On-Stage – Klaas Verpoest

Weg van Bach

Klaas — Sat, 23 Dec 2023 08:53:28 +0000

In december 2022, cellist Benjamin Glorieux went on a week-long journey from Arnstadt to Lübeck. With his cello on his back, Glorieux followed the same route that Bach took 300 years ago, in order to hear his great hero Buxtehude play. Bach’s cello suites formed the rhythmic thread during his walks: “As I heard the music sounded in my mind or played live, I collected reflections, ideas and insights that will guide the live performance.”

Initially, I was supposed to join Benjamin on this journey but was unfortunately prevented from going. A month later, we undertook a trip along to the locations that impressed Benjamin the most. I recorded these through 3D scans, with those impressions I went to work and created various worlds that the tour depicts internally and externally. As a viewer, you step along, as it were, to the rippling music.

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750) 6 Suites for cello, BWV 1007-1012
Performed by:
Benjamin Glorieux, cello
Klaas Verpoest & Johan Van Mol, video artist
Steven Reymer, Light Design

“Weg van Bach” is a coproduction of Klara Festival and Bozar
11 March 2023, Klara Festival – Bozar, Henry Le Boeuf Hall (B)

Exoplanets or the quest for life around another Sun

Klaas — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 11:36:24 +0000

With the recent discoveries of exoplanets as a central theme, Benjamin Glorieux created a new piece with the string orchestra Bryggen, Vincent Caers (electronics) and Klaas Verpoest (live video).

Is there life elsewhere in the Universe? How do we detect exoplanets? How do we hope to find life on exoplanets light-years away? What is “TRAPPIST-1”? What do exoplanets tell us about the famous “Fermi’s Paradox”?

The Copernican Revolution taught us that our Earth, far from being the center of the Universe, is only one among the many planets orbiting the Sun, which is itself similar in every respect to the stars lining the celestial vault. Later, astronomy revealed that there are hundreds of billions of stars in the Milky Way, our galaxy, and that there are hundreds of billions of galaxies in our expanding Universe. Faced with such immensity, it is very tempting to hypothesize the existence of other inhabited planets out there, and even of other advanced civilizations. Long confined to speculations, the existence of exoplanets, i.e. planets in orbit around other stars than the Sun, became a proven fact at the end of last century. Since then, more than 4000 exoplanets have been detected at an ever-accelerating pace. A few dozens of these are “potentially habitable”, i.e. they could be rocky worlds harboring oceans of water on their surface, like our Earth. Imagining complex forms of life on some of these planets is but a small step away, one that is happily crossed by science-fiction. But our imagination will eventually be replaced by real scientific measurements, as upcoming giant telescopes will soon be able to probe the atmospheric compositions of some of these extrasolar worlds, and, who knows, to reveal chemical traces of life out there. If so, our view of the Cosmos will change forever…

This concert was performed and recorded on October 24, 2021, Flagey Brussels

Event organized by Science & Cocktails in collaboration with the International Solvay Institutes.

Performers:
Composer: Benjamin Glorieux
Cellists: Benjamin Glorieux, Bryggen String Orchestra
Vincent Caers: electronics
Klaas Verpoest: live video

©PhotoVirginieSchreyen

The Solitary One

Klaas — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 08:20:05 +0000

There you are, solitary in the middle of a pitch-black hole. How did you get there, and how could you get out? You’re shouting, screaming, signaling to the outside world, but everything seems to return to you like a boomerang. Nothing can escape the horizon, or does it? Is there something or someone out there who might see or hear your experience inside?

‘The Solitary One’ is a performative installation transforming the most extreme and paradoxical object that our universe harbours – a black hole – into an immersive audiovisual experience.

Visual artist Klaas Verpoest, sound artist Vincent Caers and cellist-composer Benjamin Glorieux tend to unite art and science in their individual work. A shared fascination for the inexplicable aspects of a black hole and the concepts of space and time led to a joint venture in which they explore the artistic potential of their combined disciplines for illustrating these themes. Along the way they collaborated with theoretical physicist Stéphane Detournay. Their aim is not to provide a scientific explanation, which remains the scientist’s task, but instead to create an immersive installation offering the audience an opportunity for experiencing cosmological phenomena and the incredible forces driving them.

