Amber Meulenijzer
Amber Meulenijzer is a 29 year old visual and sound artist from Brussels.
As the title implies, ‘Saab Fanfare’ is an album consisting of her Saab car with speakers mounted on top in combination with the Pelt brass band, released on Lieven Martens’ Edicöes Cn label.
“I explore different landscapes with my car and a sound system”
Can you explain what you do on ‘Saab Fanfare’?
‘Saab Fanfare’ is a performance we did together with four brass musicians from different fanfares from in and around Pelt, the town where Musica Impulscentrum organises their festival OORTreders, where the work was born. The last couple of years I have been doing installations and performances with my Saab Sculptures, a series of works where I explore different landscapes with my car and a sound system of 12 old horn speakers mounted on the roof. It is always different in every situation, depending on the sounds I emit from these loudspeakers, the movement or position of the car and the acoustics of the surroundings we play in. Over the years, getting to know these speakers and their specific ‘voice’ was a big part of my research. They only have mid and high frequencies, don’t emit any basses and are extremely directional. When performing solo I work a lot with sine waves and resonances, but I have always been curious what kind of instruments would work well on the system. Thinking further about resonances and the frequency spectre and textures supported by these horn speakers, I came to brass instruments and out of this automatically also the shape of the performance – a slow marching band – was born.
Was this rehearsed? Prepared music?
We did a short residency with the four musicians to determine the basic “score,” or more the sounds we were going to use for our composition. I explained the way my speakers translate sound, they explained to me how their instruments work. Together we found a basic ensemble of notes of a couple of major chords that could be played on all of the instruments (horn, trumpet, cornet and trombone). We recorded long stretches of all of the notes separately on all of the instruments. This formed the basis for a soundscape I made to be played through the Saab speakers. Basically it’s one long drone, consisting of the recordings of the separate notes from all four instruments. De-/re-constructed, fluid, blurry chords, consisting of tones that sound together, but sometimes also rub against each other, creating slight beating tones and atonalities. I love it when this happens, it creates a moment of tension, of imbalance. During the performance the musicians were free to improvise in the same tonalities with the variety of notes we determined together. It was certainly a challenge for them to work within this free framework, with fixed elements, but without a fixed score, leaving a lot up to them and their input. So what we did and what you hear eventually is a combination of the continuous soundscape I made, played through the speakers and the musicians adding live improvised sounds along the way.
The music on ‘Procession’ is rather minimalistic. It has something cerebral. The same composition would also work if you would play it on a church organ. Agree?
There’s something magical about the way you can distinguish the characteristics of the brass instruments and their material. The speakers amplify the sharper tones and the breath texture, while the live play adds this warm, full layer to the whole, carried by the bass drone of the Saab motor. The surrounding sounds of the movement and the forest add a fizzy touch to the whole. The extra-musical frame creates a tension and adds an interesting layer to a composition that by itself is actually very simple. I think translating all this through a church organ would be quite a challenge. But I do agree on the cerebral touch. We used all major chords, in a procession that looked a lot like a funeral march, those elements together add an interesting tension to the work. It made me think of the films of Roy Anderson, who has always been a great inspiration in my visual work.
The concert took place in the morning (usually, concerts take place in the evening). Does this have an influence on the performance?
It was really a morning thing. From the beginning on we knew we were going to play early – 9am on the second festival day – so I think from the start it also influenced the composition and the way we approached the performance as a whole. The major chords somehow announce something, the start of a day yet to be determined. We began our route next to the canal in Pelt and moved through the forest towards the site of Musica, which was the festival center. People did not know exactly where we were so they would search by ear through the forest. All this in the morning fog adds a layer of mysticism to the event I think.
You did several performances before with the Saab and speakers. How did you initially get to the idea of working with a car with speakers on it?
Saab and I have been sharing paths for a while. I have always been interested in the sculptural aspect of this car. The way it changes the landscape, just by moving through it. The way there is a certain code of interaction between the human body and the shape of the car, the scale of it, the carrosserie. You automatically know how to behave or move around it, still it stays an alien presence. I have made some works, mostly installations, decontextualising the car, sometimes with sound, sometimes without. But when I found these speakers in a second hand shop it kind of came together. By combining the performative aspect of the car and the way it moves the sound around you get a sonic sculpture that makes total sense to me.
Do you play a musical instrument yourself?
I consider the Saab and the speakers as my instrument, in this way I am more of a translator of sound than a musician. I decide on the colour and direction of the sounds, I initiate the movement as a chauffeur also. I like this role. To me it’s comparable to the conductor of the orchestra. During the drive I was in contact with the musicians, influencing the dynamics and tempi.
Why did you decide to put two versions of the same composition on the album?
I think it’s necessary to have the one side that puts you in the moment, where you hear all the sounds that drag you into the performance. The leaves cracking underneath the feet of people walking along, the musicians improvising, commenting, breathing, the Saab struggling to stay steady in first gear, cyclists passing by, the forest waking up, … You understand what happens, you feel the movement, you walk along. The second side drags you even deeper into the brass sounds. Not sent through the speakers and coloured by their voices, they take you on a full and relentlessly immersive voyage. I just love the harmonics and the richness of the pure sounds. It was not part of the performance, but I thought it had to be part of the album.
Joeri Bruyninckx
Amber Meulenijzer Website / Instagram / Tumblr / Bandcamp
Edições CN Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / Bandcamp
