About
Sonic Artefacts is the small workshop where my artistic practice turns into tools other people can use.
I am Wouter Jaspers and I am a sound artist. For more than twenty years I have worked with field recordings, radio waves and instruments I build myself, in installations, performances and workshops, all over the world.
What I listen for
Most of what I make starts from a simple wish: to hear something that is usually out of reach and use it to tell stories about what it’s like to be alive. The electromagnetic hum of a city, the radio noise of a distant thunderstorm, the small sounds of a forest at night.
When a tool works well in my own work, I sometimes make more of them. The Cortiça microphone began as a very sensitive instrument to capture beehives back in 2022. The Electromagnetic Sound Probe came out of the need to pinpoint the internal jitters of digital devices we all carry for an installation that maps our electromagnetic movements in 2023. Everything in this shop has been used in my own work first.
Before Sonic Artefacts
I’ve been making experimental music and sound art for over twenty years. In 2010 I co-founded electronic musical instrument manufacturer KOMA Elektronik in Berlin and later led it as managing director. With the team there I designed instruments such as the Field Kit and the Field Kit FX, which grew directly out of my electroacoustic music practice. In 2016 we opened Common Ground, a space for DIY instruments and workshops, where we could share what we’d learned along the way.
At the end of 2020 I left KOMA to return to my own artistic work, but I still wanted to have a ‘private label’ where my instruments could be found and used by others. Sonic Artefacts is deliberately different: one person, small batches, no plan to grow beyond that.
- 2010KOMA Elektronik co-founded in Berlin by Wouter Jaspers and Christian Zollner
- 2016Common Ground opens, a space for DIY instruments that hosted many workshops, concerts and meetups for Berlin’s electronic scene
- 2020Leaving KOMA to return to my own artistic practice, resulting in performances and installations worldwide, exciting collaborations with other artists and a load of new instruments
- 2024First Sonic Artefacts instruments are released: Cortiça Microphones and the Electromagnetic Field Probes, all good things start small, and more is coming up soon!
- 2026My book Tune In! An Artist’s Guide to Radio and the Electromagnetic Spectrum is published by Korm Plastics
Cork, and the workshop
I chose cork after spending time in the north of Portugal, watching how it is harvested: the bark is taken from the living tree, which goes on growing. It is light, it damps handling vibration perfectly, and it is pleasant to hold on a cold morning in the field.
Every microphone body is made in my workshop in Berlin, soldered by hand and I measure and test each microphone before it leaves the door, matching pairs by hand to within 0.5 dB at 1kHz.
The rest of my work
If you want to know what I do with these tools: my installations, performances and workshops are at wouterjaspers.com. My book Tune In! An Artist’s Guide to Radio and the Electromagnetic Spectrum is published by Korm Plastics.
Instruments I no longer make, such as the Pentagonal Antennas, are kept in the archive of earlier instruments.
If you have a question, or want something made to your own specification, write to me. I answer every message myself.
For dealers and press
High-resolution photographs, spec sheets and a short biography are available for reviews and listings. Dealers can ask for the current price list.