Echo Collective. Johansons. 12 sarunas ar Tilo Haincmanu

The prominent string quartet “Echo Collective” will perform “12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann” by Icelandic composer Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson at their one and only live performance in the Baltic states.

“Echo Collective” is known to larger audiences thanks to their musical collaboration with Adam Wiltzie and Dustin O`Halloran for “A Winged Victory For The Sullen” which resulted in a collaborative recording session series, world tours and working together on the soundtrack for a performance by the Wayne MacGregor dance company, leading to a performance at The Royal Albert Hall, London during “BBC Proms” festival.

Many years ago “Echo Collective” crossed paths with well known Icelandic composer Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson, who unfortunately passed away too soon. Echo Collective, who at that time after a proposal by Ancienne Belgique (head of arts department) had already become a resident ensemble and had worked on neoclassical instrumental arrangements for “Radiohead”’s album Amnesiac, as well as recording new musical accompaniment for band “Erasure”, which was invited to take part in the performance of Jóhann Jóhannsson’s opus “12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann” and later on during it’s recording.

“The making of this intriguing work was considered to be a chain of many random events and mutual connections,” said British philanthropist Richard Thomas. Richard Thomas was occupied by the idea “Is the creative process for composing music radically different from the process that an artist goes through to create visual works?” Thomas wanted to commission a work that had been created in pure collaboration between an artist and a composer, but as long as they don’t get inspired by one another’s work.

 In order for Thomas to achieve his ambition, the philanthropist confided in the German visual artist Thilo Heinzmann, asking him which of the musicians he would like to work with. He didn’t have to wait long for the answer. It was Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson, the Icelandic man who was introduced to British musicians, Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe - otherwise known as “Pet Shop Boys”.

“In a way - yes, the work is a collaboration between a composer and an artist, but there’s definitely something more. This work is not just music and not just a painting. It’s a conversation, a way of communication,” says Richard Thomas about his mutually created, in a way socially critical work inspired by political events (such as “Brexit”). “For me the the very basics of European Union is a cultural unity. The best way how to express it, is to do it.”

This all resulted in an emotionally and artistically fuelled work by the ensemble of; an Icelandic composer with roots in Denmark, a German painter and a British catalyst all currently residing in Belgium. You can hear different references to almost all the history of classical music in this work that the composer himself calls “conversations over borders to celebrate and look for mutual ideals.”

You can hear psalm-like melodies, echos from medieval music, baroque canon by cello, a repetitive jolts by Philip Glass, waltz and even acoustic signs to yet another favourite of Jóhann Gunnar Jóhannsson - electronic music in “12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann”.

“12 Conversations with Thilo Heinzmann” was never intended as a unique work for a one time only performance. The 12 different parts by the string quartet is a journey in which every listener can choose their own path.

“People react to it in different ways. To me this music is as a reminder of friendship with Jóhann and I can hear a search for serenity in it.” says the creator of the idea Richard Thomas.

Proof to the fact that this work is not only just a brief “happening” with performances in Savoy Teatteri, Helsinki, Elba Philharmonic in Hammburg, as well as record released by Deutsche Grammophon.