Silence Teaches You How to Sing

Thu 29 Aug 2013, 7.30 8 pm
Hanoi Rock City

From The Onion Cellar:

..in which The Onion Cellar challenges you not to utter a single word. To be at peace with your silence

We say:

Silence teaches you how to sing

featuring:

Christina Vantzou’s No.1: film screening (official Vietnam premiere)
Sebastien Gesell: quiet minimalism DJ set
Mathias Rossignol: atmospheric sound collages

YOU: talkless, shoeless, floor-sitting, mind-cleansing, being

Neither exactly a film screening or a concert, SILENCE has more in common with the teachings and practices of meditation. A silent retreat for the iPad generation, accompanied by beautiful, abstract and non-intrusive visuals and sounds.

One strict rule applies throughout the evening, at all times and not only while the film is showing: once you have entered the Red Room (which, for the occasion, would be transformed to resemble more its namesake

and less a dancefloor one humid August night in Hanoi) – ABSOLUTELY NO TALKING ALLOWED.

That means, no ‘hello’ and ‘how’s it going’, no making acquaintances, no exchanging phone numbers, no finding out you two live on the same street, no flirting, no discussing arts and English football and Murakami and the war on terrorism. That means having a decent (and potentially transcendental) ‘night out’ without all the things you take for granted.

It might seem ironic to provide sound and visual accompaniment at an event partly inspired by John Cage’s (masterpiece) 4’33 – but we believe the wonderful film and music from CHRISTINA VANTZOU (one of the most distinct ambient / contemporary classical artists these days), the super-rare minimalism DJ set from SEBASTIEN GESELL as well as MATHIAS ROSSIGNOL’s mysterious sound collages, given your sole attention, will be the perfect vehicles for your ascent to galaxies afar.

AND REMEMBER: SHOES OFF AND OUTSIDE, PLEASE.

CHRISTINA VANTZOU – NO.1

Composed from original 16mm footage, animation, and found materials, CHRISTINA VANTZOU creates a moving, hypnotic dance of light and color akin to the cinematic sweep of the album. Effectively channelling experimental film titans Stan Brakhage, Maya Deren and John Whitney while also pushing the sound/image relationship into new, uncharted arenas, No. 1 is an enveloping, rapturous work pulsating with life.

What becomes more and more ambiguous when watching Nº 1 is if the music has been composed as a soundtrack for the originally composed images, or if the images have inspired a musical composition. The hierarchical relationship between image and sound which we’ve grown accustomed to from music videos and cinema is flipped upside down and ultimately erased, to produce a cohesive, synesthetic experience.

(Andros Zins-Browne, Choreographer, Brussels)

CHRISTINAT VANTZOU is an artist, musician, and composer. Christina is known for her work with The Dead Texan (kranky) as well as in a variety of creative mediums including video, drawing, and animation. After various collaborations and a short tenure as a touring member of Sparklehorse in the summer of 2007, Christina began composing the music for this album.

While certainly orbiting in the same musical galaxy as those of Stars of the Lid, The Dead Texan or A Winged Victory for the Sullen, Vantzou’s compositions are full symphonic movements as opposed to the shorter pop structures of the latter. These works also draw parallels to a number of late 20th century composers who concentrated on layering the string sections of orchestras while steering clear of bombastic brass and percussion elements.

(Experimedia)

SEBASTIEN GESELL

SEBASTIEN GESELL has always been one helluva versatile DJ, and while this very special set of quiet minimalism music he will showcase on the night could not be more different from the tunes he usually throws at Hanoian ravers, it will be just as trance-inducing.

Listen to his music.

MATHIAS ROSSIGNOL

As a soundtrack to daydreaming, MATHIAS ROSSIGNOL will arrange and present a meditative collage of sounds that plays inside the Red Room throughout the whole evening – field recordings and musical fragments, sounds of nature and human, raw and processed, new and old, from here and from there, some random and some deliberate… If at all possible, refrain from expecting anything.

Listen to his music.

Tickets (available at doors)

VND 50,000
VND 20,000 ((Vietnamese/ international) student concessions)

Hanoi Rock City 27/52 To Ngoc Van, Tay Ho