Selected – Klaas Verpoest

Minerals

Klaas — Thu, 23 May 2024 10:54:52 +0000

With ‘Minerals’, composer Mathias Coppens redefines the traditional relationship between musicians and listeners. Artists on stage, consumers in the audience? In this age of co-creation, that atavism needs to be shaken up. Together with BRYGGEN – Bruges strings, we interrogate tomorrow’s music.

As a composer, Mathias Coppens himself provides the music, with an ambitious score that meditates on the formation of minerals. It is no coincidence that these are the building blocks of a planet that make existence possible. It is also no coincidence that Mathias links the idea of collective participation in the performance to the most important political and ideological question of the 21st century: how do we live together? How do we, as humanity, treat the earth, and what can this behaviour lead to?

It should be pointed out how far Coppens and co dare push their alternative concert formula. The fusion of a soundscape, a dynamic score subject to democratic decision-making via an app and a sophisticated visual representation, additionally enriched with a narrative discourse through which the listener is willingly drawn into the music: there is no precedent of such an ambitious artistic adventure.
***** review at cuttingedge.be by Jan-Jakob Delanoye – 27 april 2024

Visually, I was responsible for an abstract translation of the score, with sinuous figurative motifs referring to geological processes. This aesthetic never becomes demonstrative, not even when the fog machine is brought out. On the contrary, with the artistic team we managed to create immersive worlds with minimal resources. It is the use of generative video and sparse lighting that makes the effect unparalleled.

‘Minerals’ is not only a groundbreaking creation that can and will serve as a blueprint for the concert of the future, but also a grandiose anthem for the planet that no one can remain insensitive to…
***** review at cuttingedge.be by Jan-Jakob Delanoye – 27 april 2024

‘Minerals’ (2024) – Mathias Coppens
Performed by:
Mathias Coppens, Composer
BRYGGEN Bruges Strings, Musical Performance
Jolente De Maeyer, Musical Director
Maya Fridman, Cello
Klaas Verpoest, video artist
Menno Buggenhout, App Development
Constantin Binard, Light & Sound Design

“Minerals” is a coproduction of De Singel
26 April 2024, Festival CARTA – Blauwe Zaal, De Singel (B)

All pictures © Björn Comhaire 2024

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)

Why Patterns?

Klaas — Fri, 13 Oct 2023 15:12:48 +0000

Imagine the contemporary classical composition ‘Why Patterns?’ by Morton Feldman as a self-contained world, subject to specific laws and recurring patterns like other planets. It would have its own unique atmosphere, rotating on its axis and orbiting a star.

Imagine if we could analyse a recording of ‘Why Patterns?’ using the same mathematical algorithms employed to study exoplanets, and we were able to discover and analyse unique patterns. What if, based on these recurring patterns, we could attribute unique surface characteristics to the world of ‘Why Patterns?’, allowing us to shape this world and represent its evolution over time in an abstract visual narrative? What if this method also enabled us to interact with other so-called celestial bodies within the Feldman universe, such as the new compositions by Jean-Luc Fafchamps and David Fennessy?

Het Collectief – Chamber Music Quintet asked composers David Fennessy (IRL) and Jean-Luc Fafchamps (B), both of whom have a strong affinity with Feldman’s work, to compose new works for the same unique ensemble. I was asked to develop a visual counterpart for these three compositions.

In this project, Professor Leen Decin, an astrophysicist at the Institute of Astronomy at KU Leuven, and her team play a key role. Her research on exoplanets, which uses mathematical algorithms, offers an innovative approach to analyse the recording of Feldman’s ‘Why Patterns?’ in a similar way. By examining patterns in the music as one would with exoplanets, her contribution provides new insights that help shape the visual representation of the composition. This scientific perspective enriches the artistic interpretation, making the potential patterns in Feldman’s work visible to the audience.

The performance consists of the following works:
Why Patterns? (1978) Morton FELDMAN (1926-1987)
New work by (2026) David FENNESSY
For Morton Feldman (2025) Jean-Luc FAFCHAMPS
Why Patterns? (2026) Klaas VERPOEST

Performed by Het Collectief
Toon Fret, flute
Thomas Dieltjens, piano
Tom De Cock, percussion
Klaas Verpoest, video performance

In collaboration with
Prof. Leen Decin, Institute of Astronomy KUL
Mediated Environments Reserach Cluster, LUCA School of Arts

March 2026: Première Belgium – Kortrijk Festival, Kortrijk (B)
April 2026: Première Ireland – New Music Festival, Dublin (IRL)
27.05.2026: TivoliVredenburg, Utrecht (NL)

_{Het Collectief in coproduction with Kortrijk Festival (B), New Music Festival Dublin (IRL) and TivoliVredenburg Utrecht (NL)}

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

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.

Crippled Symmetry | Morton Feldman

Klaas — Mon, 25 Aug 2014 11:39:40 +0000

In Morton Feldman’s music, silence plays a prominent role, thanks to the hushed volume and the interval between sounds.

In Crippled Symmetry Feldman builds on repetitive motifs (patterns), knotting and weaving his sounds the way Anatolian nomads make their carpets. It is from those carpets that Feldman borrowed the concept of imperfect or ‘crippled’ symmetry. Listening to Feldman’s work is a strange but overwhelming experience.

Performed by: Het Collectief
Thomas Dieltjens, piano & celesta | Toon Fret, flute | Tom De Cock, percussion
Klaas Verpoest, Motion Design

14.04.2016: Crippled Symmetry, Miryzaal – Gent
20.04.2016: Crippled Symmetry, CC Maasmechelen – Maasmechelen

08.11.2014: Crippled Symmetry, SLOW (36H) / Concertgebouw – Brugge

Helemaal desintegreren mocht de tijd tijdens het prachtige Crippled Symmetry van de Amerikaanse componist Morton Feldman, gebracht door Het Collectief met visuals van Klaas Verpoest. Breekbare motieven dreven anderhalf uur lang als eilandjes door de stilte en braken met elk lineair concept van tijd.
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