Journal, Music, Projection, Stage Design
This is the second and final night of ‘On Moonlight and Rain’ with B.O.X and Valgeir Sigurddson. After more than a year and a half of working on this show, it’s a relief to have the music and the images out there in the world and have people respond to them. We’d like to thank… Read more »
Journal, Music, Projection, Stage Design
After a process of nearly 20 months thinking, writing, working and dreaming, the day arrives that’s been engraved in the back of our skulls since late September 2015: the premiere of ‘On Moonlight and Rain’ at deSingel. The build-up towards the moment is hectic. We have a final run through in costume during the afternoon…. Read more »
Journal, Music, Projection, Stage Design
Another round of stop-and-go. We play the show to the best of our abilities, in costume, so the lights can be adjusted accordingly. But the visual team is running into various technical difficulties. Time is against us, mostly, to get the projections 100% in place. Swapping the stage at last notice shook up things more… Read more »
Journal, Music, Projection, Stage Design
We move all our gear to the Theatre Studio, where the stage awaits the musicians. Lights and décor are all in place, but right before the sound engineers are coming in with their stuff, we decide to swap musicians’ positions and go for an asymmetrical layout. It enhances the visual experience for the audience, who… Read more »
Journal, Music, Projection, Stage Design
All the way along with the musical sessions, the visual team, Lucas and Jeroen, are privately having their technical rehearsal. They’re safely tucked away at the Theatre Studio, where the piece will be performed Thursday and Friday, cozy behind the backdrop of the stage. There’s another production going on tonight, so there’s very little time… Read more »
The stage is set up and it sure looks impressive. Under supervision of Lucas, the stagehands mount the two huge screens and rig the lights. It takes the largest part of the day to set everything up. We’ll be moving in tomorrow afternoon and have run-throughs with the visuals. Lucas is facing difficulties: he programmed… Read more »
In the morning session we have a stop-and-go-through for Valgeir. He takes notes and shares his thoughts after lunch. First, we need to improve the listening situation. We have a new soundcheck and bring in a pair of stereo speakers at ear level. It seems that not everybody is hearing well. This, of course, affects… Read more »
On this unanticipated off day we visit the visual team and their scale models for a round up. The scale models of the mountain for ‘White Peaks’ and ‘The Reed Choked’ little house we made, are nearly done. There’s a startling realistic scale model of the moon and a beautiful Japanese inspired landscape laid out… Read more »
We had fruitful rehearsals over the last couple of days. The material is taking shape, as the musicians are getting more familiar with it. Before Valgeir arrives Saturday, we work on final B.O.X and Glows’ versions of all the songs, except for ‘White Peaks’ and ‘On Poverty and Wealth’. Those two songs are scheduled for… Read more »
Last day off before we embark on the final leg towards the premiere. The lyrics are all coming to a conclusion. ‘The Blue Hood’ needed minor modifications. ‘Kibitsu’ finally has the chorus it deserves and little odds and ends are cleared up in the final version of ‘A Serpent’s Lust’. It’s time to study and… Read more »
We have two new players on board: Steuart Pincombe plays the baroque cello and brings an amazing energy to the band. The fine mannered Italian traverso player Matteo Gemolo works perfect in tandem with Jon Birdsong, our cornetto and horn player. The first week was all about exploring the material. The second week is about… Read more »
We manage to play all the songs through in a first, shaky version. Yesterday we focused on the first half of the set, today we’re practicing the second half. By the day’s end, we string up all the songs and have a first run through of the show. It’s good to play everything in order… Read more »
Second off day. There’s a small production meeting over diner with Pieter and Bram only. Musically, things are going astray because of, basically, insufficient leadership. It installs a laissez-passer rehearsal culture. People show up late or leave early; there’s more discussion than actual playing and nobody watches out over the general vision. If rehearsals continue… Read more »
The musicians have the weekend off, but there’s plenty of action behind the scenes. Jon is refining the arrangements, based on the input collected from the players. We need definite scores with structures in place, else too much time is lost on figuring out where everybody exactly is on the page. The Glows are shaping… Read more »
Journal, Music, Musicians, Projection, Stage Design
A funeral starts the rehearsal later. Without a rhythm section, there’s not much playing. So we start in the afternoon and Jutta Troch joins us on Baroque harp. We go over the songs we did over the last couple of days. And we run ‘Kibitsu’ for the very first time. After the rehearsal the Glows… Read more »
Geert Hellings joins in on guitar and lapsteel today, providing beautiful textures to ‘Rain’, ‘The Chrysanthemum Vow ‘ and ‘White Peaks’. We groove away in ‘The Blue Hood’ and find out that ‘The Reed-Choked House’ could benefit from some electronic rhythm, since Mattijs is at the marimba all the time. Unfortunately, later that evening, we… Read more »
After warming up with almost seven minutes of ‘Rain’, we go through ‘White Peaks’ and have a go at ‘A Serpent’s Lust’. There’s the first run of ‘The Carp of My Dreams’ and ‘A Reed-Choked House’. And we end the day with ‘On Poverty and Wealth’.
