| Makers | Reinier van Houdt, Francisco Lopez |
| Duration | 90 min |
The piano in every possible form
Piano-fans, this is piano unlike anything you've seen/heard before. No piano is safe from Reinier van Houdt and Francisco López. In this programme, they present a set of pieces in which the piano will be modified, detoured, transformed, deconstructed and taken apart until it's an integral part of the environment of sound of the world we live in.
Van Houdt and López present five compositions during this programme. The two works that Van Houdt is performing, came about in the 2020 quarantine and were inspired by Franz Kafka. In his own words: ‘I've made these pieces from what I played, listened to, recorded, played back, read, watched, heard, or imagined, each during one specific day in the quarantine of 2020. Where drift nowhere past is a collection of journal entries and focuses on whatever is entering into the mind on a specific day each month, the new piece the adventure of sleep concentrates on situations that recur every day: realizing the passing of time, hearing the sounds of neighbours, the moment of falling asleep, the moment of waking up.’
López worked with Van Houdt to create the two unorthodox piano compositions untitled #275 and untitled #400. In untitled #275, working together on exploring sonorities, structures, preparations and modifications, both mechanical and electronic, they have been investigating the phenomenon of repetition. The listener will be immersed in a pulsing field of sound. The music walks the thin line between the hypnotic adrenalin rush of relentless motoric repetition and s more contemplative fascination. In the sequel untitled #400 they finally deconstructed the piano, taking the mechanical block out of its casquet, thus creating the stringless piano. The pianoblock is turned into a big wooden vessel, creaking, whistling, bouncing and ticking on its way.
These are the five compositions you’ll hear tonight:
- Francisco López: untitled #275a inside piano
- Francisco López: untitled #400a outside piano
- intermission
- Reinier van Houdt: friction, sleep, maze
- Reinier van Houdt: drift nowhere past
- Reinier van Houdt: mystery of erasure
Reinier van Houdt is a Dutch pianist and composer who started working with taperecorders, radio's, objects and various string-instruments at a young age. He studied piano at the Liszt-Akademie in Budapest & the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He developed a fascination for matters that escape notation: sound, timing, space, physicality, memory, noise, environment - points beyond composition, interpretation and improvisation.
He has built himself an unusual repertoire that consistently resulted from personal quests; from collaborations with composers & musicians, from research in archives, from the composing and staging of music-performances or from unorthodox studies of classical music, and from endless taperecordings he made since the eighties.
Spaniard Francisco López is one of the most recognized sound artists on the international scene: in the span of four decades of activity, he has developed an extremely personal sound universe, based on a deep listening of the world. He created hundreds of sound installations and performances in major museums, galleries and international festivals.
Korzo Zaal