Xingyu Li

Sound Artist & Composer
Founder of 52Hz Sound Cabinet
Artistic Director of Whale Circus

Xingyu Li is a sound artist and composer whose practice focuses on environmental acoustics, field recording, and spatial listening as expanded forms of artistic expression beyond traditional music frameworks.

As the artistic director of the experimental music project Whale Circus, he has released seven studio albums and eight experimental recordings, working across ambient composition, contemporary sound practices, and interdisciplinary media.

In 2016, Li initiated the Amazon Rainforest Sound Expedition Project, conducting extensive field recordings in South America to document rare and endangered natural soundscapes. The outcomes of this research later led to the establishment of 52Hz Sound Cabinet, an artistic platform dedicated to exploring listening as a cultural, ecological, and spatial practice beyond music.

In 2018, he launched the Sound Journey to the West project, documenting vernacular musical traditions across Xinjiang and experimenting with improvisational recording methods that challenge conventional compositional structures.

In 2024, Li initiated the An Elegy For The Ocean (Global Ocean Listening Expedition), leading a team on a sailing-based research journey to record underwater acoustic environments across international waters, aiming to construct future-oriented archives of marine soundscapes.

In his practice, sound is treated both as a measurable physical phenomenon and as an abstract sensory language. By integrating scientific methodologies with artistic inquiry, Li approaches sound as a medium through which spatial perception, ecological awareness, and collective memory may intersect.