WIJNAND BREDEWOLD
Echoes of the river Reest 2025
New project under construction
An immersive 8-channel sound installation that explores the historical, natural and cultural significance of the Reest River. Through a mix of field recordings and musical additions, this project invites listeners to immerse themselves in the beauty of the river, the flowing water and the surrounding landscape.
Wakker2024 Bonifatius kerk, Oldeberkoop NL
Are you awake? Or are you sleeping and dreaming that you are awake. The philosopher Plato did not know and thought that our world was only the shadow of the real world. Descartes didn't know, only knew for sure that he could think. And since we have computers, there are people who are certain that our visible world is a 3D computer simulation.

Wakker is a 8 ch surround sound work by Wijnand Bredewold and Peter Veen. Who knows the answers to these questions. Or does it just add to the confusion? Kunstroute Open Stal did take place for the 53rd time from July 27 to August 25, 2024. The theme was 'Dreamland'.

'Wakker' could be seen this summer together with 50 artists, who present their work at about 20 locations, such as in the stables of a farm, the church, in galleries, garages, gardens, in the forest and in the former CAV feed factory. Stereo mix-down:

Sequencing Places2023 Langhuis, Zwolle NL

This project is part of a visualisation (randomly looping video) of own recordings and found audio footage from all over the world.

Our sonic environment is the ever-present array of noises with which we all live in. Beginning with the primordial sounds of nature, we have experienced an ever-increasing complexity of our sonic surroundings. As civilization develops, new noises rise up around us: from the creaking wheel, the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer, and the distant chugging of steam trains to the “sound imperialism” of airports, city streets, and factories. [source: The Soundscape by R. Murray Schafer]

Soundmap
No War2023
No War is an audiovisual impression of the tension between complete freedom and situations without freedom disturbed by war. The recording was made from a bunker placed by the Germans during WWII. At this location in the Netherlands, in Europe, there is now complete freedom, war seems far away, we never want war again, but look what is happening in Ukraine now. The sound has 2 tracks, 1 track was originally recorded on location but stretched 10x in order to emphasize the freedom that should be long lasting.

Netherlands,
Terschelling, 53°25'24.5"N 5°23'37.0"E
Noise2Noise2022
Thousands of protesters in the city of Bogota, Colombia, on 21 Nov. 2019. Daniel Garzon Herazo—Nur Photo/Getty Images
Bogota is getting ‘Greener’ Photo: Secretaría de Ambiente
Original fieldrecording
Colombian protest reimagined by me
Total of all participants
Processed auidio, 8 min

Once there was nothing, maybe just white noise, a random signal of equal intensity at different frequencies. Due to the origin of the earth, nature, animals and people, variations in this white noise arose, there was no overcrowding or disturbance, it was in harmony with each other.
Due to the increase in the world population and the urban development of the major world cities in particular, the harmony of these cities can be disrupted. These cities are crossed by flows of people, traffic and goods. Parts of these cities are constantly being expanded, demolished and rebuilt, in a way that aspects for a healthy city are not always taken for granted. You can see the city as an autonomous machine or an organism that generates a soundscape on its own, often resulting in disharmony.
Many cities are currently undergoing a transition, the city is being made more liveable, there is more room for pedestrians, cyclists and nature. The soundscape of the city regenerates into better harmony.

Noise2Noise uses a soundscape of a protest in Bogota by Colombians (2019) against economic inequality, corruption, violence, pollution and climate change. Good to mention in this, is that Bogota is also doing a lot to create more nature in the city lately.
The audio file consists of 11 parts, it starts with part of the original recording, raw and unedited, this part is replayed and re-recorded, this process is repeated 10 times. In addition, each part is lowered by 2 semitones compared to the previous part. The 11 parts are faded crosswise and mixed into 1 file. In this way, the sound is slowly but surely transformed into white noise, which is an imaginary starting point for a renewed city that again generates a harmonious soundscape.  

Part of C40 Top:  http://c40summit.org/

Project page:  https://citiesandmemory.com/wellbeing-cities/
Podcast with the 31 participants, my contribution starts from :
47.54-49.40: Bogotá, Colombia – manifestants’ protest denouncing corruption, 2019
Crossfading Places2021
Holtenbroek Beethovenlaan 1978
    
Holtenbroek Beethovenlaan 2018
Video

, drone audio, 10 min
Video: Wijnand Bredewold
Music: Jesús Lastra Time is time rocessed auidio, 8 min

The buildings from my personal past have disappeared …
They have given way to new buildings …
They are crossfaded …

In the environment I grew up in, buildings have disappeared over time, they have lost their functions and have been replaced by new buildings with sometimes new functions. For me personally, even the entire neighborhood in which I grew up, Holtenbroek 1 in Zwolle, has completely disappeared. From the important places of my childhood, such as the house where I was born, the schools I attended, the swimming pool, etc., I have found old photos. I photographed the places again. In this video, the original buildings are slowly replaced (crossfaded) by these new buildings. The applied music is a dronescape, which gives the time change an extra dimension.


Expo: The City Imagines 2021 Title: Crossfading Places
Photographer: Wijnand Bredewold, Zwolle

Expert jury:
A cinematic image of photo images, old and new, that blend together in a surprising way. There is accurate worked with old historical images as a basis for current ones photo images from the Holtenbroek district. The series is an excellent example of digitized visual heritage used in creative method is used to investigate a current theme and namely ‘The neighborhood in transition’. With that, the series has a dramatic undertone: ‘old’ buildings and housing blocks, giving way to modern ones; sometimes recognizable and aesthetically enriching, sometimes incomprehensible by the architectural silliness. A series that makes the change of the Holtenbroek residential area excellently and that is permeated with a slight but lasting melancholy. A series that will also appeal to the young viewer. Please note: the series is not Kleenex-proof.
Link to press release.
Past Objects - empty memories2022


    
Soundscape, video 5 min,
layered audio 10 min

The Netherlands, Bellingwolde
53°08'10.9"N 7°10'01.9"E

Only audio, 10 min version


This work is a sonic virtual 'recording' of old times, recorded in May 2022 in an old farmhouse in the northeast of the Netherlands. Only the silence seems to contain something from the past.
Perhaps the farm has a memory and reflects the events of activities in ancient times if you listen to it long enough.....

The sound of this farm is generated by a sound doubling method: first a 5-minute recording is made, then replayed and re-recorded. This process has been repeated up to 4 times. As more layers are created, a kind of drone is slowly built up with a wide spectrum of tones. This drone seems to be built from the memories of the past.
During the recording, no sound was projected to begin with: the farm seems to be waiting for what might come out of the silence.
Silence2021
24h Soundscape

National Park Dwingelderveld 52°49'07.1"N 6°24'08.3"E
The quietest area
The Dwingelderveld is known as “The quietest area” in the Netherlands. The vast silent heather of the Dwingelderveld is one of the last areas with undisturbed horizon, where darkness at night is still real darkness and where are no sounds of nature drowned out by highways, railwaysor other sound sources.
The recordings were recorded on May 18and 19 2021. For example, you can hear how it sounds at 4:00 pm or 4:00 am. How quiet it is at times what do you hear? Birds, wind what rustles through the trees, traffic, planes? Listen and find out for yourself!
Silence is a Soundscape-Soundart-Ecology project exploring the acoustic relationships between living organisms, humans and others, and their environment, in a area which is regarded as the quietest area in the Netherlands.
©2024. .