Musical Utopias presents

Double Bill: Spaceship Ensemble + Ensemble Klang

Musical Utopias is an annual festival that explores humankind’s relationship to society, the environment, and social and political activism. A co-production between Ensemble Klang and Korzo, the festival brings together music-makers and artists from multiple disciplines, all striving to build new worlds. The festival is an invitation to share in a hopeful journey into the unknown, a journey that looks optimistically to the future.

Two performances are planned for the Musical Utopias presents programme. These performances were programmed for the fourth edition of Musical Utopias in January, which unfortunately could not take place due to the corona measures. We are delighted to be able to finally present these fantastic performances to the public!

Spaceship Ensemble

Programme:
The Carnival of Futuristic Animals (try-out)

Spaceship Ensemble, who are doing a residency with Gaudeamus in 2022, present a musical spectacle inspired by 'A Treatise In Evolution' from one of The Netherlands’ most iconic scientists, the theoretical physicist Gerard ’t Hooft. A series of drawings portraying futuristic creatures inspired by how animals might evolve. In a musical programme reminiscent of Le Carnaval des Animaux by Camille Saint-Sans, the ensemble plays a series of short pieces that each represent one of ’t Hooft’s creatures

In addition to the specially commissioned compositions, this event will also include the development of a set of original Arduino musical hardwares designed to enhance the novelty and uniqueness of this musical-scientific ‘ecosystem’.

Ensemble Klang

Programme:
OCCAM XVI (2014) – Éliane Radigue (for solo bass clarinet)
OCCAM HEXA V (2021) – Éliane Radigue + Carol Robinson (for Ensemble Klang) 

A new work in the expansive OCCAM OCEAN series, OCCAM HEXA V was created for Ensemble Klang by Éliane Radigue & Carol Robinson. The work premiered during a day dedicated to Radigue’s work at November Music Festival and FAQ Festival in November 2021, celebrating Radigue’s award of the Open Oor composition prize. This composition is rooted in the city of Den Bosch, with its waterways forming a map through the piece itself. OCCAM HEXA V was co-written with one of Radigue’s closest collaborators, the composer and clarinetist Carol Robinson. In addition to premiering over fifteen of Radigue’s demanding acoustic pieces, Robinson has co-composed several works from OCCAM OCEAN. The hands-on work she did with Ensemble Klang in The Hague was instrumental in bringing the music to life.

Éliane Radigue’s oeuvre, spanning over fifty years, displays an entirely personal attitude to time and development. The consistency in her musical language encompasses multiple media, from early feedback works created on tape in the late 1960s, through her most well-known compositions created on analog synthesizer (largely the ARP 2500), to her latest purely acoustic works (from 2005) created in close collaboration with a small number of dedicated performers.

Radigue’s music is almost instantly identifiable: durational; slowly evolving; meticulously crafted; often focused on just one or two precise elements; rigorously structured; and with sound itself as its musical subject. The music, while rooted in an experimental tradition, not only has the ability to transport but also to suspend, as if in some kind of waking dream. Therefore, it is not surprising that Radigue’s work, while existing outside of any boundaries of genre, speaks to such a wide audience. Throughout her extensive career, Radigue has continued to develop a sonic world that is both deeply personal and universal, creating works, irrespective of media, that focus on the subtle, the sensitive and the precarious within a vibrant continuum.