The Liminal Hum

Šimon Herrmann / Czech Republic / 2026 / World Premiere / 10 min.

synopsis

The first landscape we encounter is that of primal sounds. The beating of a mother’s heart or the roar of the natural elements resonate at a frequency similar to drone music. This audiovisual essay, based on home films from childhood spent in the heart of nature, explores the ambivalence of long, unchanging soundscapes, which can evoke both a sense of security and an immediate sense of danger.

“We can think of drone music as an ‘empty vessel’, the emotional impact of which is determined solely by the context in which it is used.” — Šimon Herrmann, Future Memory Lab

biography

Šimon Herrmann (1995) is a sound designer and composer studying at the Department of Sound Design at FAMU. As a sound engineer, he worked on The Last Shift of Thomas Hisem (2017) directed by Jindřich Andrš, Jan Švankmajer’s Insect (2018) and Martin Trabalík’s What About Petey? (2025). He founded the experimental jazz ensemble Molotow Moloch Quartet and the band Transgas.