Tag 'paperinstruments'

You can read the full article, in Greek. Here is my interview, in English:

SK: Judging from the content of your site,you seem to love both noise and melody equally? Why do you think these extremes inspire you?

VH: The difference between music and noise is all in how you listen. So much music has become noise, background in restaurants and stores. It makes me worry we've forgotten how to really listen. But when we do listen, even noise is fascinating. There is so much sound around you at this very moment—notice it!

SK: What was the initial idea to set the paper instruments on fire?

VH: It seemed obvious. Flaming instruments have been done before, but to me it is heartbreaking to burn something as beautiful and difficult to make as a piano. The idea fascinated me, but I couldn't do it. But the paper instruments, while I'd spent many hours crafting some of them, are easier to destroy. Maybe because I created them in the first place.

SK: I 've seen some experimental musicians to set fire to their pianos but the nature of a burning paperwind(?) is much more impressive since breath and air consequently are so crucial for both fire and sound to exist.What do you think?

VH: Yes, that was one of the most beautiful things about it! Our breath was translated into not only sound, but also light. I think we all felt like dragons. So many people have made visual representation of music, but this was more than a representation—the fire was dancing with us.

SK: How was the experience during the playing? (emotions,the alteration of the sound during burning,injuries maybe)?

VH: We were improvising, and improvising is a wonderful thing. When you improvise, you are discovering together. One person discovers a rhythm, the next discovers a melody that fits the rhythm, and so on. But with fire, we were also discovering new ways to use our instruments, ways to manipulate the flame, and ways to play with light. This was a part of improvisation I had never experienced before. We had to adapt to the changes we each made in the music, and to what the flame did to the instruments. Fire is a great metaphor. We shared the flame, passed it to each other, supported each other's inner fire.

SK: In the relevant text of the video you are writing about the music's dependency on the ephemeral.Could you develop your thoughts on this statement?

VH: There are such beautiful moments in music, that climax which you wait for through the entire piece. But you can't take a snapshot of that moment and hang it on a wall to admire at your leisure. As soon as you try to isolate it, it becomes meaningless. You need the music leading up to it, and you can only stay there for so long before you have to move on. Even in dance, another art form strongly embedded in time, we can enjoy a still image. Music cannot be caught—it is there one moment, and then it is gone.

SK: "You are the last person who will ever play that burning instrument." This is definitely one of the strongest lyrics I've ever heard even though it's not supposed to be one. What do you think about the human condition are we just one-use burning instruments in a way?

VH: I'm not sure which is more ephemeral: music or humans. If we are just one-use burning instruments, who is playing us? I am quite certain that, more than I play music, music plays me. I'm sure many other composers feel the same.

Click to play (3 min 36 sec)

Also available on YouTube.

Click to play (4 min)

Also available on YouTube.

A bunch more paper-instrument stuff is coming soon, so stay tuned!

1.	Storm	Click to play (1 min 55 sec)	Also available on YouTube.
2.	Didgeriduel	Click to play (1 min 37 sec)	Also available on YouTube.

Before we burned all the instruments, I made some studio recordings. Here are three short pieces for paperwinds and paper tube xylophone:

1.	Dance	Click to play (56 sec)
2.	A3 A4	Click to play (1 min 32 sec)
3.	Floo-ee-oo-ee-ute	Click to play (1 min 38 sec)

1.	Storm	Click to play (1 min 43 sec)
		A piece for paper xylophone and assorted paper winds.
2.	Didgeriduel	Click to play (1 min 16 sec)
		A piece for two dueling paper didgeridoos, paper tube harp, paper drum, and--unintentionally--dog.

Here's a picture of the band rehearsing. From left to right: Frank Maes on paper drum, a blurry Hendrik Goris playing the paper xylophone faster than the eye can see, myself adjusting a paper slide-flute (note that the skirt is made of paper as well), and Stefan Langerman on the paper hand-flute. In the corner you can see the two black tubes of the tube bass, and most of the giant didgeritube.

So you can get an idea of the theatrics behind the didgeriduel, here is Stefan with the giant didgeridoo which extended into the audience (it is not at full length in this picture), and myself with a comparatively small didge.

Here is Hendrik playing the tube harp. Like the paper xylophone, the pitches can be adjusted easily by changing the lengths of the tubes.