I have always felt the need to visualise sound in images: sound becomes something you can see as it were. I connect seeing to listening, in a non-theatrical way.

The first public performances of the first Bambuso took place in 1989. This musical instrument has all the key ingredients of my early works: blower – air pressure – slide; valve – spring – membrane; tube and flute. These systems all influence each other, and small changes have unpredictable consequences. It is difficult to maintain control of the whole. Because this instrument offered the perfect platform to add new ideas to, I used it as a simple laboratory for years. I experimented endlessly with tiny bellows and with a variety of valve–membrane combinations to interrupt the tone. 

During Warsaw Autumn 2023 I have the intention to exploit the slow character of Bambuso in the acoustics of the special space in somewhat longer improvisations. During the same performances I am going to work with local musicians, which will give an insight in the other possibilities of the instrument: unpredictable, faster, and from whisper quiet to extremely loud. 

Hans van Koolwijk