In 1998, Belgian visual artist Ana Torfs made her first and only feature film Zyklus von Kleinigkeiten (Cycle of Trifles), based on Ludwig Van Beethoven’s so-called ‘conversation books’, small notebooks which allowed his visitors to ‘talk’ to the famous composer after his hearing deteriorated dramatically in 1818.

In the original version, the film was to end with the canon « Wir irren allesamt, nur jeder irret anders » (We all err, but everyone errs differently) sung by some of the actors. This is the last composition written by Beethoven, in December 1826. This scene was taken out in the final cut, something Torfs always regretted. The project conceived with Ictus is the result of this regret. It would not have seen the light of day without the digitization of the film by Cinematek in Brussels and the Dutch Eye Filmmuseum.

Two composers-performers, Aurélie Nyirabikali Lierman and Jean-Luc Fafchamps are getting together with Lucy Grauman, George van Dam and Géry Cambier for an informal musical moment. The playing and singing musicians invite the public to be the privileged witness of their discovery of the last composition Beethoven wrote, in December 1826: the riddle canon Wir irren allesamt, nur jeder irret anders (We all err, but every-one errs differently). This speculative, cryptic and playful exercise will result unavoidably in a musical fiction, as a lighthearted happening between friends in the dining room.