Ecotonalities: No Other Home Than the In-Between

"I like to think of my microphones as musical instruments that are 'played' by the beings, elements, and objects in an environment." — Ludwig Berger

Created as the centre piece for Luxembourg's contribution to the 2025 Architecture Biennial, Ludwig Berger's field recording composition 'Ecotonalities: No Other Home Than the In-Between' weaves together recordings from distinctive locations across the territory. The piece critically examines the dynamics of the territory and investigates how ongoing developments are shaping the country's landscape. The concept of Ecotone — a transitional space between two ecosystems — guides the process, attuning listeners closely to frictions and co-existences within the environment.

Equipped with an 'orchestra of microphones', Berger explored 15 different sites; among them an artificial lake, a floating solar plant, a hydroelectric dam, a wind farm, a satellite park, a natural reserve and data centres. The locations were captured in a meticulous process. Berger explains: "I spend long periods in one place exploring different spatial and temporal perspectives. For me, field recording is a slow dialogue: the place offers its voices, I respond by adjusting my microphones, and the site answers with new sounds."

Berger divided his orchestra into a 'vibrational section', microphones that are 'played' by the materials themselves, uncovering the hidden resonances of structures, surfaces, and even the vibrational communication of animals (biotremology); a 'airborne section' that is 'played' by sounds travelling through the air, and an 'electromagnetic section', that is 'played' by the invisible electromagnetic fields generated by infrastructure, as well as by natural electromagnetic phenomena.

In the composition, Berger reconstructed these experiences in a process of place-remaking. He mixed the recordings — much like a conductor shaping an orchestra — to create a balanced sonic image and to offer a multidimensional experience of the environment. A key aspect was highlighting the connections between anthropogenic sounds (human-made, directly or indirectly) and biophonic sounds (produced by animals and plants). As a counter-project to the hegemony of images, the act of listening opens up new possibilities for exploring both built and natural environments and to move our attention towards giving voices to more-than-human agencies.

Ludwig Berger is a landscape sound artist, educator and musician. In his compositions, installations and performances, he enables intimate and playful sonic encounters with plants, animals, buildings and geological entities. He holds degrees in electroacoustic composition, as well as musicology, art history and literature. As a sound researcher and teacher at the Institute for Landscape Architecture at ETH Zurich from 2015-2022, he studied the sonic dimension of Japanese gardens, alpine glaciers and urban landscapes, which among other things led to the release of the acclaimed album trilogy ,Bodies of Water'.