First rehearsal day at deSingel. The first two weeks, we’ll be working from the music studio. We start out as a smaller ensemble: the rhythm section Nicolas (bass) and Mattijs (drums), Nel on piano and vocals, Bram on vocals and guitar, Jon is there as arranger and cornetto player, Liam plays gamba and represents the… Read more »
Final day before we actually get into the music studio with eight musicians. This is an ideal moment to take stock and prepare the last few things. We put the vocal harmonies we created and recorded yesterday together with the final demo’s, so everybody can get a clear idea of what is happening vocally. Even… Read more »
The structures and melodies might be well in place, that doesn’t mean we’re ready to sing. We figure those kind of things out in the vocal rehearsals with Glows only. Harmonizing melodies takes up some time, especially if we stick to the aesthetic rules we invented for ourselves over the years. “A Serpent’s Lust” and… Read more »
After an extensive writing period that started mid March 2017, fourteen months later, the music is finished. All the structures and melodies are in place. Two lyrics need more polishing and there are a few little this and that’s (a melody line here, a harmonization there) that need wrapping up. But all in all, this… Read more »
Major setback. Miscommunication between Valgeir and us has led to a situation where nobody is arranging the material. This is important, we don’t want to step into a rehearsal with an orchestra without having parts for people to play. Or have no clue as to what needs to be done with a song. Fortunately, Jon… Read more »
Journal, Projection, Stage Design
We pass by Ercola with art director Bob to follow up on the scale models. We see the table in a rudimentary form, with the basis of much of the scale models in place. A lot of stuff needs to be refined to the exact measurements; things need to be ordered and bought. The little… Read more »
Journal, Projection, Stage Design
Second meeting with Jean. It’s time to get into details about the scale models and their construction. We run through the show scene by scene and go over each effect we want to create and how we’re going to create it. We sent Jean a couple of pictures with ideas for the aesthetics of the… Read more »
Meeting with Jean Block at Ercola, who is building the décor and stage props, particularly the projection table and the scale models. The table is crucial: it’s a theatre-within-a-theatre. The projected images will be made onstage. It needs the illusion of depth, but it also should be practical thing, allowing for easy changeovers. A concept… Read more »
Jan van den Borre, the Traverso player, is out of the equation. His previous tour got extended a couple of weeks, which makes it impossible for him to join us. We found a replacement in Matteo Gemolo.
