Helilaager 2026
During the last weekend (2–3 May), students from EKA New Media Sound Art course and Animation Sound Design course participated in an annual Sound Camp, a field expedition at a remote forest lodge in central Estonia.
This year’s program, hosted by John Grzinich, a sound artist and guest lecturer at EKA, took place at an off-the-grid, RMK-owned Vanapagana forest lodge. A group of 12 students had an opportunity to advance their knowledge of field recording techniques while participating in critical listening in a natural environment setting.
The central part of the fieldwork was to learn about, and be a part of, the 13th edition of the Reveil broadcast on Dawn Chorus Day, a 24-hour, round-the-world sound transmission following the first light of the day. The first song of Estonian birds came around 3:30 on Sunday morning, as the group got up from their tents in the dark and cold of the early morning to find the best spots to record a personal take on the dawn chorus phenomenon, while a live streaming box was transmitting one area of the forest to England to be mixed into this collective effort to circle the world in sound.
The expedition was supported on site by Sten Saarits (Head of New Media), Bruno Quast (guest lecturer in Animation Sound Design), Hans-Gunter Lock (Head of New Media Studios), and artist Taavi Suisalu, who collectively guided and assisted the programme.
Learn more about the project here: http://soundtent.org
