Soloist

percussion solo, samples, video

composed and directed by Arnoud Noordegraaf

written for Arnold Marinissen

inspired by the paintings of Giorgio de Chirico

art director: Anthony Sgard

actor on film: Yahya Gaier

 

premiere: December 2008, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam

 

score and technical guide available on request

Soloist is a portrait of the percussionist and a stranger, played on video by Yahya Gaier. The two are bound by their mutual presence, and by the fact that their instruments and sound are switched: the live percussionist has many instruments, that produce real and live sounds, but none of them is a traditional percussion instrument. And the video percussionist is trapped in a surrealistic painting, with all the percussion instruments you can imagine, but producing only abstract sounds.

Together they have to reinvent language in order to communicate. Arnold plays three sets of instruments, divided on the stage. The video is centered on stage on a relatively small screen, close to the live player.

The instrumentation features wild combinations of drums, bottles, bricks, 8 bass drum pedals, long whipping twigs and a pile of sand.

percussion: Arnold Marinissen

actor: Yahya Gaier

videoproduction: Joggem Simons / inexcelsisvideo.nl

camera: Lennert Hillege

film set design and art direction: Anthony Sgard

concert production: Frank van der Weij

image gallery

video excerpts of Soloist (Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, 2009)

featurette: filming Soloist