As part of his Soundvoice research, Lieven Martens will present an interactive sound installation, The Soundscape Generator, at Het Bos on February 4th. He will also accompany two listening walks through Antwerp and give a brief presentation of his research to the public. To finish the evening, he has invited composer Heleen Van Haegenborgh for a concert.
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Symphony play-along, revisited
This concert is a spin-off of Symphony for one hundred citizens and a traffic light, a large-scale symphony of everyday urban sounds composed by Heleen Van Haegenborgh together with/and based on an idea by artist Thomas Verstraeten. One hundred city residents from all corners of Antwerp each played their own “instrument”. On stage there were no violins, woodwinds or percussion instruments, but cars with growling engines, a sunny terrace with clinking glasses, barking dogs, a wheeled suitcase sliding over cobblestones, a singing street guitarist, a road worker with a jackhammer, a clock striking 12, birds chirping, etc.
To inaugurate the soundscape generator installation, Heleen Van Haegenborgh is bringing this work back to life in an adapted version. She is working with the recordings of the premiere at De Singel and adding synths and electronics. She will be accompanied live by Saori Miraku, whom she met through Musarc, a London choir with which Heleen has been working closely for years. Saori is classically trained and active in the London improvisation scene as a pianist, composer, improviser and performer.
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Heleen Van Haegenborgh started her career as a pianist, specialised in contemporary music and extended techniques. Over the last years, she’s very active as a composer with commissions in the fields of contemporary music, old music, theater, visual arts and jazz. In Belgium, she worked closely together and made several records with visual artists and musicians with other backgrounds: jazz, electronics, Japanese music, free jazz,…She is seen as a musician who connects the circuits of contemporary classical music, free impro and experimental underground.