Jen Reimer & Max Stein (Montréal)

Jen Reimer (CAN) & Max Stein (USA) are sound artists based in Montréal. Their work explores the resonances of urban and rural sonic environments through in-situ performances, installations and spatial recordings.

Since 2008 they have created performances and installations in abandoned, transient and resonant spaces in Montréal and abroad including St-Urbain Underpass (Montréal), Union Station (Winnipeg), Mãe D’ Água (Lisboa, PT), Estufa Fria (Lisboa, PT) and Rotonda Besana (Milan IT). Their performances combine live and processed horn and field recordings with the inherent sonic environment to create an immersive and physical experience of sound and space.

They have collaborated with various festivals and organizations including Suoni per Il Popolo (Montréal), Send + Receive (Winnipeg), Sound Development City (Lisbon, PT & Marseille, FR), Invisible Places (São Miguel, PT), Lisboa Soa (Lisboa, PT), Äänen Lumo (Helsinki, FI) and P A T H Festival (Verona, IT).

In 2016, they launched their first instalment of Sounding the City, an online exhibition of site-specific installations and acoustic interventions in Montréal.

There is a musicality to the sounds of a city: the lingering resonance of a church bell, the subterranean rumble of an approaching train, the cacophony of cyclists, cars, trucks and trains in transit, and the gentle, pulsating drone that emanates from streetlights, power lines and ventilation ducts. These sounds create a meditative counterpoint to the intermittent rhythms of the urban soundscape.

Sounding the City is an online exhibition dedicated to capturing urban environments and re-imagining their soundscapes through site-specific installations and acoustic interventions. These installations emerge from their surroundings and occur in the environments themselves. They invite our ears to focus on the music of the places we find ourselves in, and draw our gaze towards characteristics of urban environments that might otherwise go unnoticed. These interventions aim to transcend our everyday experience of space by blurring the perceptual lines between what is natural and what has been inserted into the environment.

Photos : Jen Reimer & Max Stein