Reinier Van Houdt has performed as a classical trained pianist in premieres of works by Robert Ashley, Charlemagne Palestine and many others. He has worked with composers such as John Cage and Luc Ferrari and plays in Current 93, recently releasing an album with contributions by Nick Cave, John Zorn and Antony Hegarty.
This album taps into the artist's obsession with recording everyday objects, situations and moments. The act of recording seems to create a third ear, a little loophole in time through which sometimes unimagined parallel fields of sound can enter. Here listening is delving into the imagination already contained in matter. Perception is a vice that constantly hallucinates realities. Creating music from these recordings was fort the artist like a process of divination of things found crawling under rocks, whirling in shaded corners, traversing the atmosphere, propelling through the ether. The ears focused as if in a gaze – but an errant gaze, sleepwalking through the different strata of matter; a gaze uninterested in possibilities, complexity, openness or totality; an errant gaze, melancholy as well as pervasive, inviting contingency by ignoring it.”
"I’ve never heard a better mix of piano, electronics and amplification than during van Houdt’s program."
Live review, New York Times
“Reinier van Houdt’s performance was radical, extreme and without compromise. One of the most impressive examples I have witnessed of maximally mesmerising an audience with ever more reduced materials.”
Live review, Weserkurier Germany
More information can be found here.
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