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Databells in Montreal Turns Global Data Into Sound and Music | The Main

Inside Databells, Where Global Statistics Become a Song You’ll Only Hear Once

Artist Rich Loen spent four years building a room of 100 wired bells that transforms births, deaths, harvests, and human behaviour into a performance that never repeats itself.

ByJ.P. Karwacki

May 25, 2026 · 5 min read

Inside Databells, Where Global Statistics Become a Song You’ll Only Hear Once

Photography: Supplied

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Rich Loen spent thirty years running InGenius, which builds software to make call centres run smoother for some of the world's largest companies. When he sold his company in 2019, he made a list of everything he'd ever wanted to build but hadn't afforded the time for. The question was where it could all be built.

He had been watching a vacant six-bay garage on Carling Avenue in Ottawa for years, driving past it on the way to his kid's hockey practice, thinking it looked like exactly the right kind of place. He took it over in 2019, spent two years building it out into a full machine shop with woodworking equipment, welding stations, and a row of 3D printers; this was the Loen.Design Studio, until in 2024 Rich opened the gallery space adjacent the studio, and called it, the Salon des Bananes. Then, out of that and the gallery, over the better part of four years, he built what would become Databells: a room of roughly 100 bells, each wired to its own circuit board, each striking to the rhythm of a real-world statistic.

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Inside Databells, Where Global Statistics Become a Song You’ll Only Hear Once

Artist Rich Loen spent four years building a room of 100 wired bells that transforms births, deaths, harvests, and human behaviour into a performance that never repeats itself.

ByJ.P. Karwacki

May 25, 2026 · 5 min read

Inside Databells, Where Global Statistics Become a Song You’ll Only Hear Once

Photography: Supplied

The Main is reader-supported. Subscriptions are what keep us independent. Five dollars a month — the restaurants, the guides, the weekly bulletin, and what to do each weekend. Support us today.

Branded content

This is branded content, made possible by a vetted partner.

Presented by

Rich Loen spent thirty years running InGenius, which builds software to make call centres run smoother for some of the world's largest companies. When he sold his company in 2019, he made a list of everything he'd ever wanted to build but hadn't afforded the time for. The question was where it could all be built.

He had been watching a vacant six-bay garage on Carling Avenue in Ottawa for years, driving past it on the way to his kid's hockey practice, thinking it looked like exactly the right kind of place. He took it over in 2019, spent two years building it out into a full machine shop with woodworking equipment, welding stations, and a row of 3D printers; this was the Loen.Design Studio, until in 2024 Rich opened the gallery space adjacent the studio, and called it, the Salon des Bananes. Then, out of that and the gallery, over the better part of four years, he built what would become Databells: a room of roughly 100 bells, each wired to its own circuit board, each striking to the rhythm of a real-world statistic.

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For readers who care about Montreal

Create a free account to read this story and access 3 articles per month, plus our weekly Bulletin.

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