October 23, 2021 – Februari 27, 2022: ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]
October 23, 2021: Opening performance ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]
February 18, 2022: Closing performance ‘Cosmos’ Exhibition – CID Grand Hornu, Hornu [B]
September 8, 2023 – February 4, 2024: Space is the Place exhibition – MUDAC, Lausanne (CH)
December 7, 2023: Space is the Place performance – MUDAC, Lausanne (CH)

Credits:
Vincent Caers: Sound Artist
Benjamin Glorieux: Cellist/Composer
Stéphane Detournay: Scientific Advisor
Klaas Verpoest: Video artist

©PhotoVirginieSchreyen

To the Edge of Time

Klaas — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 19:47:35 +0000

Time is the most mundane thing in the world. We all use it every day; we waste it, save it, and enjoy it. It’s just out there, like a big clock, ticking away. But what is time? What is it made of? Did it have a beginning? Will it ever end? Does it cycle around? Can we do without time?

In this lecture-performance, electronic musician Vincent Caers, theoretical physicist Thomas Hertog, and visual artist Klaas Verpoest take you on a voyage into a black hole, to the edge of time … and beyond.

The concert takes place in an inflatable dome and immerses the audience in a journey in 360º generative image and sound.

Performers:
Thomas Hertog: lecture
Vincent Caers: live electronics
Klaas Verpoest: video

Performed on November 29, 2021 – Planetarium Music Festival, Leuven [B]

©photoJuergenHolst

Sichtlaut – Common Grounds

Klaas — Wed, 17 Jun 2020 12:48:12 +0000

Common Grounds is a cross-disciplinary improvisation performance in which the performers assess how the relationship between visual language, language, movement and sound can be redesigned, materialised again in real time and in relation to each other , the audience and the performance space.

‘Sichtlaut’ is an cross-media improvising collective, combining musicians, visual artists and dancers. Through each performance, they explore the borders of the different media involved.

Teaser: Sichtlaut – Common Grounds

Performers:
Peter Jacquemyn: Double Base | Voice
Jan Pillaert: bastuba | Voice
Vincent Caers: live electronics
Geraldo Si: dance
Lazara Rosell Albear: dance | pocket trumpet
Sofia Kakouri: dance | pocket trumpet
Klaas Verpoest: live video

Performed on October 24, 2019 – BAC Art Lab, Leuven [B]
Camera | Pierre Michel Zaleski

Full Performance of Sichtlaut – Common Grounds| 24.10.2019 – BAC Art Lab, Leuven [B]

The End of Space and Time

Klaas — Thu, 12 Sep 2019 08:51:24 +0000

String theory in its many incarnations provides a theoretical framework to answer some of the deepest questions, often with surprising results. At the same time, it raises some disturbing new questions, making painfully clear how little we understand of our Universe.

The End of Space and Time concert in Flagey was the closing event for the Strings2019 conference.
Together with Cellist Benjamin Glorieux I created a performance especially for the occasion. Inspired by ‘strings’ in all its varieties.

The End of Space and Time performed and recorded 13.07.2019 in Studio 4, Flagey – Brussels.

Cellist Benjamin Glorieux and visual artist Klaas Verpoest have created a performance especially for the occasion. Inspired by ‘strings’ in all its varieties, they enthusiastically agreed.

Insisting on finding as many strings as possible they promptly invited 2 pianists, Anthony Romaniuk and Rembrandt Frerichs-with-his-trio – that makes more or less 464 strings – and 5 fellow cellists, that’s 24 strings. Electronica-wizzard Jo Thielemans won’t bring any string, but he brings other stuff!

The output will be multifaceted like a diamond’s surface, even if the orgulous music of JS Bach will always be nearby… But it will all sound absolutely new, as if covered with stardust from those more or less 500 strings and thanks to the creativity of the players and the extraterrestrial acoustics of Studio 4!

13.08.2019: Studio 4 – Flagey, Brussels

Performers:
Cellists: Benjamin Glorieux, Liesemarie Beelaerts, Seraphine Stragier, Pieter Matthynssens, Pieter-Jan De Smet, Harmen Goossens
Anthony Romaniuk: piano
Jo Thielemans: electronics
The Rembrandt Frerichs trio: Piano, Double base, drums
Klaas Verpoest: live video

Octophonie & Signale zur Invasion | Karlheinz Stockhausen

Klaas — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 16:27:54 +0000

Signale zur Invasion (1992) is performed simultaneously with Octophonie (1991), both pieces are part of Dienstag from Stockhausen’s monumental Opera Cycle Licht. The trombonist plays and walks a parcours amongst the audience whilst the video-artist divides it into equal protanganists.

