Lasse-Marc Riek

Location Sound Recordings from more than 200 churches in Europe (2003–2016)

Like Adam before the closed sky...

From autumn 2003 to spring 2016, Lasse-Marc Riek visited mosques and churches across Europe. Spontaneously, between 10:30 am and 6:30 pm, he would enter one of these "sacred spaces." Each church visit was incorporated into a city tour. If the doors were locked, Riek would make a sound recording outside the main entrance, not wanting to appear like a museum visitor after closing hours.

This project may interest phenomenologists of sacred spaces. The longing for accessibility, silence, and contemplation that some associate with church environments often gives way to the urban reality of noise and distraction. In St. Leonard’s Church, located in central Frankfurt (Germany), the distinction between inside and outside is almost imperceptible. In a recording from St. Marien Church in Lübeck (Germany), during a church tour, the sounds of drilling machines seem to tear apart the church walls. "In these touristy churches, it’s hard to find peace of mind," Riek notes. However, familiar church sounds do sometimes filter through in his recordings.

Yet, as Bill Fontana once observed, “most people in our Western world attach little importance to environmental noise in their daily lives,” and city dwellers have largely become accustomed to traffic noise. Few distinct acoustic cues—such as coughs or echoes—seem to evoke the corresponding holiness within the church nave.

(Costa Gröhn)