Sonic Acts Biennial 2026: heart rests twice concert 2

What happens when a sound system is treated not as a fixed machine, but as something alive, flexible, and open to change? Heart Rests Twice is a concert series taking place across five Thursday nights at murmur as part of Sonic Acts Biennial 2026, Melted for Love. For this edition, murmur’s surround sound system is expanded with eight additional Distributed Mode Loudspeakers (DML). These 3D-printed speakers, designed by acoustical engineer Danny van der Lugt, create multiple layers of sounding space. ORGANIZACIÓN SECRETARIAT – experimental musicians Elizabeth Davis (also known as Wilted Woman) and Hugo Esquinca – work with feedback, gesture, and unstable sound processes. Their performance CULMINATION is a one-time event, developed over several years. Although carefully planned on paper, no electrical connections are made in advance, allowing the sound system to shape the piece in real time. Sadnoise, the performance project of Femi Shonuga-Fleming, approaches sound as a form of ritual and exchange with the environment. Blending electronics, unconventional instruments, and organic materials, his work creates shifting sound worlds that feel both digital and earthly, moving between imagined and physical spaces. JacqNoise has developed a new performance specifically for the custom speaker setup. Working with modular synthesisers, she builds dense textures where rhythms overlap, tones stretch, and melodies bend, responding directly to the behaviour of the system and the room. Across Heart Rests Twice, artists explore ideas of home, place, and belonging through attentive, shared listening. In murmur’s surround sound space in Amsterdam Noord, each concert is followed by a Q&A, opening space for reflection and conversation. The Sonic Acts Biennial 2026 takes place from 5 February to 29 March 2026 in Amsterdam, with 80 events across 20 venues, featuring work by 200+ artists. This large-scale arts manifestation includes concerts, listening sessions, a symposium, film screenings, exhibitions, masterclasses, workshops, and site-specific projects.