This year, as part of the experimental music festival "Skaņu Mežs", Christina Kubisch's "Electrical Walks" will return to Riga after 20 years. The festival will take place on October 9 and 10, and in addition to the main concert evenings, a collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Riga will present the "Electrical Walks" by the German first‑generation sound artist – these walks are an idiosyncratic form of interdisciplinary art that invites the public to explore the city while listening to the sounds revealed through special headphones. Kubisch's “Electrical Walks” turn the electromagnetic fields of urban space into an audible experience, transforming an ordinary walk into a sonic discovery.
How to experience "Electrical Walks" in Riga?
The walks will be available free of charge on working days, 12:00-18:00, from September 28 to October 9, as well as on Saturday, October 10, during the second day of the festival, 10:00-15:00. The starting point for the walks and the place where headphones are issued is the Goethe-Institut Riga (Marijas Street 13 k-1). A valid ID is required. The walk is not suitable for children under 12 years of age.
For both weeks, from Wednesday to Friday, 15:00-18:00, "The Mixer Project" – developed by Christina Kubisch and Tom Thiel – will be available as a mixing station at the Goethe-Institut Riga, inviting every visitor to become a composer. Using an intuitive four-channel controller, anyone – even beginners – can mix the acoustic and electromagnetic sounds recorded during the Riga walks and create their own personalised "urban music" compositions.
Discourse activities
The “Electrical Walks” program in Riga will be complemented with two public events.
On September 29 at 16:00, there will be a guided city exploration with headphones together with Christina Kubisch. The walk will conclude with a conversation that will allow participants not only to discuss their experience but also to understand Kubisch's aesthetic and technical aims. The number of participants is limited (10), so prior registration is required: https://ej.uz/electricalwalk. The language of the event is English.
On September 30 at 18:30, the Goethe-Institut will host a meeting with the artist - a talk in which she will introduce the audience to her creative practice and the experience she has gained working in the field of electronic and experimental music in its early stages. She will share the beginnings of her career and the challenges she faced, as well as her observations on how the role and visibility of women in electronic music have changed over the course of her career. The language of the talk is German with translation into Latvian.
About Christina Kubisch and "Electrical Walks"
Christina Kubisch, born in 1948 in Bremen, belongs to the first generation of sound artists. Since the early eighties, after having finished her studies in flute, composition and electronic music in Hamburg, Graz, Zürich and Milan, she has researched and developed multiple techniques for her audiovisual works such as electromagnetic induction, solar energy and special light systems.
In 2003, Kubisch started the series of her "Electrical Walks": sound walks in public spaces, through which the public can listen to the normally inaudible electromagnetic fields with custom‑made headphones.
She has been a professor of audiovisual arts in Berlin, Paris, Saarbrücken and Oxford. Her sound installations, compositions and audiovisual works have been presented worldwide. Among the numerous international awards she received are the GIGA Hertz Award for her lifetime achievement, awarded by the ZKM in 2021, and the Deutsche Musikautorenpreis for Electronic Music by the GEMA in 2025. Christina Kubisch lives and works in Berlin.
Kubisch has also collaborated with New Zealand composer Annea Lockwood and the strictly minimalist electronic music project Eleh. Her work can be experienced not only in exhibitions and contemporary art events but also through recordings – the "Electrical Walks" series, for example, is documented on the Important Records release "Five Electrical Walks". Her most recent album – and one of her most musical publications – is 2026's "Tuning".
Additional information about "Electrical Walks"
Since 2004, the project has been presented in more than 80 cities worldwide, with each location having its own map marking routes and notable electromagnetic sources. Kubisch first visited Riga in 2006, when she created one of her early walks at the invitation of Skaņu Mežs. Now, after twenty years, she returns to discover how much the city's electromagnetic soundscape has changed.
The coils built into the headphones pick up surrounding electromagnetic waves, revealing a wide palette of sounds – rhythmic sequences, high and low frequencies, drones and signals that change from place to place and are often surprisingly musical.
Christina Kubisch has worked with electromagnetic induction systems since the late 1970s, developing them into an individual artistic instrument. In 2003, she began this series of works in public space, exploring the city's electromagnetic landscape in the form of walks. Electromagnetic fields, generated by lighting systems, wireless communication, security devices, transport infrastructure and digital technologies, are usually invisible, but “Electrical Walks” make them audible and reveal their presence in everyday environments.
About recording engineer and musician Tom Thiel
Tom Thiel (born 1956) began his career as a recording engineer in Bavaria, working for mostly British bands and producers. He assists Christina Kubisch in the creation of Riga's "Electrical Walks". Together with Kubisch, Thiel developed "The Mixer Project" – a participatory sound workshop that will also be available in Riga (see above).
Moving to Berlin in 1987, Thiel became a member of Fisherman's Friend, and in 1991, together with Max Loderbauer, he founded the electronic project Sun Electric. They released several studio and live albums and became pioneers of live electronics throughout the nineties. In 2001, together with Daniel Meteo, he created the dub music project BUS, which was joined by MC Soom‑T from Glasgow. He has also released two solo albums – "Tom Thiel" (2011) and "Album Album" (2023) – while in 2026 Sun Electric returned with "Episodes", an album based on recordings of the historic Subharchord synthesizer. Since 2021, Thiel has collaborated with Christina Kubisch on various projects, and in 2023 they launched the long‑term initiative "The Mixer Project", which so far has been realised in various countries from South Africa to Korea.
You can find out more about other Skaņu Mežs 2026 activities, including a mini-showcase co-curated with Goethe-Institut Riga that features Gudrun Gut and KMRU, at www.skanumezs.lv.
