MEDIATHEK

Koerikoeloem is a multidisciplinary music-theatre piece based on the eponymous poem of Tjitske Jansen combining sound-art, environmental music, movement, experimental poetry and music inspired by a musical tradition that was forbidden a 1000 years ago. In this piece the wind is a hidden, immersive character: invisible though ever present in sound.
 It is staged in a vast, open landscape without any electricity nor amplification. The audience is seated on a circle-shaped ground sheet, surrounded by 8 aeolian harps that provide a constantly fluctuating spectral drone caused by the ever-changing wind. The music moves throughout the piece interacting with this drone, composed within it's spectrum.
 During the performance we hear bits and pieces from the protagonist's life, gradually unravelling an absent character. Surround by many voices telling many stories the listener finds himself unable to grasp everything, until he surrenders to the fact he has to focus in order to follow what's going on. This inability to get a grip on what's going on is an important theme in Jansen's poem and is reflected the fact that part of the musical composition is the uncontrollable role of the wind. Only partly one can predict what sound will come out of the aeolian harps during the performance, it's elusiveness being a metaphor for life itself.
 Singers and musicians are staged moving constantly around and in between the audience, and sometimes closely engage with them, whispering in their ears.