The Amsterdam Yellow-Lounge Adventure

The Amsterdam Yellow-Lounge Adventure

By the end of this remarkable night on September 11th, pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard and I  - and everyone else in this cavernous former printing factory converted into a night-club - just couldn’t stop smiling! I’ve never seen hundreds of young people so happy after listening/watching, entranced with classical music. Don’t tell me there isn’t a future audience for the classics – and we’re talking about modern classics too! They were totally focussed throughout and apart from those lounging, most of them had standing room only. Some standing in the visuals. With all those colours creeping over them, they had to feel involved - they had become part of the drama.

Pierre-Laurent played and I made kinetic paintings, as we would in a concert hall.  My analogue light-source projected my glorious saturated colours straight on to the screen behind the piano (well, except for those bits that were designed to escape "out of the box"!).

But on this occasion, VJ Niek Das picked up my kinetic visuals and projected ghostly other-coloured fragments on to multiple gauze screens hung throughout this huge space. This audience could “see” music reflected in every corner of the building.

There was much appreciation for the way in which Pierre-Laurent introduced himself and his repertoire. It was refreshingly low-key, friendly, yet so informative. First Tristan Murail’s Cloches, then his Debussy Préludes, then Scriabin (the composer obsessed with music and colour), then me, another man whose life's passion is to synchronize coloured visuals with music.

We each said a few words about this concept, then embarked on George Benjamin’s Fantasy on Iambic Rhythm, with Niek dispersing my visual rhythms to illuminate every dark corner and anyone standing in the way.

A special word of thanks to Paul Popma of UNIVERSAL MUSIC.

All photos copyright Ingvild Molenaar. www.ingvildmolenaar.nl

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