In residence: HANS BECKERS at ROSKOT

hans beckers at roskot AALST, With his sound installation ‘Sonare Machina’ sound artist and performer Hans Beckers emphasizes the aesthetics and rhythms of sound, noise and silence. Using self-made instruments, he shows how objects that are not generally considered fit to play music on can in fact become musical instruments.

Sonare Machina is an ‘orchestra of sounds’ that exists of 29 found objects with an interesting and subtle sound quality, including: egg slicers, dessert bowls, sieves, poppy seeds, dried grass, an egg cup and a French fries cutter. Each instrument is separately driven by an old switchboard relay and can be considered as a musician with an individual contribution and improvisatory style.

For these 29 musicians a score was composed in which the performer engages in a dialogue with his ‘fellow musicians’, aided by a self-made table instrument that amplifies normally inaudible sounds through a magnetic field. In a combination of composition and improvisation, a whole range of materials is being tuned and rhythmically, melodically and harmonically played. Sorare Machina is a performance in which the musician/performer plays and manipulates the installation.