Karlheinz Stockhausen was a radical, an extremely important but also controversial innovator. He is also one of the most important musical minds of the past century. His electronic music inspired several generations of musicians, even outside the realm of so-called art music. He broke rules and traversed boundaries. His music was extremely complex, but in all the abstraction it is also sensual and engaging.

14.01.16: Cosmic Pulses – De Bijloke, Gent
15.06.18: Porto Franko Festival – Ivano-Frankvivsk (UKR)
23.11.18: Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival – Huddersfield (UK)
07.12.18: John Doe Gallery – New York (US)

Performers:
Thomas R. Moore: trombone
Klaas Verpoest: video
Patrick Delges, Centre Henri Pousseur: electronics

In a production of:
Muziekcentrum De Bijloke Gent | Centre Henri Pousseur

Signale zur Invasion | Karlheinz Stockhausen from Klaas Verpoest on Vimeo.

Impressions de Pelléas | Claude Debussy

Klaas — Tue, 27 Feb 2018 15:57:16 +0000

Debussy has created a new kind of musical drama with Pelléas. The text, by the Belgian Nobel prize winner Maurice Maeterlinck, is incorporated word for word. The play is a high point in symbolism and explores psychology, humankind’s deepest nature and feelings. Much of the appeal of the piece—it has been set to music a total of five times—hides in the shroud of mystery that envelops the characters and their mutual intrigues. That Debussy’s version is the most popular has everything to do with the composer being able to perfectly translate the sultry, mysterious atmosphere of the story into a magnificent interplay between sound and colour.

09.08.2018: MaFestival – Concertgebouw, Brugge
18.04.2018: Opera 21 – De Bijloke, Gent
10.03.2018: Klara Festival – Flagey, Brussel
07.10.2017: Festival 20/21 – 30cc, Leuven

Performers:
Lore Binon: Mélisande
Pierre-Yves Pruvot: Golaud
Reinoud Van Mechelen: Pelléas
Tijl Faveyts: Arkel
Angélique Noldus: Généviève
Camille Bauer: Yniold
Inge Spinette & Jan Michiels: piano (DUO YIN-YANG)
Klaas verpoest & Jan Duerinck: Kinetic Typography
Dimitri Stuyven: Light Design
Picture: Guy Buys

Trixie Whitley | Porta Bohemica

Klaas — Sat, 19 Mar 2016 13:13:39 +0000

Still from the concert visuals for Trixie Whitley ’s Porta Bohemica tour.
On-screen visuals are developed in close colaboration with Victor Robyn .

Quaderno di strada | Salvatore Sciarrino

Klaas — Tue, 05 May 2015 09:57:06 +0000

Salvatore Sciarrino schreef de dertiendelige liedcyclus Quaderno di strada in 2003. De teksten zijn kort: spreuken, aforismen, zelfs graffiti en losse regels uit een tijdschrift – onderweg gevonden, zoals de titel aangeeft.

De ‘straatliederen’ van Sciarrino worden in De Bijloke vertolkt door topbariton Thomas Bauer. Zijn stemklanken versmelten met de uitgekiende, vaak verstilde timbres van de andere instrumenten. De zanger en het ensemble worden als het ware een klanklichaam.

Verder werkt Spectra Ensemble ook dit seizoen weer samen met de fantastisch virtuoze cimbalomspeler Luigi Gaggero. Samen spelen ze de première van Stefano Gervasoni’s Gramigna, een cyclus van ‘bagatellen’ waarin ook deze componist speelt met subtiele klankkleuren. Spectra en Gaggero op het lijf geschreven.

Programma:
Salvatore Sciarrino | Quaderno di strada
Stefano Gervasoni | Gramigna
Bart Van Hecke | Le sourire infini des ondes
vr 29 januari 2016: De Bijloke – Gent

Uitvoerders:
Spectra Ensemble
Filip Rathé: muzikale leiding
Thomas Bauer: bariton
Luigi Gaggero: cilbalom
Klaas Verpoest: video