VACUUM by Poltrock & de Roover

VACUUM - a sound choreography with music by Poltrock & de Roover

Nature abhors a vacuum. In its emptiness, space offers a stage to ever battling primal forces striving to fill in the void. What seems to be the natural state of things as they are, is often a fragile equilibrium bearing only brief harmony. A sound. A movement. A bulk of light. It all shifts in the blink of an eye and finds a place of its own. But how does one resonate in this world of chaos?

Pre-order vinyl: www.store.consouling.be/products/vacuum
Info & tickets: www.natureabhorsavacuum.be

Sharing a mutual fascination for sound, award winning composers David Poltrock (Poltrock, De Mens,...) & Adriaan de Roover (fka Oaktree) joined forces in the studio. Their alliance resulted in intriguing ambient soundscapes where all sense of time and space is lost. These compositions grew into the immersive performance ‘VACUUM’: a sound choreography merging dance, video and quadraphonic sound.

Conceived and directed by Aïda Gabriëls (OESTER) ‘VACUUM’ combines the music of Poltrock & de Roover, movements by dancer Pieter Desmet, light design by Jan Van Lindt and video by videographer Wim Piqueur. On a 4.1 surround sound system handled by Yoran Cambier, Poltrock & de Roover created a one hour sound choreography leaving spectators to wander in a field of constantly shifting tension.
Sounds move and grow from the most intimate and claustrophobic textures to monumental, crushing walls of noise.

As the dancer moves in this audiovisual landscape, he performs a physical battle that brings to stage both brutal forces, primeval instincts and human fragility. Yet more than following a clear narrative, ‘VACUUM’ is an invitation to give in to the various stimuli at play.

The music from the sound choreography will be available as of September 17 2021. Next to the digital release, the vinyl 12” record will be released on the Belgian label Consouling Sounds. The label has a long tradition of wayward music in genres such as Post, Doom & Ambient.

ABOUT POLTROCK & DE ROOVER

David Poltrock is a pianist, composer, producer & sound designer. His work for several leading artists in Belgium (Hooverphonic, Triggerfinger, De Mens...) was honoured with a Belgian Music Industry Award (MIA) for Best Musician in 2019. His trilogy ‘Moods, Mutes & Machines’ shows his love for intimate piano sounds, menacing drones & pulsating electronica.

Adriaan de Roover (fka Oaktree) brings moody, textural and enchanting electronic music. His work gained him both a Red Bull Elektropedia Award in 2014 as well as international support from Mary Anne Hobbs (BBC Radio 6) & Clash Magazine amongst others. In 2019 he released his first full-length album ‘Leaves’.

ABOUT OESTER

OESTER is the laboratory for performative arts by VACUUM director Aïda Gabriëls. Together with Ylona Supèr & Tessa Vannieuwenhuyze she approaches the stage as an interdisciplinary playground allowing a variety of art forms to interact. Often starting from academic research, their productions aim to challenge existing genre borders of genres such as opera.

BINAURAL SOUND

The music from the sound choreography offers an unique sound experience for the recording is available in Binaural Sound or 3D sound too. This technique allows us to record plenty more spatial information compared to the spectrum of a regular stereo recording. When experienced, it is as if music is performed in a 3D sphere around the listener.

“We hope you will enjoy your binaural mixes as much as we enjoyed experimenting. We used different DAW’s and software plugins including Pro Tools, Logic X, SPAT Revolution, DearVR and Soundmorph Dust. Some tracks were (re)mixed on a 5.1 surround speaker system, and afterwards converted through software to a binaural stereo mixdown. Other tracks were directly mixed on headphones using software that supports binaural placement.” - David, Adriaan & Yoran

The binaural mixes will be available digitally on September 17 along with the regular recordings and are meant to be experienced on headphones.