ICTUS
sound maze

Seismic

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Seismic
Location

Stage director Aïda Gabriels invites Ictus ensemble, one dancer and composer-organist Maria W Horn for a long performance in which the audience is immersed in a flow of sound, visual art, light, and movement. The slowness, the ritualization of the concert, and the gradual invasion of the entire sound space by an atypical quintet (string trio, trombone and analog synthesizers) create what Maria W Horn calls “aural monoliths”. In a similar way, to Aïda Gabriels music only reveals its deepest impact when it is considered as an art in space rather than an art in time. From that point on, anything can happen. Slowness does not mean beatitude. The exploration of the grain of sound is not the harmony of the spheres. Danger lurks. The soundscape gradually reveals its cracks, its crumbling, its layered structure, and its seminally seismic nature: once we pass certain thresholds, we enter a zone of high turbulence.

Aïda Gabriels:
"... a performance that draws the audience into a continuous flow of sound, light, movement, and spatial tension. Here, sound behaves like matter under pressure, seismic, shifting, alive."

Klaas Coulembier, "De Toonbank" for Concertgebouw Brugge
“SEISMIC shifts the way we look at the world. It lets go of the traditions and rituals of the concert format, searching for a new way of engaging with music. This is not a concert, but a total environment where scenography, choreography, and music form a unified whole. As a spectator, you leave the safe anonymity of the concert hall seat behind. You become part of the space and decide where and how to connect with the soundscape, which is constantly in motion."

GALLERY

Seismic — photo 1
Seismic — photo 2
Seismic — photo 3

CAST & CREDITS

WORKS

Concept & direction: Aïda Gabriels
Created with and performed by Nabou Claerhout, Geert De Bièvre, Victor Guaita, Maria W. Horn, Aisha Orabayeva, Ruben Orio, Matteo Sedda
Dramaturgy: Tom Pauwels
Light: Astrid Van Steenkiste
Sound: Vincent Bongnie
Scenography: Astrid Van Steenkiste, Tanja Mala Ngombe & Noir Métal (Pans, 2022, Modular steel structure. Work produced as part of the exhibition presented at La Verrière by Fondation d’entreprise Hermès)
Scenographic advice: Milan Hendrickx
Choreographic advice: Matteo Sedda
Production management: Ruth Sarens & Anita Cappuccinelli

PERFORMERS
Nabou Claerhout: trombone
Geert De Bièvre: cello
Victor Guaita: viola
Maria W Horn: organ, keyboards
Aisha Orazbayeva: violin
Rubén Orio: percussion
Matteo Sedda: movement

PRODUCTION
Production: B-Classic
Co-production: Ictus, Oester, Botanique, Concertgebouw Brugge & Per Podium

This production was made possible with the support of the Flemish Community
and with the support of the Tax Shelter measure of the Belgian Federal Government
With thanks to Needcompany

Alvin Lucier: Love Song
Maria W Horn: Crystal Shades of Sorrow
Alvin Lucier: Wind Shadows
Laure M. Hiendl: Chronochromatic Variations I
Aisha Orazbayeva: Open for Feedback
Maria W Horn: Time Variables
James Tenney: Having Never Written A Note For Percussion
Maria W Horn: All Solids Melt Into Aether

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Seismic — Ictus