VHVR #3: The Philosopher & Ergo Phizmiz
Dear VHVR audience, here’s another edition of our new series VHVR which is about the experiment, the environment, the improv element, the enhancement (of weirdness & likeable people). This time we have the new project of old ex-bass player Luc Ex which is called The Philosopher and is about/or inspired by -you won’t guess this- philosophy. Luc gathered a very interesting musical bunch around this theme and his very loose compositions that leave a lot of room for improvisation. The other act on this evening is Ergo Phizmiz, yes, somebody who visits the town of Roffa on a regular basis but his last appearance in WORM was in 2016, so we might want to check out what he is doing nowadays.
Luc Ex’ THE PHILOSOPHER ‘Without Music, Life is a Mistake’ (F.Nietzsche)
The Philosopher is a combination of exceptionally talented young musicians on the one hand and philosophical or existential questions on the other. How do you translate a current question or statement into music? More precisely, how do you translate such a question or current topic into a non-linguistic and much more intuitive medium such as music? Creating special music around philosophical, social or existential questions is the crux of this project.
Hanne de Backer, Isabelle Duthoit, Marta Warelis, Raphaël Vanoli and his extraordinary musicians. Not only because of their craftsmanship, but also because of their musicality and the unique sound world they create know how to create. The audience will receive a program booklet in advance. It states which questions are ‘addressed’. This way, just like with the Opera, they can read in advance what it would be about. The exact connection between music and philosophical questions is deliberately not explained. That’s up to imagination of the spectator himself. Everyone can get out of it what he or she wants.
The music. It is current new music in which the players are given a lot of space. For example, there will be an issue dedicated to Karl Popper’s ‘Paradox of Tolerance’ with the title: ‘Should you are not intolerant to those who are intolerant?’ Characteristic of intolerance is not wanting to listen to the other. This will be reflected in the music. Or for example the title: ‘Every new invention or every new machine that promised us labor savings did the opposite…’ From the assembly line to microchips, the result is always the same: historically we have only become more and more hard workers.
with: Marta Warelis (piano/keyboard), Hanne de Backer (baritone sax), Isabelle Duthoit (vocals/clarinet), Raphaël Vanoli (guitar/electronics), Luc Ex (ac. bas guitar/samples).
Ergo Phizmiz
Bluntly said, all Ergo is – well what is identity anyway – and does is mentioned in italics below. It’s a bit much, ain’t it? And with lots of people it is. They mention all this incredibly ‘interesting’ stuff they do, that tthey are Leonardo Da Vinci with a twist… In Ergo’s case it is different… I’m afraid he’s the real deal… So call him a genius. Maybe the wrong Genius. He’s the living proof that if Jesus would come back to earth, nobody would even give him money for some new nails. Ergo has been a regular to Rotterdam, doing stuff in DePlayer and WORM. One of his greatest, latest efforts was a few years ago – before Covid that is, children – when he wrote and directed the Brexit Opera, with most of WORM as a crew. It was great but – for some reason – didn’t go down well in the UK.
Ergo Phizmiz is a composer, writer, theatre director & designer, collagist, pop songwriter, radio playwright, opera maker, and all-round entertainer. Their work, which exceeds four hundred hours, has been presented across stage, radio, television, concerts and galleries, including many acclaimed productions for Bayerischer Rundfunk, BBC Radio 3, Deutchlandradiokultur, Concertzender, Tate Modern, the Royal Festival Hall, BBC 6Music, The Wire magazine, Resonance FM, BBC Radio 1, Operadagen Rotterdam, Channel 4, and WFMU. Artists they have collaborated with include Goodiepal, People Like Us, Frankie Boyle, Christian Marclay, David Fenech, Frederic Wake-Walker, Bill Bankes-Jones, and Satanicpornocultshop. Most recently Ergo collaborated with the Cleveland Orchestra as animator and designer on their new production of Strauss’ “Ariadne auf Naxos”, and currently co-curates the experimental radio station Wolverton FM.
check out his music; https://ergophizmizmusic.bandcamp.com/music
We Are Public tickets available at the door only.