Archive
Atlas
Composer Joël Bons completes a new work for his expanded Atlas Ensemble, now transformed into an orchestra. Following his highly acclaimed Nomaden, this piece once again marks a grand addition to his oeuvre.
The Atlas Orchestra is a new collective consisting of more than forty musicians from diverse cultural backgrounds. It originates from the Atlas Ensemble, which Joël Bons founded in 2002. Related string, wind, and percussion instruments from East Asia, Central Asia, the Middle East, and Europe come together to create an exciting sonic palette. After centuries of evolution, the Atlas Orchestra reunites these ‘descendants’ and their musical diversity. This gives rise to ‘new music,’ a source of inspiration for both musicians and listeners.
For Nomaden, a predecessor of this work, Joël Bons was awarded the prestigious Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition in 2019—the ‘Nobel Prize for Music.’ With this new composition, which symbolizes the connection of cultures, Bons continues this journey. A unique orchestra rarely heard live!
Sunrise for
the Sleepers
Have you ever stopped to think about what the sun sounds like?
The sun vibrates in a complex pattern of sound waves, and recordings of these vibrations remarkably resemble the resonant sound of a tamtam (a special type of gong). This intriguing concept inspired visual artist Boris Acket and HIIIT to create a spectacular fusion of image, sound, and light, in which an artificial sun slowly orbits the Earth, following the sound and body of a tamtam—originating from Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Mikrophonie series.
Two celestial bodies representing the sun are accompanied by four automated tamtams and gongs. The metallic surfaces create a soundscape that changes depending on where you stand: by moving through the space, you encounter different frequencies. The two celestial bodies, installed at opposite ends of the space, form a beautiful interplay with the acoustics of the grand Herrenhausen Gallery. A fascinating duet of light, sound, space, and shadow.
Battles
&
Silences
During the First and Second World Wars, church bells were widely melted down into deadly weapons. Now that Europe is gradually being drawn into a new war on its own soil, HIIIT is reversing this process with Battles & Silences. In this project, battlefield weapon waste will serve as the foundation for a new series of instruments and compositions in the coming years.
In the spring of 2024, eight kilograms of Ukrainian bullet casings were melted down into bars in Kyiv, shipped, and then reforged in the Netherlands into a new resonant bell—marking the beginning of this reversal: turning destruction back into beauty. With Battles & Silences, HIIIT creates an alternative, immersive, and imaginary landscape that allows space to listen to this transformation and reflect on our urgent longing for peace.
Composer duo Poulson Sq. (Anthony Fiumara & Mathijs Leeuwis) confront the audience—together with two performers from HIIIT—with the pressing and ever-relevant reminder that peace is never a given. Through analog tape echoes and percussive interventions, the sounds of the 45-kilogram bell will compose a landscape of battles and silences.
Konstruct
Under the title Konstruct, HIIIT joins forces each year with Korzo and the Royal Conservatoire The Hague. Together with students from the percussion, composition, and sound art departments, new repertoire is developed through a series of workshops, sound explorations, and jam sessions, with mutual influence and innovation serving as the guiding principles.
The results of edition #29 will be presented in the main hall of Korzo — and admission is free. Featuring new music by Mateusz Godlewski, Lingyuan Yang, and Ieva Raubyte.
Geweld
&
Vibrato
An operatic performance for singing actor and soprano,
3 percussionists, 3 strings, live electronics, radio and insect sounds.
Composer Huba de Graaff found in her parents’ estate letters and photographs of her maternal uncle who fought in Indonesia for the Dutch army. In sharp contrast are all the documents she found from her paternal Indo grandfather. He appeared to have been friends with members of the Indonesian anti-colonial resistance. She is the living product of two families, embodying the two sides of this colonial war.
A Dutch soldier conducts a small orchestra in the interior of Indonesia. The music-making “natives” don’t really cooperate, and gradually, more and more annoying insects appear. Whipped up by the historic speeches of General Spoor and Prime Minister Beel, the whole thing escalates into an outburst of transgressive vibrato and theatrical violence.
An unorthodox opera, in which the phenomenon of “vibrato” is used as a metaphor for the violence of Western expansionism: overwhelming and forced transgressive vibrato.
Superball
Lollipop
&
Mr.
Classic
Superball, Lollipop & Mr. Classic is a co-production of Oorkaan and HIIIT, suitable for children ages 8 and up.
During this theatrical concert you will be carried away by the power and virtuosity of beatboxing, classical percussion and drums. The three musicians in Superball, Lollipop & Mr. Classic tell a story without words, but with their own rhythm. Beatboxing, music and dance moves come together in an exciting play in which we move to the beat we all know, the beat of our own hearts. A performance where beats and unthinkable sounds are brought together in a great battle. What do we need? Ourselves and each other! Are you ready to follow your own rhythm? When our rhythms come together we are indestructible!
Faith
FAITH makes you feel that belief is more than just a personal conviction. It is a source of trust, inspiration, and connection.
FAITH is the latest performance in The Human Odyssey series, following Fortune and Islands of Empathy. In this series, Club Guy & Roni brings together different cultures and worldviews, lets them clash, and reveals deep human connection through an explosion of live music and spectacular choreography.
Gnawa music, often associated with trance and lila rituals, guides the performers through a sensitive exploration of faith—towards a spiritual world we in the West may have drifted away from. What is still around us that we cannot see, but only feel?
The gathering of nine dancers and five musicians from the Netherlands and Morocco makes FAITH a powerful intercultural performance, in which a shared foundation is sought—one that is essential for a collective belief in the future.
One of the sources of inspiration for FAITH is the Moroccan heritage of Guy Weizman’s family, rooted in Casablanca, in the same neighborhood where Khalid Benghrib grew up. As contemporaries, they might have met, but life took a different course. Now they come together in FAITH.