True than Nature encourages active listening. There is sound that exists seemingly for its own sake – a continuing drone that slowly evolves, sound of nature – and there are sounds that refer to a momentary action, and sudden intrusions of sound. BJ Nilsen triggers shifts in the perception for the listener that alter how you perceive and experience the world through sound, and how you think about sound.

Listening to True than Nature is full of moments of instability. The shifts between sound spaces refocus your listening, or throw you out of a world you were imagining. You recognize sounds, wind, rain, metal bending, a hammer on stone, the background noise of a city, but often there is an unfamiliarity about these sounds. You think you recognize them, but often you are not sure, because you are not there, and different worlds clash or coexist at the same time.

True than Nature makes you wonder about how sounds exist, how they are brought forward, how they are made by objects, how they are perceived and how they are changed by the attention given to it. And all the time, you might ask yourself: What is that world that I am listening to? How does it exist?

Amsterdam-based, Swedish sound artist and composer BJ Nilsen explores the intersections of field recording, sound, space, and perception. Through subtle electronic manipulations and detailed editing, Nilsen transforms environmental recordings into layered, immersive soundscapes that inhabit the space between reality and imagination.

Organized by A4 as part of the New Perspectives for Action project within the international collaboration Re-Imagine Europe, co-funded by the European Union and supported using public funding by the Slovak Arts Council and Bratislava City Foundation, and Stimuleringsfonds Creative Industries Fund of the Netherlands.