We contacted all the musicians. Some people are flying in from London, so we didn’t meet everybody yet. We sent out an email to welcome everybody and introduce them to the Google Drive wet set up with most of the material. A shared online drive is an ideal tool to distribute all the necessary information…. Read more »
Journal, Projection, Stage Design
We’re looking for mini jellyfish. Nel goes to the pet store to get more information. They’re not that expensive, but the aquarium is. We’ll see if it all fits the budget. A lot of other stuff is taken care of: reaching out to radio stations for promotion, ordering material for the stage setup, drawing up… Read more »
Journal, Projection, Stage Design
On the first real sunny day of the year, we get together with Lucas to decide on the nature of the projected images. Conceptually, we’ll make a movement from figurative to abstract. In the first half, we’re going to work with scale models, the second half will make use of analogue visual effects. This goes… Read more »
Journal, Music, Projection, Stage Design
The snowball of the production is rolling, picking up speed and increasing in volume as it goes down the hill. More and more decisions need to become final. The premiere is gleaming on the horizon. We have a great meeting with the visual team. They’re revealing the 3D model they’ve been shaping up over the… Read more »
The last couple of weeks have been intense lyric wise. Bram took out a full month to write most of the material. The clock is ticking. Lyrics are decisive for all other parts of the show, they offer guidance for the visual team and for the musicians. It’s very simple: everybody needs to know what… Read more »
Fixing press. Promotion is important, we want to sell out the two dates and have known that The Golden Glows are back on track with a new production. We secure an interview in a large Belgian weekly and a rehearsal picture in another. Television is next to impossible for a non-mainstream show like ours. Radio… Read more »
We go out to percussionist Mattijs Vanderleen to work out marimba patterns for ‘The Reed Choked House’, a percussion driven song. The lyric is finished and there’s a structure to the song, so it’s fairly easy to put everything in place. We add some breaks here and there. Another thing that comes up is the… Read more »
We drive out to Ghent to meet film director Benny Vandendriessche and talk about a film for ‘On Moonlight and Rain’. Promotion wise, we need two things, two different instruments actually. To reach out to promoters worldwide and be able to get the show sold, we need a showreel, ideally a run through of the… Read more »
Bram and Nel review compositions. The melody in the second part of ‘On Poverty and Wealth’ sounds a bit odd. We check ‘The Reed Choked House’ and we come up with a final structure for ‘The Carp of My Dreams’, the fifth piece of the show. Nel wrote a beautiful imaginative melody that evokes an… Read more »
Second day of The Golden Glows vocal sessions. We return to ‘The Chrysanthemum Vow’ and work out harmonies for ‘On Poverty and Wealth’. Since there is no real logic to the scheme we’re playing, coming up with a harmony is quite challenging. We schedule the rest of the sessions in the month of April. The… Read more »
The Golden Glows come together for their first vocal session. It’s been a while since we worked on new material, but more than a decade shared experience in our journey makes up for steady routines. Working out vocal goes quite fast usually and this time is no exception. We come up with the girl’s backing… Read more »
Journal, Projection, Stage Design
The projection techniques are raising the question once more for a central object that can shift shapes during the show. Light designer Lucas and architect Jeroen sat together and came up with a 3D laser cut object based on Origami. It could make up for an intriguing third screen on stage, one that even encapsulates… Read more »
We finish a first version of ‘The Reed Choked House’, staying close to the original narrative, but bending it in small, but significant ways. The song follows a man on the way back to his rural Japanese village after an absence of seven years. He finds his wife in their house. They talk, they cry,… Read more »
There is a breakthrough in the song ‘On Poverty and Wealth’. We arrived to write the second piece of the lyric and finish it. The last few touch ups make up for a beautiful poem spoken by the spirit of gold. He gives advice on how to feel rich and accomplished in life and elsewhere. … Read more »
We develop a melody over the marimba patterns Mattijs sent over a couple of days ago. A Japanese Hirajoshi scale provides mysterious source material. The melody comes rather quickly, a bridge as well. There are no words set yet, but we collected images, little bits and pieces from the original Akinari story.
Mattijs Vanderleen worked on a few marimba patterns for ‘The Reed Choked House’. We’re collaborating over the internet on the fourth piece in the show. It needs to be percussion driven. Variety is a quality you’re looking for when constructing the larger arc of the show, so it can be sometimes useful to start with… Read more »
Journal, Music, Stage Design, The Story
Monthly meeting with all teams – for now, that’s the music team and the visual guys. We go over the tableaus we came up with scenographer and art director Bob one by one. Checking and discussing how we can make them happen. The general sentiment is that the tableaus are working in terms of poetry,… Read more »
Release of the video single “Sun & Moon & Stars”, created by Jochem Baelus, to raise online interest in the show.
