AUDITORIUM - EQUINOX

Auditorium's third digital album, Equinox, consists of two listening walks recorded during the autumnal equinox 2025. During the equinox, day and night are of equal length, and the two walks were taken at the beginning of the day half (9:15-10:20) and the night half (20:15-21:20), respectively.

Jbrandtp's notes:
For more than 10 years, I have been taking long walks in my local area every day. During this period, I have become very fascinated by how we use our sense of hearing to orient ourselves spatially. In fact, I experience that the sense of hearing is activated as soon as I start moving. The sense of hearing registers whether a sound is close or far away, and whether it comes from above or below. It can even register sounds that are behind me. It is clear that the brain filters out sounds that are not relevant, while loud sounds and sounds that are close are passed on to consciousness.

On my walks, I started to train myself to focus on the low sounds that the "autopilot" normally filters out, and found that it is possible, but it is quite tiring over longer periods. I also found that even very low sounds sound incredibly good. When you really concentrate on listening to the world around you, a whole world of sound opens up that changes as you move through it.

There are two times in a year when day and night are exactly the same length – the spring equinox and the autumn equinox. I decided to make audio recordings of one of the routes I often walk twice during the autumn equinox 2025 (or the day after). One walk during the day (starting at 9:15) and one in the evening (starting at 20:15). By walking, I wanted to investigate how the sound environment changes over the course of the day, depending on whether it is day or night. On the map below, I have drawn the route. I chose this one because it is about an hour long and goes through both park areas, busy areas and residential areas.

0: Start/end
1: The busy intersection over Rebildvej
2. Grøndalsparken - a narrow park along the S-train line.
3. Crossing Godthåbsvej
4. To Rønnebærvej
5. The busy intersection Sallingvej, Godhåbsvej, Hulgårdsvej and Hillerødgade.
6. To Godthåbsvej up to Bjerglandsbyen, which is next to the Bellahøj houses.
7. Behind the Bellahøj houses is Degnemosen, a swampy park area around a lake.
8. The busy Frederikssundsvej
9. Brønshøj Torv
10. Passing Brønshøj Vandtårn
11. To Fuglsang Allé and Borrebyvej
12. The busy intersection of Jyllingevej, Slotherrensvej, Bellahøjvej and Sallingvej
13 To Skibelundvej and Bangsbovej back to the start.


When recording as a pedestrian with binaural microphones, it is important to avoid turning your head as much as possible. When the listener with headphones hears the recording, it will seem as if the world is suddenly spinning, unless he also makes exactly the same head movement. On this route, there were two places where I had to cross the road: one was just after Grøndalsparken, where I cross Godtåbsvej (3), and the other was after Brønshøj Torv, where I cross Brønshøjvej. At these places I had to check that the road was clear. Otherwise, the recordings work really well.

When you listen to the recordings with headphones, it is a very different experience. As I described before, it is as if the sense of hearing is activated when you walk. This does not happen when you listen to the recordings. They have no connection with the visual impressions that the listener otherwise receives. Still, I think that much of the spacious feeling is preserved, and you can actually sense when a sound is coming from behind!

You can clearly hear footsteps, you can hear some sounds from my jacket, and during quiet passages also some breathing. These sounds are perceived as more ongoing in the recordings than when you are walking in reality. This is especially clear in the evening recording, where the sound environment is quieter. No editing or post-processing of the recordings has been done. Have a good trip!