HIIIT Invites

Geweld & Vibrato

Huba de Graaff

19:00 Zaal 2

Geweld & Vibrato is an opera performance for singing actor, soprano, percussion, strings, live electronics, radio and a mosquito soundscape.

On colonialism, the extreme violence by Dutch military forces during the Indonesian war of independence, violently imposing its own (western) culture, but foremost: on hearing without listening, particularly while singing too loud. 

Sifting through old letters and photographs of her parents, composer Huba de Graaff found out about the paradox in her family concerning this matter. There’s the story of her white uncle, who fought on the Dutch side, and that of her Indonesian granddad, who appeared to act in the anti-colonial movement of resistance. De Graaff, then, is the embodiment of both sides of this war. 

As a result of these discoveries, De Graaff has written a unique piece that defines her as a composer; Geweld & Vibrato is a somewhat unorthodox, by all means overwhelming opera which turns the genre itself inside out completely. Original footage of radio speeches serves as a guideline for historical storytelling, whereas the notion of vibrato becomes a metaphor for western imperialism.

Hands

Yannis Kyriakides

20:35 Zaal 1

Hands is a video score for any number of players respond to audio and hand gesture movement rendered on 3D animation.

There are two versions of the piece. A collective one-channel video where all hands appear together. And there is a version for 6 MYO controllers (a bracelet that translates movement and gestures), and multi-channel video where the videos are controlled individually by 6 players. In this version, synthetic sounds that are generated from the computer are moved around an immersive space. The players sculpt the sound with their gestures.

Battles & Silences

Poulson Sq.

20:15 Zaal 1

During the First and Second World Wars, church bells were widely melted down into lethal weapons. As Europe is being sucked step by step into a new war on its own soil, HIIIT reverses this process in the new project Battles & Silences. We are melting down weaponry into beautifully resonant bells, turning destruction into beauty.

Thus, over the next few years, weapons' waste from the battlefield will form the basis for a new series of musical instruments. An artistic response to everyday madness – and a series that, as far as HIIIT is concerned, will continue no longer than strictly necessary.

In collaboration with Royal Eijsbouts Klokkengieterij in Asten and sound artist Hans van Koolwijk, no less than 8 kilograms of pure brass, taken from empty Ukrainian bullet casings, were recently transformed into a first bell. As part of the fringe programme around Battles & Silences, one such remelted metal rod will also be exhibited for public viewing.

Anthony Fiumara and Mathijs Leeuwis, known as Poulson Sq. as a duo, will write a new 45-minute work for the performers of HIIIT from this starting point.

Leeuwis: "Poulson Sq. articulates the history, memory and origins of church bells. We do this by working with tape and analogue electronics: flawed technology that can express the beauty of decay and disintegration like no other."

HIIIT Invites marks the very first glimpse of the results.

Inviting the Producer - Jlin

20:55 Zaal 1

For Inviting the Producer, we invite creators who do not adhere to the traditional Western score but can make a unique contribution to the development of our repertoire. It is a playground where producers experiment with live instruments and musicians engage with creative authorship by providing their own input.

Jlin composes music that’s full of layers, fast, driven and relentless. She has risen to become one of the most distinctive composers in America and one of the most influential women in electronic music.

Jlin’s introduction to producing music stems from Chicago footwork, but diverse influences ranging from Philip Glass to Miles Davis and Eartha Kitt, give Jlin’s complex percussion-driven work a sophisticated polyrhythmic sound all its own. HIIIT asked her to write 3 pieces that were then transcribed in a way to get as close to her dense hectic and produced sounds, using a razor as a synth input or a jerrycan as a kick, but played live by a quartet of percussionists with extreme precision.

CASSINI

Kate Moore

21:30 Zaal 2

Experience an imaginary journey through the frozen water world of Saturn in CASSINI by Kate Moore. This unique performance installation takes you on the journey of the space probe Cassini, past the icy moons and rings of the gas giant Saturn. After decades of exploration, Cassini crashed into Saturn's atmosphere in 2017.

Be enchanted by the brilliant sounds of water and ice, and discover an unprecedented world of musical and visual splendor.

The heart of this creation is the percussion instruments, made entirely of delicate porcelain. These delicate instruments sound out the countless ice particles circling Saturn. The sounds capture the magic of Enceladus' geysers and the mesmerizing ice rings that reflect and refract sunlight. This creates a breathtaking depiction of a world where frozen water shimmers in a delicate dance with gravity.

Dutch-Australian composer Kate Moore found inspiration for CASSINI during her residency at the EKWC in Oisterwijk, where she spent three months crafting a complete porcelain instrument set. Her work explores the cyclical nature of time, both temporal and conceptual, philosophical and mythological. The installation evokes a sense of history similar to discovering archaeological treasures. Just as thousands of pieces of broken pottery reveal the secrets of ancient civilizations, the sounds of Moore's porcelain instruments reconstruct the long forgotten stories and memories of our past.

foto: Melle Meivogel

Sunrise for the Dreamers

Boris Acket

22:30 Zaal 1

Boris Acket (1988) is a contemporary artist, composer & director specialized in multidisciplinary projects within music, installation-art, performance & film.

In Sunrise for the Dreamers, Boris creates a sunrise in the dark halls of an old industrial building and shows us how our bodies react to the appearance of the sun... even if it is only artificially created.

Acket operates as a conductor of creative processes, residing within complex systems in which artist, space & medium connect as one.

upsammy live

23.30 - 00:30 Zaal 2

With a keen ear for crystalline melody and intricate rhythm, upsammy’s music sculpts a certain perpetuity and spatiality, sliding across tempo scales, while retaining an organic touch as a gentle hum of nature digitized.

Often working together with visual artist Sjoerd Martens during their live show, the two create kaleidoscopic terrains built from micro textures and field recordings, fluidly mixing between inner and outer environments. 

Having studied Image and Media Technology at the Utrecht University of the Arts, Thessa Torsing (real name) is intrigued by the rhythms and vibrational qualities of her surroundings – shaping a singular aesthetic that blurs the synthetic – natural divide. As a multidisciplinary artist she researches these interactions through sound, photography and video, explorations which simultaneously influence her music production process.