With Squaring the Circle (El Negocito Records) com­pos­er Heleen Van Haegenborgh plunges into unpre­dictabil­i­ty. She was inspired by the art­work ​‘Pi’ by Johan de Wilde, part of the col­lec­tion of the S.M.A.K. In her com­po­si­tion, she turns the num­ber sequence to her will. This with on stage four per­cus­sion­ists, elec­tron­ics and no less than 70 instru­ments, includ­ing tubu­lar bells, tim­pani, bass drums, vibra­phone, cym­bals, tri­an­gles etc.

With this work, the age-old math­e­mat­i­cal issue of the ​“squar­ing of the cir­cle” resur­faced. This is where Pi in fact throws a span­ner in the works, musi­cal­ly caus­ing fight­ing cir­cles and squares. Thus you hear a canon of cir­cles and in oth­er places har­mon­ic or melod­ic squares.

The strug­gle for a sense of free­dom, nat­u­ral­ness and direct­ness is cen­tral to all her com­po­si­tions. By also using Pi at times for the rhyth­mic orga­ni­za­tion, a sense of unpre­dictabil­i­ty and free­dom nat­u­ral­ly aris­es. Sometimes that free­dom is not­ed tight­ly, some­times a lit­tle less tight­ly to com­plete­ly free.

Listen

Credits

• Commissioned by
  Festival van Vlaanderen Mechelen
• Composition & electronics
  Heleen Van Haegenborgh
• Based upon
  The Drawings of Johan De Wilde
• Instrumentation
  4 Percussionists and Electronics
• Performers
  Aya Suzuki, Lucas Messler, Anita Cappuccinelli, Diego Saenz Mateo, Federico Tramontana
• Recording
  Peter Desmedt at Studio Ledeberg
• Mix & master
  Alex Fostier
• Support
  S.M.A.K., VNK Percussion, Hopstreet Gallery, HAconcerts, Festival Van Vlaanderen Mechelen, Johan De Wilde, Heleen Van Haegenborgh
• Label
  El NEGOCITO Records
• Graphical design
  Viktor Van den Braembussche for Studio Luc Derycke
• Premiere
  December 11, 2021 at Zindering in Nona
• Length
  42’