T.I.M.E. (2012-2014)
Music Theater Laboratorium
T.I.M.E. is the ensemble of the Music Theater department of the Royal Conservatory of The Hague. A group of young performers from all kinds of different art backgrounds who worked together for two years and created several Music Theater performances.
Oberioe 12|12|12 (2012) is a one-hour performance inspired by the life and the texts of the Russian absurdist writer Daniil Kharms and the ‘Oberiu’ evenings organized by the Russian avant-garde movement ‘Union of Real Art’.
In Cyclophonia (2013), two bicycles - or rather two sound installations - each carrying five people - approach each other extremely slowly. On each bike, there are organ pipes: small soprano pipes, but also big bass pipes, blown with four bicycle pumps. There is a set of amplified percussive bicycle parts, distorted Wagner voices, a choir, and Nietzsche texts. The organ plays Wagner and Feldman, slowly, slower than slow. The bicycles cross each other and move on in opposite directions. It's nothing and at the same time, it is everything.
REVIEWS
Holland Festival
Slowly, two scaffolds on wheels welded together with about ten granny bicycles, move towards
each other through the passage of the Rijksmuseum. One drags a battery of organ pipes behind
it, the other one is packed with percussion consisting of chains, handlebars, bike frames,
and bicycle bells. Each of these constructions carries half a dozen students from the Royal
Conservatory who sing, act, and make music. [...] So far, the weekly concerts in the passage
are without a doubt the most successful performances of this year's Holland Festival. And
they are even for free. [...] Based on what I have seen until now, it seems that a group of
Music Theater students has understood more about contemporary Music Theater than the entire
top program of the Holland Festival. The pretensions and the high production values make
Francesconi, Van der Aa, Dillon, and Fabre each fall into their form of mannerism. Should we
then just skip all the fringes and tassels? Isn't music theater the art form of the 21st
century after all? No! We just shouldn't listen to Pierre Audi. There are certainly good,
present-day reasons for giving music a theatrical interpretation. After all, music is just
organized sound, and a cult of musical complexity, virtuosity, and ‘deep listening’ is not
the way to keep the art form alive either. We have to explore the boundaries of disciplines
to create fundamentally new musical experiences, and in a time when everything can be 'art',
presentation is an essential part of every art form, including music. You just shouldn’t be
interdisciplinary because you have to, but because it's fun. The new generation understands
that and rides in a musical bicycle monster under the Rijksmuseum, instead of convulsively
trying to be contemporary in a bubble.
– muziekvan.nu –
(translated by Claudia Hansen)
Concept Cyclophony Ensemble – Bicycle Installation Paul Beuk – Composition Thomas Bensdorp, Maya Verlaak – Sound Design Jillis Kruk, Glenn Ryszko – Costumes Joske Koning – Organ Lucas Kramer – Voice Sterre Konijn – Percussion Claudia Hansen – Performance Thomas Bensdorp, Claudia Hansen, Sterre Konijn, Joske Koning, Lucas Kramer, Jillis Kruk, Jorinde Kuipers, Bas Maassen, Glenn Ryszko, Lisa Verbelen, Maya Verlaak – Production T.I.M.E.
LIVE
28.09.2013
TodaysArt Festival
@Stadhuis
Den Haag, NL
06.09.2013
Fort Wierickeschans
Bodegraven, NL
20.06.2013
Holland Festival
@Rijkspassage
Amsterdam, NL
13.06.2013
Holland Festival
@Rijkspassage
Amsterdam, NL
06.06.2013
Holland Festival
@Rijkspassage
Amsterdam, NL
31.05.2013
Rotterdamse Operadagen
@De Doelen
Rotterdam, NL
25.05.2013
Schermerstad
Leiden, NL
24.05.2013
Schermerstad
Leiden, NL
12.12.2012
Scheltema
Leiden, NL
06.10.2012
TogetherNow Festival
@Lucent Dans Theater
Den Haag, NL