*300 copies limited edition* A few years ago, we released the acclaimed Serrisme CD together with our friends in Hoeilaart. That record brought together sounds, photography and texts by Jan Matthé, Christina Vantzou, Christophe Piette, and Lieven Martens; singing Hoeilaart’s historic glasshouse table grape cultivation, a tradition initiated in 1865. Today, we are excited to present our second collaboration, this time centered around a local nature reserve.

This new edition is initiated by composer and musician Roxane Métayer. Over the course of a year, Roxane travelled monthly from Brussels to the nature reserve of Doode Bemde, a mosaic landscape of small fields, poplar groves, marsh forests, meadows, reed beds, ponds, and narrow waterways. Using a camera and field recording setup, each trip to the reserve expanded an archive of sounds and images that gradually evolved into both a video work and a musical composition. An entire year folds into a cycle in which the landscape gradually freezes, and slowly returns to life.

The music feels calm on the surface, yet remains constantly animated by subtle activity, like frogs moving beneath the water or insects hidden in the grass. The album’s main character is the reserve itself: grasshoppers, bumblebees, chiffchaffs, blackbirds, and passing trains mechanically cutting through the tableau. At the centre of the work is Roxane’s intricate violin playing. In the second part, Katya Shrishkova gradually enters the sonic landscape, responding to Roxane’s field recordings with voice recordings and fragments from lectures and notebooks. These duets were further developed during residencies at Pilar in Brussels and later in the chapel of Doode Bemde. 

The CD comes with a 32-page booklet featuring a poem by Sara Eelen. Sara is a poet, activist, and member of the Klimaatdichters, a collective of Belgian and Dutch poets advocating for climate justice. The poem is accompanied by a text by Roxane, alongside photographs and additional material.