The Peat is Alive

Sound Performance
Year: 2026

The Peat is Alive is a site-responsive sound performance to the pioneering paludiculture Voedselmoeras in Oud Ade (NL). The performance centers around the sounds of harvesting cattail, bogmyrtle, blackcurrant wood and sweet flag and the living world that accompanies the collective harvesting moment. Through blending field recordings, cello, conversation and vocal improvisation we invite the listener to experience what the peatland evokes in us.
Interactions with the peatland become audible through hearing gestures, practical word snippets, the sound of tools, and conversations around the love for the peaty plants. The work resonates the lived and everyday experience in a bog and wants you to know that peatland is a landscape we can easily access and feel safe in; a place where food grows. Attention shifts away from the common perception of peatland as merely a mythological, mysterious and eerie site of bog bodies.


All field recordings are recorded at Oud Ade paludiculture. Sound artist Kristina Mau Hansen and cellist Antonin Chudoba followed chef Hamish Day (Burana chef) and catering collective Estelle & Boaz (Radical Radishes) harvesting plants for the menu at the Y.P.O.P. symposium at Biosintrum in Oosterwolde. After the field trip the duo combined walks, listening and brainstorming sessions and composed a graphic score for the performance. The cello play was inspired by the bodily encounter with the paludiculture and evolved in dialogue with the field recordings.  

Credits
Thank you RE.PEAT collective for inviting us and commissioning this contribution to your Y.P.O.P symposium and organising the field trip.

Kristina Mau Hansen - field recordings, voice, composition and concept
Antonin Chudoba - cello, voice, composition

Hamish Day (Burana Chef) - harvesting & voice
Estelle & Boaz (Radical Radishes) - harvesting & voice

Photo by Radical Radishes

Photos by Savannah Van den Roovaart