Frontcover: details of Burnt Umber & Ultramarina (Oil on canvas, 1973) by Yun Hyong-Keun. Photography by Laziz Hamani
Label: audioMER. – audioMER.021.CD Format: CD, Limited Edition Country: Belgium Released: 11 Nov 2019 Genre: Electronic Genre: Experimental, Contemporary Classical, Field Recording, Drone Composer and performer: Mireille Capelle Musical Assistant and mastering: Bodo Peeters With: HERMESensemble Piano: Koen Kessels Artwork: Yun Hyong-Keun Photography: Laziz Hamani Edition: 350 copies
A production of Inspiratum. Published by Inspiratum and audioMER.
BLUE VEIL
audioMER. is honored to announce the release of a new CD; Blue Veil with music by Mireille Capelle (BE) and HERMESensemble.
The world of Mireille Capelle is one of music and theatre. She has performed as a singer in numerous European opera houses, under the artistic direction of the foremost stage directors and conductors. She is member of the artistic board of HERMESensemble. Mireille Capelle has a particular affinity with contemporary music and art, characterized by many encounters with the most important contemporary composers.
Blue Veil is a sonic architecture composed for the exhibition I Fortuny. Una Storia di Famiglia, curated by Daniela Ferretti, at Palazzo Fortuny, in Venice from May 6 till November 24, 2019. The essence of the piece was inspired by the installation of Axel Vervoordt and Tatsuro Miki in the wabi-space of the palace.
A live performance with artist Marie Balcaen took place on 27 September 2019 at Palazzo Fortuny.
“With a glance so divine, she gathered all the beauty spread among the last twilight of September in her expert eyes, as such the garlands of light, under their living brown sky, created by the oar on the nearby water, were surrounded by the high golden angels, with, shining in distance, the bells of San Marco and San Giorgio Maggiore.” — Gabriele d’Annunzio
Mariano Fortuny y Madrazo, Henriette dressed as a Pompeian, 1935
Mireille Capelle in her words about the piece:
“I took two pieces of white marble stones—both sculptural and radiant. I banged and rubbed them. In Venice I recorded the sounds of the bells of San Marco and the rustling of the water. I remembered the words coming to me. Sometimes they came very clear, sometimes barely understandable. Stemming from my fictional journey into the past, the words of Proust and d’Annunzio arrived… I catch Wagner’s breath as in his Shepherd’s Song… The whisper of a great white sail in the wind…
In Blue Veil Henriette Fortuny—the silent muse—appears. Her pink dress and blue veil are floating in the wind… There is light of sounds and shadows. Blue Veil is both a quest for transparency and a path of perpetual repetition. I wanted this piece to allow us to hear the inaudible. I wanted to enlarge what is hidden in sound. “Eternity is the one who is, who will be and who was”. This sentence from Plato signifies to me that we are all particles of eternity.”
These dresses by Fortuny, faithfully antique but powerfully original, revealed themselves as a decor, but with greater evocative force than decor, since the decor remained to be imagined, Venice, all congested with the Orient…” — Marcel Proust
Details of Burnt Umber & Ultramarina (Oil on canvas, 1973) by Yun Hyong-Keun. Photography by Laziz Hamani. Words by Mireille Capelle
Mireille Capelle appeared in various films and plays, as in an impressive number of operatic roles including Wagnerian parts such as Eva and Kundry, or Salome and Der Komponist (Richard Strauss) and a slew of French characters from Charlotte and Metella to Jeanne d’Arc (Jeann d’Arc au bûcher, by Honegger). In parallel she developed a large concert repertoire including main sacred and secular works from early baroque to contemporary music. She sang under the baton of Marc Minkowski, Jos Van Immerseel, Massimo Zanetti, Sylvain Cambreling, Seiji Ozawa, Koen Kessels, Alain Altinoglu …and was directed by Robert Carsen, Guy Joosten, Andrea Breth, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Alvis Hermanis…
Mireille Capelle belongs to the most versatile singers of her generation. She manages to combine most intimate singing as a classical recitalist and opera singeer with pioneering all round “performances” as a vocalist, composer and soundscaper. Her apport to contemporary music is enormous, including fruitful encounters with composers such as Cage, Crumb, Carter, Maxwell -Davis, Kagel, Battistelli, Sciarrino, Brewaeys, Hubber, Wim Henderickx… Furthermore she is linked to the HERMESensemble as a member of the artistic committee and performer.
As a Professor at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts & Conservatorium from Ghent she has since many years largely contributed to the all round vocal education of the next generation singers.
Her sound scapings — also defined as Sonic Architecture — are electronic sculptures to be performed as a live format. The first one, Kinesis Akinetos, was created at the art community Kanaal of Axel Vervoordt (B), beneath the Anish Kapoor installation entitled “At the Edge of the World”. Nefesh and Ruach were created at the “Contemporary Music Festival” in Liège (B). Anello and Tra at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, eventually Naga had its première in Paris. Other sonic architectures include Quasars (2016) for the MOFO Festival in the Mona, Museum of Old and New Art, in Australia. Aurum was composed for the exhibition Proportio and Do’un was created for the exhibition Intuition. Both exhibitions were curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti.
Selected discography:
Mireille Capelle, Anello. Naga. Sunyata (Triple CD set, audioMER., 2009)
Mireille Capelle with HERMESensemble, Aurum (CD, Inspiratum, 2015)
Mireille Capelle with HERMESensemble, DO’UN (CD, audioMER., 2017)
Mireille Capelle with HERMESensemble, Blue Veil (CD, audioMER. and Inspiratum, 2019)
