A project initiated by Justin Bennett including audio pieces by local and international artists in and around the New Babylon office and apartment complex in Den Haag
01/10/2021 – ongoing
In the 1960’s, to accompany lectures and the installations of his New Babylon project, Dutch artist and Situationist Constant Nieuwenhuys created audio collages of music, voices, field recordings and sound effects – portraits in sound of a city of the future.
Inspired by this, Radio New Babylon, initiated by Justin Bennett, is a collection of audio pieces by local and international artists made specifically to be listened to in and around the “New Babylon” office and apartment complex in Den Haag. The artists and musicians were encouraged to think about the connections and discrepancies between the contemporary building and Constant Nieuwenhuys’ visionary city of play. The pieces include ambient soundtracks, spoken-word podcasts, electronic experiments, field recordings from deep caves, reggae songs, insect songs, compositions for piano, organ, strings and percussion, instructions to the listener etc, etc.
This is an ongoing project. So far, artists include Topp & Dubio, Fani Konstantinidou, David Helbich, Roel Meelkop, Johan Nystrom, Jad Saliba, Anthony Blokdijk, Flavien Gillié, Barbara Ellison, BMB con., Francisco Lopez, Hendrik Hohlfeld, Yota Morimoto, Scanner, Bjarni Gunnarsson, Marie Guilleray, Felix Kubin, Ji Youn Kang, Double-W and Section 28. The collection also includes two excerpts from Constant’s own 1960’s soundtracks for New Babylon.
Thanks to: Interdisciplinary Research Group (KC, KABK, ACPA), Jubilee, Fondation Constant, Institute of Sonology. Website by Martin Hurych and Kuba Chládek.
Listeners (who will need to use an Android or iPhone) should download the echoes.xyz app first. Via the Radio Babylon website you can open and download the pieces in the app. They can be only heard at the physical site itself.