Cocon

Makers	Cello Octet Amsterdam, Nick Verstand
Duration	60 min
Part of	Ticket to Utopia

Cocon is an immersive live audiovisual performance by Cello Octet Amsterdam and artist Nick Verstand, who is internationally known for his large-scale light installations. Eight cellists stand on stage, surrounded by eight robotic arms that together form a moving cocoon around the musicians, like a self-contained living organism.

The performers play compositions by key figures in experimental electronic music such as Qasim Naqvi and Caterina Barbieri. This is not a traditional concert, but an invitation to reimagine the boundaries between music and technology.

An Embrace of a Pressured Mother Earth
As the music unfolds, the robotic arms open into a mechanical cocoon that moves as if it is breathing. It expands, contracts, and flows like an autonomous presence that responds live to the musicians. The cocoon evokes the embrace of Mother Earth as the origin of life, while also revealing the human and mechanical interventions that place this source under pressure. You experience how protection and threat can exist side by side.

In the Presence of Masters
Nick Verstand has worked with major names such as Björk, Iris van Herpen, and Caterina Barbieri. His work has been shown at institutions including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, the Venice Biennale, and in Shanghai. Cello Octet Amsterdam has also built a strong international reputation through collaborations with composers such as Philip Glass, Sarah Davachi, and Arvo Pärt. Cocon offers a rare opportunity to experience these two forces together in the intimate setting of Korzo.

Quote / Review
After the premiere of his first piece for the Octet, Arvo Pärt said: “The Octet is gold worth. I discovered this ensemble 10 years too late.”

Qasim Naqvi | Sine 1 & 2

Jesse Broekman | We walk by threads of light

Kara-Lis Coverdale | Endocrine

Abul Mogard & KMRU | Drawing Water on Matching Teal Surfaces Arr. René van Munster

Caterina Barbieri | Scratches on the Readable Surface (Cello Octet) Arr. Alistair Sung

>> Listening guide

Qasim Naqvi – Sine 1 & 2

“Lately I have been interested in a technique loosely defined as ‘reverse composition,’ where I write a work, perform it on the modular synthesizer, and then transcribe the machine’s performance for acoustic instruments to interpret. Essentially, I take these alien sounds and use extended techniques and notational systems to recreate the aura of a machine’s behavior. For the Cello Octet commission, I will use this idea of an organism’s transcription further. By incorporating the movement of Nick Verstand’s kinetic cocoons and applying the visual properties of his light sculptures to the way voltage moves through the modular synthesizer, I will shape its sonic choices. In a way, both the synthesizer and the light sculpture feel related, like distant cousins, two machines unfolding and entering a state of metamorphosis through the power of electricity.” – Qasim Naqvi

Jesse Broekman – We walk by the threads of light
Jesse Broekman’s work shows a fascination with sounds that carry an unstable and unpredictable character. He began composing for the Octet with an improvisation, which he then let a machine play back continuously in segments of unequal length and at a significantly slower speed than the original recording. This created a space that reconfigures itself each time. Like a limited set of words that can be combined endlessly, or a place constantly explored by different voices.

Kara-Lis Coverdale – Endocrine
“Temperature and emotion are metaphorically intertwined in music. There is a vast timbral vocabulary that evokes these sensations and can be used to describe both our state and our environment. This new work for cello octet integrates place and state through the harmonic language of temperature to explore the effects of environmental sympathetics and mimicry with spiritual sensitivity. This work continues my exploration of climate-based music systems, begun in Oslo in 2018, and will be the first time I explore these concepts through the resonant potential of string instruments, and translate the ideas directly into the acoustic realm.” – Kara-Lis Coverdale

Abul Mogard & KMRU – Drawing water on matching teal surfaces, arranged by René van Munster
The Octet worked closely with Abul Mogard and KMRU to arrange this breathtaking piece for eight cellos. The otherworldly colors and textures of the electro-acoustic Drawing water… are translated into an acoustic ensemble.

