“Forming Folds” is a richly inventive journey at the intersection of the digital and the human. Zeno van den Broek, known for deeply thoughtful audio-visual compositions, here navigates our perception of space-time through sound. Rooted in an algorithmic process, each track unfolds like a glitching tapestry - sometimes humming with electromagnetic resonance, other times unsettling and brittle with field recordings drawn from everyday southern European environments.

Though housed in a modest CD and digital release, the work carries the ambition of an audiovisual installation. A reviewer noted how van den Broek challenges listeners to question their habitual consumption of digital spaces, encouraging us to move beyond comfort zones and reconsider our relationship with mediated environments .

The title track, “Forming Folds”, slowly propels you into a realm where time collapses, and even a gentle digital click can feel tectonic. The second piece, with its evocative title, conjures bramble-like noise - nature’s resistance to artificial containment. By the fourth track, voices emerge through AItrained speech collaged with Perec’s poetic spatial sensibilities, weaving human consciousness into digital space.

What makes this release stand out is van den Broek’s balance between conceptual depth and sensory immediacy. There’s no easy comfort here - just attentive immersion in folded layers of perception. The sound design often feels hypertextured: a cymbal scrape might reveal an echo of bird song, or an AIspoken phrase might flicker unexpectedly, drawing attention to how our minds process sequence and disruption.
In laying out both the digital layer and subtle shifts in our hearing, “Forming Folds” becomes an aural architecture. It’s rigorous without being cold - structured without rigidity. You don’t just listen: you traverse creased planes of sonic matter, each fold exposing traces of memory, code, field noise, and cognition.

Van den Broek’s background in audiovisual art clearly informs the work’s sculptural quality. It’s as much about hearing spaces as it is about hearing sounds. Intended more for immersive listening than casual playlists, this release invites repeated encounters, each unveiling new forms emerging from the folds.

In short: “Forming Folds” is a meditation on our digitally layered perception - an invitation to step off autopilot and attune our ears to the texture of mediated space. Thoughtprovoking, quietly unsettling, and poetic in its inquiry, it marks a subtle yet potent statement from an artist who continues to rewire how we understand the relationship between technology, environment, and self.