focus: default #12 – 16.12.2023: Clara de Asís, Zheng Hao, Zheng Hao + W K Werkowicz, and Germaine Sijstermans (performed by Germaine Sijstermans, Leo Svirsky and Marcus Kaiser)
Our last installement of 2023 takes place at The Grey Space in the Middle on Saturday the 16th of December.
default#12 present performances by composer-performer Clara de Asís, who will present « Disappearance of », a new work for bowed metal bells and synthesizer, and London based improviser Zheng Hao. At default#12, Hao will bring both a solo performance as a duo performance together with programmer/improviser Wojciech Kacper Werkowicz, with whom she shares an interest in the elegance systems and relations constructed out of concise principles.
Furthermore, we’ll present two works by composer, installation artist and musician Germaine Sijstermans. Germaine's compositions Elexen (2020) and Cashapona (2022) will be performed by Germaine herself (bass clarinet), Leo Svirsky (accordion) and Marcus Kaiser (cello).
In this focus newsletter, we would like to share with you a selection of works made by the artists set to perform at default#12.
** practical information:
•program:
19.30 doors
20:00 Zheng Hao and W K Werkowicz
20:40 Clara de Asís: « Disappearance of »
21:30 Zheng Hao
22:20 Germaine Sijstermans’ 'Elexen (2020)' and 'Cashapona (2022)'
performed by Germaine Sijstermans, Leo Svirsky and Marcus Kaiser
•tickets: 12,5 (student), 15 (general)*
*If your current situation means that you can’t afford that & you would still like to attend, you can send an e-mail to defaultdenhaag@gmail.com and we can sort something out with you.
Clara de Asís
Clara de Asís is a composer, performer and artist who explores the nexus of acoustics, spatiality, alternative notation and the phenomenology of attention. Her work focuses on modalities of perception, incorporating electronics and analog synthesis to idiosyncratic combinations of diverse materials and found objects. Her compositions, mostly for small ensembles and within collaborative settings, juxtapose structural precision to areas of indeterminacy, drawing from an interest in experimental intonation, timbral research and the junction of rational and irrational systems.
Along with her solo practice, she has created a wide variety of works in alliance with other artists (Ryoko Akama, Mara Winter), and within long-term collaborations (Rebecca Lane). De Asís has performed extensively across Europe, the United States, South America and Asia; including apparitions in festivals such as Oscillation (Brussels), Sonica (Ljubljana), Festival Maintenant (Rennes), Sacred Realism (Berlin) and Skanu Mežs (Riga). She has been an artist-in-residence at Experimental Sound Studio (Chicago), Tsonami (Valparaíso), Q-O2 (Brussels), and EMS (Stockholm), among others. Her music is published on the labels Another Timbre (UK), Elsewhere (US), Erstwhile (US), Marginal Frequency (US), Pilgrim Talk (US), Blank Mind (UK). She also co-runs the publishing platform Discreet Editions.
at default#12, Clara will present « Disappearance of » , A piece for bowed metal bells and synthesizer. (c. 30 min.)
a selection of works include:
sisbiosis (Clara de Asís/Ryoko Akama)
(Erstwhile, 2022)
Sans Nom Ni Forme
(Pilgrim Talk, 2020)
Do Nothing
(Another Timbre, 2019)
Other releases include Fais rien (2017), Comme de loin et encore (2020), metaphor at a distance (2020), Without (2018), Tiempo, Piedra, Insecto (2019), Twelve feet tall (Clara de Asís & Mara Winter, 2020), Repetition of the same dream (Clara de Asis & Mara Winter, 2020), objet petit (Clara de Asís & Lauri Hyvärinen, 2018) and Clara de Asís & Noël Akchoté (Clara de Asís & Noël Akchoté, 2016).
Germaine Sijstermans
Germaine Sijstermans is a Dutch composer, installation artist and musician. Her works combine ephemeral, often site specific installations with indeterminate music, open to the serendipity of location and time. She creates open scores that hold the possibilities for abstract sound materials to unfold and move in organic textures, while inviting a non-linear perception and use of time. In her installations she uses silence, light, sounds, space, and embodiment to create transparent environments, in which everyone present may find their personal itinerary of experiences.
At default#12, Germaine's works Elexen (2020) and Cashapona (2022) will be performed by Germaine herself (bass clarinet), Leo Svirsky (accordion) and Marcus Kaiser (cello). Germaine has been working together with Leo, American composer and pianist living in the Hague, and Marcus, Düsseldorf based cellist–painter–architect–composer–builder/designer–maker of sound pieces–video artist, for over a decade, with releases on elsewhere and edition wandelweiser.
The bass clarinet and cello duet Elexen was composed as part of a site-specific work consisting of a spatial installation and music in a former warehouse at Heim.art in Neufelden (AT). The trio Cashapona was also composed as part of a site-specific work with installation, to be played in combination with Elexen, in the former textile factory TUFA in Trier (DE) during the annual Opening Festival.
a selection of Germaine’s works include:
Linden (from ‘Circles, Reeds, and Memories’) Germaine Sijstermans / Koen Nutters / Reinier van Houdt
(elsewhere, 2023)
Betula
(elsewhere, 2022)
Elexen (2020)
Zheng Hao
Zheng Hao was born in Wuhan and is currently based in London. She mainly uses electronics or electro-acoustic instruments for solo and group improvisation – currently focused on exploring the amorphous in different sound spaces.
Released audio-works include ‘Harmonium’ (Hard Return, 2022), ‘Another Time’ (with Sun Yizhou, bluescreen, 2022), ‘Last Day of the Cold’ (self-released, 2022), and ‘A Clipping Isle’ (with Crimson Chaos, 2022). Together with Ren Shang, Hao forms the hardware/software improvisational duo Oishi. Their debut album was released via Bezirk Tapes earlier this year.
a selection of works include:
Another Time (bluescreen, 2022)
Harmonium
(Hard Return, 2022)
Oishi - once upon a time there was a mountain
(Bezirk Tapes, 2023)
Zheng Hao and W K Werkowicz
At default#12, Zheng Hao will bring both a solo performance as a duo performance, together with programmer/improviser Wojciech Kacper Werkowicz. Zheng Hao and W K Werkowicz share an interest in the elegance systems and relations constructed out of concise principles. Exchanging ideas through text, speech and free improvisation, they both play on the edges of interior and exterior, extremes of the sparse and intense. Their arrangements consistently change and can incorporate electronics, mobile phones, laptops, kendama toys and parts of the interior all alike.
Wojciech Kacper Werkowicz has also performed and released music under szalwia: