This may be a bit off topic, but let’s say there is always room for something absolutely beautiful. The visual concert More Moving Music by the Calefax reed quintet in collaboration with Dutch designer Jaap Drupsteen is unassailable such a thing. Still to be seen tonight in Leiden, next week in Utrecht and later this month in Rotterdam.
Calefax presents itself as a ‘classical ensemble with a pop mentality’. Their repertoire is modern classical and the execution is really brilliant and surprising. Yesterday evening in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ, the same venue where we will celebrate WDCD Live in little more than a week, the five musicians played their highly complex music for one and a half hour without interruption.
But I must be honest; what drew me to the concert was the promise of seeing new work by Jaap Drupsteen, who is best known for his unrivalled designs of the former guilder bank notes. Lees known is Drupsteen’s continuous research into music visualization. Endless experimenting with the syncing of computer graphics to the beat and tones of music has led to an incredible oeuvre of pulsing and dancing abstract graphics, exhibited last year in Museum Hilversum and Rijksmuseum Twenthe.
For ‘More Moving Music’ Drupsteen designed new video animations to go along with several pieces on the Calefax repertoire. The result is spectacular. All animations are meticulously designed in the studio based on the scores of the music. A special programme puts the animations in sync with the live music. The pulsing abstract images on the screen behind the musicians largely strengthens the repetitive music of the quintet. The wavy, colourful lines that support Maktub by Dutch composer Willem Jeths for instance create a wonderful dreamy visual world that leaves you absolutely overwhelmed.
Go there, if you can. For concert data, visit calefax.nl.