EXTRAORDINARY MUSIC
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Ensemble Black Pencil performs over a thousand years of music history in a unique lineup of recorder, pan flute, viola, accordion, and percussion. They are praised for their versatility and creativity, often described as delightfully unconventional and even classical 2.0.
On commission from the province of Flevoland, Black Pencil provides the musical element for the reopening of four Flevoland landscape artworks that have recently been (partially) restored: The Green Cathedral in Almere, Sea Level and Aardzee in Zeewolde, and the Observatory in Lelystad.
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The ensemble has invited four top composers to be inspired by the location and each write a piece for one of these unique landscape artworks. Black Pencil has walked with the composers at the Land Art sites and brainstormed extensively, allowing them to feel the energy of the place.
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At the reopening, Black Pencil will perform a concert in which art, nature, and music come together. The new compositions will be premiered by the ensemble at the locations.
CALLIOPE TSOUPAKI
(Greece, 1963)
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De Groene Kathedraal (The Green Cathedral) is a beautiful concept by Marinus Boezem. A life-size replica of the gothic cathedral Notre-Dame of Reims, with Italian poplars forming the layout. My visit to The Green Cathedral was a very beautiful experience. As I walked through the landscape artwork, I was genuinely moved. I was not only touched by the artwork itself but also by the location, surrounded by a highway, bicycle path, and new residential area. Everything in harmony. The composition is also called ‘Into Space’.
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World Premiere: June 4, 2022, The Green Cathedral - Almere / Land Art Weekend.
Photo Album
YANNIS KYRIAKIDES
(Cyprus, 1969)
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Observatorium by Robert Morris is a work about the passage of time. When I was invited to compose a piece in response to this monumental artwork, my first question was: how can I express something that refers to the vastness of time in just a few minutes of music?
The foundation of my piece is a periodic electronic sound that resonates with the cycles of the turbines surrounding the location. Layered over this are cycles of expanding and contracting harmonic material that reflect the rhythms of the seasons, with each instrument shaping its own sense of elastic time.
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World premiere: 17 June 2022, Observatorium – Lelystad / Sundation Festival
Interview
AART STROOTMAN
(Nederlands,1987)
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The famous aerial photo of Richard Serra’s Sea Level beautifully captures the artwork, but you truly experience its scale and meaning only when you walk around it. As you descend, the massive concrete slowly but surely obstructs your view, as if you’re walking into the water. When you then walk back up, you suddenly become acutely aware of the lowered water level. I wanted to capture this experience in my composition. The listener takes a walk around the artwork with their ears: a mirror canon as rigid as a concrete wall.brengt het kunstwerk prachtig in beeld, maar eigenlijk ervaar je de omvang en de betekenis pas ècht als je om het werk heen loopt. In de afdaling ontneemt het massieve beton je langzaam maar zeker het zicht, alsof je het water inloopt. Als je vervolgens weer omhoog loopt ben je je plots zeer bewust van de verlaagde waterspiegel. Deze ervaring heb ik ook in mijn compositie willen vangen. De luisteraar maakt met de oren een wandeling om het werk: een spiegelcanon die zo rigide is als een betonnen muur.
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MERIÇ ARTAÇ
(Turkey, 1990)
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In my composition, I reflect on my first walk in Aardzee. The location has almost no straight lines.
After the narrow entrance by the bridge, when turning to the right, the space suddenly opens up, where, for the first time, the rolling earth is seen, and where you can walk through the sea mounds. Then, a larger, spatial area where it felt as if the entire journey had been planned from the very beginning. Never-ending lines, the entire space turned upside down. That whole experience gave me an unusual quest for contrast, a dialogue between the upward force of the earth's waves and the grounded, silent water that found its wisdom long ago.