Caterina Barbieri – Scratches on the Readable Surface (Cello Octet), arranged by Alistair Sung
“For the concept of the score, I was inspired by ideas of nonlinear time, fractal rhythms, self-generative structures, clocks, spiderwebs, and cosmic networks. I often use the spiderweb as a metaphor for musical weaving and the connective tissue of the universe itself. Spiderwebs, like galaxies, suggest the entanglement of human existence in ecosystems that are both non-human and otherworldly. For Scratches on the Readable Surface, I started imagining the score as a spiderweb or cosmic web functioning like a clock or sequencer. Each circle of the web is a basic pattern made of five steps or notes, spiraling from the center outward. The full arpeggio of the piece is formed by four patterns or circles, totaling twenty notes or steps. Like variations on a matrix, higher notes appear on the web like distant planets or prey.” – Caterina Barbieri

Nick Verstand is an artist who explores how we perceive reality through spatial audiovisual compositions. His autonomous installations and live performances operate at the boundary between the material and the immaterial. His work emerges from collaborative design processes that aim to dissolve social boundaries, including the separation between artist and audience. In his practice, this distinction becomes fluid, allowing for shared authorship of the experience. The sensory environments he creates invite co-creation between artist and viewer, resulting in immersive, almost hypnotic spaces for the subconscious. This is one of the reasons his work is often experienced as something you want to return to again and again.

Nick Verstand has exhibited and performed at venues and festivals including the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, The Shed (New York City), Rewire Festival (Netherlands), Museum of Contemporary Art Shanghai, National Opera & Ballet (Netherlands), STRP Festival, Design Society Shenzhen, Paris Couture Week, SXSW, Dekmantel Festival, Art Central Hong Kong, MTV VMAs, Design Museum Gent, Le Guess Who?, Iceland Airwaves, and Dutch Design Week.

He has collaborated with artists such as Iris van Herpen, Björk, Caterina Barbieri, Lykke Li, Sarah Davachi, Eefje de Visser, Charlotte Adigéry, Doja Cat, Kara-Lis Coverdale, Fatima Yamaha, and Suzanne Ciani. His project AURA was selected by Dezeen as one of the top 10 art installations of 2017, alongside work by Olafur Eliasson, Ai Weiwei, and Anish Kapoor.

Cello Octet Amsterdam is an adventurous collective of cellists dedicated to new music and interdisciplinary performance. In today’s contemporary music scene, the Octet has become a leading name through collaborations with composers such as Philip Glass, Sarah Davachi, Arvo Pärt, Michael Gordon, Kate Moore, and Nyokabi Kariũki. After the premiere of his first piece for the Octet, Arvo Pärt said: “The Octet is worth its weight in gold. I discovered this ensemble 10 years too late.”

The cellists present themselves both as a close-knit chamber ensemble of international standing and as pioneering performers in productions such as Cellobende, as well as in unexpected formats like a rock band in Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Cello Band.

Driven by the belief that musicians are embedded in society, the Octet often places social questions at the heart of its productions. In collaboration with composers, theatre makers, choreographers, and social organizations, they create work that reflects on contemporary issues. Productions such as Instant Happiness, Instant Love, and Instant Loneliness (co-productions with Via Berlin) explore consumer culture, human trafficking, and loneliness, while Coda focuses on climate change.

Nick Verstand: art direction, scenography, lighting
Daniel de Bruin: hardware design & engineering
Wes Broersen: motion & software engineer
Pim Swinkels: electronics engineer
Wout Panis: creative technical producer
Paul Jeukendrup: sound design

Music
Compositions: Caterina Barbieri (arr. Alistair Sung), Kara-Lis Coverdale, KMRU & Abul Mogard (arr. René van Munster), Jesse Broekman, Qasim Naqvi

Artist: Nick Verstand

Cello: Alistair Sung, Claire Bleumer, Esther Torrenga, Geneviève Verhage, René van Munster, Rares Mihailescu, Sanne Bijker, Sanne van der Horst

Cocon came into being with the support of the Performing Arts Fund NL, the Amsterdam Fund for the Arts, the Creative Industries Fund NL, the Kersjes Fund, Fonds 21, and the Zabawas Foundation.