The Liquid Room series, conceived for the empty space of the Kaaitheater, has acquired something of a cult status. Each Liquid Room is a mini festival on various stage where music seeks points of convergence with other disciplines. Last season, this resulted in a spectacular edition that was focused on light as a compositional building block.

Liquid Room VIII explores a simple hypothesis: music is not just sound! Since the late seventies, the discourse and reflection on music has been dominated by the keyword ‘sound’, implying a focus on terms like texture, space, vibration, and deep listening. Ictus has thus opted for a different keyword: PHRASE. At the intersection of melody and rhythm, the phrase opens up ways of thinking about things differently: music as a vital development of thought, constructed of impulses and accents, energetic circuits, movements, and agility. In PHRASES, Ictus brings together sound poetry, spoken word, modal music and a touch of animal virtuosity.

Cast

Tom De Cock percussion, decoy-duck
Dirk Descheemaeker clarinet, voice
Theresa Dlouhy voice
Alexandre Fostier sound
Caspar Langhoff light
Tom Pauwels guitar, auto-tuned voice
Jean-Luc Plouvier keyboards, voice
Eva Reiter viola da gamba, voice
Michael Schmid flutes

Programme

EVA REITER: Lichtenberg Figures #1 (chamber fragments), for altered voice, tape and musicians
ROBIN HOFFMANN: Birkhan Study, for one grouse bird whistle
SIMON STEEN-ANDERSEN: Mono, for autotuned voice and keyboard
ALESSANDRO PERINI: Study for Two Voices, for musicians and electronic setup
BERNHARD LANG: The Cold Trip (excerpts) for voice, laptop & piano
TOM JOHNSON: TileWork, for flute and speaker
PANAYIOTIS KOKORAS: Mutation, for clarinet with special reed and electronics
MICHAEL PISARO: Tombstones, for singer and ensemble
BURKHARD STANGL: With you, for soprano, gamba, e-guitar | Nights, for soprano, gamba, e-guitar
JOHN DOWLAND: Works for voice, gamba and guitar
ARTHUR LAVANDIER: My Naked Lady Framed, for voice and gamba
TOBIAS HUME: What greater grief, for voice and gamba
STEPHEN GOODALL: [Untitled], for gamba
BERNARD HEIDSICK: Vaduz, for voice and recorded voice
FRANCESCO FILIDEI: And here they do not, for voice and gamba
HEINZ HOLLIGER: Lied, for flute and microphones
JESSE BROEKMAN: Body of Unseen Beings, for small percussion instruments
EVA REITER: Lichtenberg Figures #2