Sjoerd Leijten (he/him) is a transdisciplinary maker and composer working with sound, language, and imagery. He is interested in engaged, attentive ways of being in the world – political, ecological, embodied and – last but not least – relational. He works around concepts such as electromagnetic sensibility, joyful militancy, slow violence and aural architecture. His practice merges the discursive with the immersive, aiming to resonate in both head and gut. Listening closely to the environments and ecologies that we are a part of, he collects ideas, field recordings, electromagnetic signals and images. His work consists of performances, installations, radio works, compositions, releases, films and DIY instruments. His music for cinema and videogames has won several awards. He has shown his work internationally at Østfold Internasjonale Teater (NO), Stedelijk Museum (NL), Budapest Spring Festival (HU), V2_ Institute for the Unstable Media (NL), Kernel Festival (IT), Oerol (NL), Cinema Verde Environment Film Festival (USA) and the Old Church Amsterdam (NL).

Currently he is working on the cinematic installation Catastrophic Structures: listening to the hum of distant machinery with Stijn Verhoeff, the site-specific sound project Watchtower with Johannes Bellinkx, and developing the electromagnetic performance Embodied Transceiving. Together with architecture researcher Roel Griffioen he recently published Parceled Desire (Verkaveld Verlangen), a four-part sonic essay.

His practice is supported by Creative Funds NL, Mondriaan Fund, Dutch Film Fund and Flanders Audiovisual Fund.

Sjoerd currently offers services ranging from bespoke music composition, sound design, field recording and interactive music technology design. Send an e-mail to info [at] sjoerdleijten.nl for more information.