Journal, Projection, Stage Design
A quick lunch with light man Lucas to inform him where we’re at with the visual content of the show. We’re simply relaying the information we gathered from our meetings with art director Bob and see how feasible they are in terms of light and technicalities. There are objections with regard to fire regulations… Read more »
Journal, Projection, Stage Design
Mood board for ‘The Blue Hood’, climax of the show. The vibe is modern and psychedelic, inspired by Benoit Debie’s dark vision of Tokyo in his beautiful cinematography for ‘Enter the Void’. Thematically, the track is related to the movie as well. We want to make the audience feel what being a ghost would be… Read more »
We think up ways of giving the audience context during the show. A libretto in book form is distracting. Subtitles on stage are a no go. But a good actor as a narrator could work. Coming in and out of the show, as a projected outside element, the narrator could tell what comes up next,… Read more »
The design of the poster, courtesy of Jelle Jespers, comes in.
Journal, Projection, Stage Design, The Story
We meet with Art Director Bob to talk about scenography. Drawing inspiration from Robertson’s Phantasmagoria, we want to enhance the emotional impact of the music to bring the audience into a certain mood. True to the Glows’ DNA, this mood is a dreamlike state, now infused with visual poetry. Bob Verhelst is attuned to the Glows’… Read more »
As we go along, Nel will become increasingly time consumed by other projects. To anticipate much of this, she wrote scores to the tunes she developed over the last few months: ‘The Chrysanthemum Vow’, ‘The Carp of My Dreams’, ‘On Poverty and Wealth’ and ‘The Serpent’s Lust’. Scores and charts are the roadmaps of the… Read more »
The first designs of the key visual by Timothy Helmer come in. Graphically bold and interesting from a design perspective, we feel his proposal goes too far for our purposes. After a couple of back and forth’s with Art Director Bob, we decide that he will take over the development of the visual style. It… Read more »
As business director, Pieter Theuns is a spreadsheet miracle. Pieter draws up a new budget, based on the new information in our rehearsal workflow. We start with a compact band and gradually build it up with more players. In the final rehearsal week, we’ll work with the full orchestra. This allows for a bit more… Read more »
Dominik Boiy sends over the demos we recorded in our first workshops, but there are some technical issues with the digital files. Fortunately, the largest chunk of work sounds fine. We have generally good recordings of our day with the full rhythm section. Something’s gone wrong with the first day though. We lost a couple… Read more »
Meeting in Graanmarkt 13 with Art Director Bob Verhelst. Bob has been absent from the production lately, so it’s time to bring him up to speed about the latest developments.
Journal, Music, Musicians, Recording
Last day of workshops. We focus exclusively on the intro track ‘Rain’. We traded the Theatre Studio in deSingel for the cosy home studio of Jutta Troch, B.O.X harpist. The idea for ‘Rain’ is to create an antechamber before the actual show. It’s song zero. The rain effect is created with plucking instruments, guitar, teorbo… Read more »
Second of our three day workshop. Still at the Theatre Studio in deSingel, percussionist Mattijs Vanderleen is joined today by Nicolas Rombouts on double bass. With this solid rhythm section, we go through a couple of songs: ‘The Carp of My Dreams’, ‘White Peaks’, ‘The Serpent’s Lust’, ‘The Chrysanthemum Vow’ and most notably ‘The Blue… Read more »
Journal, Music, Recording, The Story
First of a three day music workshop. We set up camp at the Theatre Studio in deSingel, the place where we have our première on May 18th. We take these three days as a musical laboratory. We’re operating in a small number to keep things lean. The Glows are present, so is Pieter Theuns of… Read more »
Live video is essential in the toolbox of promotion. A showreel with the full performance gets sent out to promoters worldwide, in the hope of securing more dates. Quite often, it’s the only way to shop a show around. Promoters cannot always attend performances, especially not internationally. Director Benny Vandendriessche, who collaborated with the Glows… Read more »
Graphic designer Timothy Helmer is asked to create a visual style for OMG, starting with a key visual. Once this visual establishes the style, it’s easy enough for a designer to make derivations in different kinds of media. Timothy has carte blanche, the only constraint we impose is the use of the Athos picture. The… Read more »
Intention notes are useful tools in the department of promotion. Basically a promoter, the person responsible for booking the show at a venue, not only states that he intends to buy your production in season X or Y, but also says why. Quite often, it’s because of the quality of your previous productions. Today we… Read more »
In ‘Tales of Moonlight and Rain’ Oka Sanai is regarded as a samurai with a peculiar fondness for money. One night he gets a visit from a tiny man, who introduces himself as the spirit of gold. The two exchange thoughts on their theory of wealth until dawn. Drawing musical inspiration from Eric Satie’s 1892… Read more »
Meeting with the visual team. Dreams only go as far as your wallet goes, so budget comes up first. Pieter, heading the now structurally funded B.O.X, has another ten days to hand in his year budget to the Flemish government, which includes our production. All the numbers need to be finalized in a matter… Read more »
Athos sends us the final images. We’re over the moon with his work.
