-cmla
dmf5-xt5b
pgaf-jbnw
xv4q-vupq
h9p7-g57t

Chamber Music for Lawn Mowers

8jxk-ez8z
tfck-ut76
t5s2-j7qk
v6zt-ucyq
7z2y-jx2z
v2my-k5w6
9v8z-kfdy

Learning

7cyc-cr7m
lhue-wdq6
qqw9-cdgy
9rhz-wc2f
3ejx-vwdg
8kdc-g4cs
23qe-3msd

Takeaway Loops

bqsk-b9fm
wr4u-x9j6
pvcd-jt9y
8bjs-k2kf
tdbc-ghzm
jz6y-3ewg

Minyō b/w All Okinawa

y3tc-jre9
tvze-ydft
t9t9-ble7
ttnz-wjr5
6xrk-6gks
ucmu-kuzl
49xb-69tk

Kagiroi

j9we-ebe9
zxen-cxe7
9xer-3akl
nc6w-c7tj
g3c6-bsft
xhm3-jgdm
hqr5-kbxg