We spend a lot of time with music.
In the car.
While cooking.
While working.
While talking to someone.
Music is everywhere, although how often do we actually sit down and listen?
Not as background. Not while doing something else. Just listening. Being activly absorbed in the warm hug of music. That is where the idea for the KinefDesigns Listening Sessions began.
The loudspeakers are part of it, of course. They are designed to be a functional art peace that work together with the music, so to accentuate the moment.
For Dutch Design Week 2026, we are bringing the Listening Sessions together over three days. Each day will have a slightly different character, but the idea remains the same: create a space where people can slow down, listen and share something they care about.
Just music, people and time to listen.
22 October — Record Night
Share the Music Behind the Music
The first evening is about records and the stories that live behind them.
Bring a vinyl record or CD from your own collection. No streaming services. Choose one or two songs and play them to the room.
Then tell us why.
Maybe it is an album that changed the way you listen to music. Maybe you found it in a second-hand shop twenty years ago. Maybe it reminds you of somebody. Maybe the recording itself has an interesting story. Maybe the artist was going through something when the record was made.
Perhaps there is something unusual about the recording process.
Perhaps there is an anecdote that nobody else in the room has heard before.
Or perhaps you simply love the song.
Each presentation will take roughly 5 to 20 minutes, depending on the number of participants and the music they bring.
The idea is not to give a lecture about music. It is to share something meaningful.
One person's favourite record can become somebody else's new discovery.
And sometimes, knowing the story behind a song changes the way you hear it.
23 & 24 October — Live Sets
The following two days will move in a different direction.
Local musicians Wessel Audio and Freek will perform live sets created specifically for Dutch Design Week.
These are not simply performances taken out of another context and placed into a room during DDW. The music is being made with this setting in mind, the room, the people, the listening experience and the atmosphere of Dutch Design Week.
The speakers become part of the instrument. The room becomes part of the music. And the audience becomes part of the experience.
There is something different about hearing music together with other people. You notice things. A small sound you would normally miss. A change in rhythm. A texture. A silence.
The reaction of the person sitting next to you.
Listening becomes a shared experience rather than something happening privately through headphones.
Why do this?
Because music still has the ability to bring people together. Not because everyone likes the same music. Quite the opposite. The interesting part is hearing something you would never have chosen yourself. Understanding why someone else loves it. Hearing the story. Having a conversation. Maybe disagreeing. Maybe discovering something.
The Listening Sessions are not about finding the right way to listen to music.
There isn't one.
They are about making a little space for music to be more than something that fills the silence.
During Dutch Design Week, KinefDesigns invites you to sit down, listen and spend some time with music. Bring a record. Bring a story. Bring your ears.
22–24 October 2026
19:30–21:30
Kinef Designs Listening Sessions
Come listen.