Over the summer, Nel has been working on The Serpent’s Lust, the snake dance that leads up to the grand finale in our show. The sensual, passionate snake dance is all about female lust, inspired by the original story in ‘Tales of Moonlight and Rain’. A beautiful aristocratic lady seduces a young man and reveals… Read more »
Athos Burez sends over proofs. They are gorgeous. With much discussion, pro’s and cons, we made a selection for a key visual and two portraits. The styling, the location and the moody lightning, combined with Athos’ touch in the double exposure technique makes up for images we could only dream up. The color palette and… Read more »
Jan Vanden Borre is in view as our second wind instrument. He will be playing the flauto traverso, the Baroque precursor of our modern day flute. Jan is not only an exquisite baroque musician, he’s also a great admirer of indie music. A good match, both in profile and musical taste.
A production with this many odds and ends requires smooth communication. So, there’s another meeting with both the music team and the visual team. Valgeir gets updated by mail. Even at this early stage in the creation process, we have to think ahead. To get the show out there as much as possible, it’s important… Read more »
On the phone with Athos to schedule our photo session. There some misunderstanding caused by the mood board we made up. We’d like to present ourselves outside of the retro-feel and image we used the last couple of years, in favor of something a little more contemporary. It’s hard to get across what we mean,… Read more »
Once again, we brought a Folksongbook on stage with our B.O.X friends, this time in our hometown Antwerp. We played the closing festival of ‘Born in Antwerp’, a city initiative promoting creativity and innovation in our hometown.
Final day of the recording session. As we made substantial progress over the last couple of sessions and there’s still enough time left, we can revisit a couple of tunes we’re not entirely satisfied with. We head back to ‘The Demon Lover’ and have another go at a slower tempo, locking into a sexier groove… Read more »
We continue the sessions for the ‘new’ Folksongbook. Jon is having a gig and comes in later, so we focus on a couple of songs without him first. ‘Nottamun Town’ is a forceful tune we’re recroding for the first time, so we start with that one. The transition to the quiet verse is hard to… Read more »
The second recording day is reserved for Valgeir, who is a bit under the weather today. We agreed to sample the baroque instruments and voices, so Valgeir can integrate them later into his electronic tapestry or even turn them into full-fledged electronic instruments. Jutta Troch, B.O.X harpist, came over as well. She’s up first. Nicolas,… Read more »
We’re meeting early at studio Caporal, the small but well equipped home studio Nicolas Rombouts runs in Antwerp. As we set up our gear and soundcheck, Laurent Orseau is around to make band pictures. In the past we often forgot to document our process, which is a pity. Pictures make up a great souvenir of… Read more »
During the recording of A Folksongbook, Valgeir is attending the sessions. Not to have any influence on the musical process or the recording, but to sit in and listen to what we’re doing. We’ve agreed a couple of months ago this would be an excellent introduction for him to meet the band and our… Read more »
Rehearsal with the Glows and B.O.X for the upcoming recording sessions of A Folksongbook. Due to conflicting schedules we only have one rehearsal, which is a little too little for a recording like this. The rehearsal runs a bit chaotic and unfocussed. Everybody feels confident in their parts, which could be a fallacy. Despite individual… Read more »
We met with photographer Athos Burez to visit the location for the photo shoot of the key visual. We discussed the ins and outs of the double exposure picture a bit, while granting Athos maximum creative input. Schedule-wise things are tough once more, we’re probably shooting for early November.
On the hunt for musical inspiration, checking out Japanese drum patterns for ‘The Reed Choked House’, we came across this great piece of Samurai War Music.
