For ‘City of Fables’ six people were scouted in the city of Bruges, each of them with a remarkable story about an encounter with an animal. These interviews were the starting point for six pieces in which the animals get a voice of their own throughout each episode. In Celtic and other animistic traditions, an encounter with an animal is never without meaning. Ruben Nachtergaele and Eva De Groote used this as a ‘red thread’ throughout the episodes. Subsequently connecting to the wisdom and playfulness brought by a running deer, a dead fox, a love bird, a bee and a bunch of frogs. The animals get the final say. This is the second episode of the podcast: ‘Heralds of Rain’.

‘Heralds of Rain’ won the FearLess Audio prize at HearSay International Sound Arts Festival 2021 in Ireland and was nominated at finalist at Third Coast International Audio Festival 2021.

City of Fables was realised with the support of Concertgebouw Brugge and KAAP

Eva De Groote: interview, script, text, voice

Ruben Nachtergaele: editing, bruitage, fieldrecording, music

Special thanks to Herman, Jacqueline and Sara Prové for their frog story

After training as an architect Ruben Nachtergaele took on several shapes as a sound artist and musician. As a composer and performer of electro-acoustical music, Ruben has collaborated with several live arts companies such as C.R.E.W. , Stevie Wishart, Ultima Thule and Tuning People. A recent solo performance is the audio ritual ‘Dust to Dust’.

Eva De Groote is a writer and audiomaker. Together with Ruben Nachtergaele she forms Audiobrewery Selkie, creating sound works in the form of podcasts and audio-experiences. In ‘Eardoor’ people living in the same street were portrayed, it turned out they had more in common than presumed. In ‘City of Fables’ remarkable encounters between people and animals are revealed.