There’s a concept for a visual. Since the dawn of modern entertainment, visuals are of great importance: a good one, at the very least, raises interest in your show. An outstanding visual has stopping power. Since we’re creating a modern ghost show, we’d like to portray members of the Glows and B.O.X as ghosts, similar… Read more »
A hot summer night with a couple of cool drinks and a superb view on the Antwerp harbor is a perfect setting to have an informal talk with the core creative team and take stock. Roughly ten months before show time, it’s important to have these kind of meetings every now and then, to see… Read more »
Finished a first round of lyrics for ‘White Peaks’ and ‘The Chrysanthemum Vow’. White Peaks is almost done now, two verses need to be revised with better images and more drama. We added a narrative choir to ‘The Chrysanthemum Vow’, which adds up to a seaside ghost song with three perspectives: there’s a narrator, a protagonist and… Read more »
During research, we came across Jonathan Safran Foers experimental novel Tree of Codes and discovered it was staged in 2015 as a contemporary ballet by choreographer Wayne McGregor and music by Jamie xx. There’s an extensive review right here. The colorful stage lighting by Olafur Eliasson is extraordinary. This is the kind of mood we’re… Read more »
Journal, Projection, Stage Design
Meeting with Bob and Lucas to discuss stage design and lighting techniques. There’s a big knot to untie that keeps coming back at us: are we going to use video in our stage design or not? With somewhat abstract lyrics, the songwriters feel the need for a visual hook to hold the story in place…. Read more »
Journal, Stage Design, The Story
We set up a new date for a meeting with the entire team. In the light of new information on content, structure and musical material, there might be implications for the projection and the lighting techniques. We might want to reconsider our current stage design.
To speed up the writing process, we’ve decided to work individually on a couple of tracks. We’ll bring the separate parts back together later and see where we land. Nel is sketching out ‘The Chrysanthemum Vow’ in chords and melody, while she is also developing an alluring irregular lead melody for ‘The Serpent’s Lust’. Bram,… Read more »
Nel and Bram get together for the first joint writing session. We start with ‘White Peaks’, the opening of the show and a song that was sketched out over the last couple of months. Bouncing off intuitions and small ideas. Much to our surprise, the broad outline of the song comes together in a couple… Read more »
Pieter, Nel and Bram, just back from holidays, meet up to discuss the current project status: budgets, venues, stage design, the blog, promotion, the recording session for ‘A Folksongbook’ and, probably the most important thing for now, the contents of the show, musically and visually. We have a better look on things now we’ve read… Read more »
Finally found a recording date for ‘A Folksongbook’, the earliest collaboration with B.O.X. The session was originally scheduled for June, then moved to July, next August… and, finally, we landed in September. Nicolas Rombouts will be engineering in his cosy studio Caporal. Hopefully Valgeir is able to hop over from Iceland and give us a… Read more »
Launch of the blog. One year till showtime.
Another run of emails with musicians and sound engineers. We gave up on the idea of recording at deSingel, instead we start looking for a compact studio.
Emailing back and forth with sound engineers, we’d like to record June 6th and 7th, it’s a tight fit to get all the musicians together.
Scenography meeting with architect and light designer.
Lucas has come up with a valuable idea to use water as a mirror surface to project on. The idea is still rough and basic, but it’s intriguing and workable.
A lot of promotional things need to be sorted out for The Golden Glows: blog, video, etc. Lots of emailing and phone calls going back and forth. More sketching on ‘White Peaks’.
I meet Lucas at a concert. We talk about some ideas he developed for analogue projection and possible suggestions for people who could help us out with digital projection. Our options are limited – we’re musicians, not very well informed about the visual art field. We set up a meeting after the weekend.
We’re reaching out to DeSingel for a recording session. As a starting point of the whole process, we’re recording A Folksongbook in the form we have been playing it for quite a few years now but, astonishingly, never laid down in a real session. The original 2007 EP didn’t feature B.O.X members, so this would… Read more »
The final count for B.O.X is seven. On the side of the Glows, we have the band, with Bram on guitar and vocals, Nel and Katleen on vocals. But they can take up other functions as well. That makes ten. Two counterweights to the baroque tones are found. Twelve. And then there’s Valgeir Sigurddson as the invaluable number 13.
Geert Hellings on guitar and lapsteel confirms. Nathan Wouters on the bass, also has the period in option.
Meeting with Nel, Pieter and Bram to discuss the musician’s line-up, from B.O.X’s side as well as the Glows. First item, the incompatibility of two players. Second point is the hybrid line up.
The Turkish video-collective NOHlab is an inspiration for mind-blowing mapping and digital projection. Our show could use digital projection, it puts so many worlds at your fingertips. Minimal setup with a maximal effect.
Phone call with Pieter Theuns. There’s a problem with the availability of some all stars players in B.O.X. A few wind players are booked. On the side of the strings, there’s an unexpected problem with two incompatible players. We need to talk this trough. Because we also need to decide on the number of players,… Read more »
Meeting with Rein Vyncke for the blog. In a quick half hour, we discuss functionality, design, deadlines and price. We need a simple WordPress we can update in the course of the year, with text, video, sound and visuals. The blog will be the central point in our promotional campaign, that gets repeatedly referred to… Read more »
Lyrical sketches for White Peaks, collected form the novel. For guitar patterns. Text comes slowly. I’ve sifted out a couple of sentences and images from the short story ‘White Peak’, the first in ‘Tales of Moonlight and Rain’. Short staccato sentences. A new narrative needs to be written. I wrote a strong first verse, that,… Read more »
First sketches for ‘Rain’ and ‘White Peaks’, looking for guitar tunings and chord progressions. We could open the show with ‘Rain’, to create a zone between the moment people enter the concert hall, coming in from outside, leaving their coat at the counter and the moment the show begins. It’s a transit zone, a short… Read more »
Creating moodboards for ‘Rain’, ‘White Peaks’ and ‘The Chrysantemum Vow’.
Meeting with the visual team. Scenography and lighting. The team gets informed of ‘Tales On Moonlight and Rain’, which allows for a fresh look on the scenography. We brainstorm a bit on analogue lighting techniques
We’re putting together a promo team. Thinking up concepts, tossing up ideas for the blog, to promote the show online, in the year leading up to the show.
Mastering session Sun & Moon & Stars, a song The Golden Glows are shooting a clip for. Since we’re going to be caught up in the preparations for ‘On Moonlight and Rain’ most of the year, and we don’t have many shows, we thought a couple of videos would be a good way to keep… Read more »
Hand over the concept text and pictures to De Singel.
I created the document ‘Tales on on Moonlight and Rain’. No final concept agreed yet. We talk until late at night and look for a compromise, that is ultimately reached by Nel. We go for the double title ‘On Moonlight and Rain’ and use the Japanese stories as a guideline, without mentioning it explicitly. The… Read more »
All what was well, isn’t so good anymore. There are doubts about the Japanese angle. We have an emergency meeting, our first text is due soon for the brochure. And the concept is off, we need to start thinking again. A lot of uncertainty and stress.
We’re browsing visual artists who’d be open to contribute to the show. In an ideal world, that would be NY artist Tony Oursler. The team comes together to discuss the concept. All is well.
Further research on content. We all feel there are interesting subjects on the table (folk music and folklore, baroque instrumentation, fantasmagoria, projection) but we lack a unifying element to tie them all together. At least, lyrically. Which contributes in large part to the show. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. Early March we need to hand… Read more »
History, Journal, Music, Projection, Stage Design, The Story
The brainstorm touches upon projection, which is, obviously, a large subject in our production – we’d like to translate a couple of principles or elements established by Robertson in his ghost shows to a 21st Century theatre setting. The question is, once more, how will the music interact with the images?
History, Journal, Music, Projection, Stage Design, The Story
We set up a meeting with people from various backgrounds, to throw up some ideas and see what sticks. It’s easier to evaluate ideas with an expert than make up dream castles in the sky.
Message from DeSingel. We’re moving to the Blue Hall, which alters infrastructure. Financial picture alters slightly. There are openings towards Courtrai and Bozar. Date holds, we’re not moving in time.
Remix with Staf Verbeeck single ‘Sun & Moon & Stars’. We mixed the song in 2015, but we were never quite satisfied with the work. There was always something off with the sound (it missed punch, warmth and depth. The previous mix was a bit too clean).
Sauna-meeting. The project hasn’t picked up much speed over the last two months, due to other occupations by the band, concerts, etc. There’s a meeting in the sauna about the business side of things, but also about the artistic side and the concept.
Theatrecompany ‘Post uit Hessdalen’ presents Poolnacht (Polenight), with light design by Lucas. The show is an imaginary journey in the mind of a character in the Arctic region. The technique is interesting: a double projection screen, retroprojection and a 3D sculpture near the end of the play. The music and the meditative images are impressive.
Meeting with Thomas Weynants. Discussing Phantasmagorie and early projection techniques. We get a huge amount of information on how a historical Phantasmagorie actually took place and about the life of Robertson. Thomas also explained how he found an original lantern and how it ended up in a museum in the Middle East. There’s a kinship between a lot of early forms of entertainment: projection, magic, fairs, early cinema…
First mood board with regard to the stage design. While composing the moodboard, the idea pops up of creating a sort of blank environment, the viewer uses to project his or her own story. With regard to a song like ‘The Demon Lover’, for example, pictures of a storm at sea could be shown. The… Read more »
In 2013, Flanders DC ran the CICI project that bridged the gap between science and the arts. It would be an interesting idea to apply for this program and develop cutting edge projection techniques based on scientific practice (A few days later, we’re informed the CICI project is no longer running due to a lack… Read more »
Short meeting with Lucas Van Haesebroek, light man. We talk about our project, trying to figure out the technicalities and find out if Lucas would be on board. He is. In theatre lighting, projection on smoke seems to be very much around these days.
Meeting with The Golden Glows. We determine our schedule for the upcoming year and discuss band-related issues.
We’re reaching out to Cinema Zuid, trying to find an expert on the Phantasmagoria shows. We need to picture how they worked, what they looked like, what techniques Robertson used in creating his early projections, etc. We get referred to Mr. Thomas Weynants, media archaeologist.
This project gets co-produced by International Arts Campus deSingel. We get a confirmation today, we’re on in May 2017. We celebrate with a modest kebab. Champagne will be for much later…
Established the first concept in a rudimentarily drafted text. The Golden Glows and B.O.X agree to create a joint show in 2017, based on the long experience we had playing A Folksongbook. We’d like to be a bit more ambitious with this new project and go beyond the pure concert form. Ideally, we’re creating a… Read more »
In 2013, Flanders DC ran the CICI project that bridged the gap between science and the arts. It would be an interesting idea to apply for this program and develop cutting edge projection techniques based on scientific practice (A few days later, we’re informed the CICI project is no longer running due to a lack… Read more »
Short meeting with Lucas Van Haesebroek, light man. We talk about our project, trying to figure out the technicalities and find out if Lucas would be on board. He is. In theatre lighting, projection on smoke seems to be very much around these days.
Meeting with The Golden Glows. We determine our schedule for the upcoming year and discuss band-related issues.
We’re reaching out to Cinema Zuid, trying to find an expert on the Phantasmagoria shows. We need to picture how they worked, what they looked like, what techniques Robertson used in creating his early projections, etc. We get referred to Mr. Thomas Weynants, media archaeologist.
This project gets co-produced by International Arts Campus deSingel. We get a confirmation today, we’re on in May 2017. We celebrate with a modest kebab. Champagne will be for much later…
The Golden Glows
Bram Van Moorhem: vocals, guitar, songwriting, lyrics, artistic direction
Nel Ponsaers: vocals, piano, songwriting, composition
Katleen Scheir: vocals
Valgeir Sigurdsson: soundscapes, live electronics
B.O.X (Baroque Orchestration X)
Pieter Theuns: theorbe, artistic direction
Jutta Troch: baroque harp
Jon Birdsong: arrangements, cornetto
Matteo Gemolo: traverso
Liam Byrne: viola da gamba
Steuart Pincombe: baroque cello
Mattijs Vanderleen: drums, vibraphone, marimba, percussion
Guest musicians
Geert Hellings: lapsteel, electric guitar
Nicolas Rombouts: double bass
Visual Team
Lucas van Haesbroeck: light design, projection
Jeroen Theuns: stage design, programming
Bob Verhelst: art director
Dominik Boiy: sound design
Veerle Vervoort: production manager
Fleur Devlieger: assistant manager
