The album
Commissioned by Gaudeamus Muziekweek en November Music i.a., Bianca has collaborated with amazing musicians from the Netherlands and abroad. To her it feels truly wonderful, to be able to invite them at Muziekcentrum van de Omroep for this recording. It allows them to move their collaboration forward, work towards an optimal performance of the pieces and reach out to  listeners.
For this album, the composer has been working towards a coherent program: perceivable as one musical artwork, ranging from solo accordion to a large ensemble with percussion. To complete it, she will write a new work for harp solo performed by Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir, thanks to the Dutch Fonds Podiumkunsten. The album will be published at the label 7 Mountain Records, available both in record shops as through streaming.
The artwork
In her compositional process, Bianca starts from a spatial imagination of music. The first step often consists of a visual preliminary study.
In her piece Reiken, for example, she looked for purely natural materials, such as wool, beeswax and hardened clay, as a musical analogy to create the sensation of moving from ‘liquid to solid’. For Surrounded by Air – Appearance III for clarinet, cello & piano, she started from delicate geometric shapes, which together represent the identity of the piece. A third example is Come wide close for soprano saxophone, performed by Andreas Mader, which she wrote during the first lockdown in 2020 as part of Music for Empty Spaces in Muziekgebouw aan ‘t IJ. In this work, she explored the principle of ‘projection’ with colorful ink on a transparent sheet, in order to connect the large concert hall to the listener’s living room.
Unique for this crowdfunding, she would like to offer some of her visual preliminary studies in reproduction. One of the options is the Special Edition: the ultimate edition of the album, where you can not only hear the music, but also physically hold it in your hands! These studies will play a key role in the artwork of her album.
The program
– Landslides for accordion (2016) by Vincent van Amsterdam
– Come wide close for soprano saxophone (2020) by Andreas Mader
– Stars for marimba (2016) by Tatiana Koleva
– New work for harp (2022) by Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir
– A jewel to the harp for piccolo, bass clarinet, harp & percussion (2020) by Ensemble Adapter
– Reach for violin, alto saxophone & piano (2018) by Kugoni Trio
– Surrounded by Air – Appearance III for clarinet, cello & piano (2019) by Trio Catch
– Surrounded by Air – Appearance IV for nonet & percussion (2021) by Intercontinental Ensemble & Dániel Bolba with recording conducted by Lucas Vis
With your support
The album is extra extensive in terms of costs, because different musicians perform Bianca’s works. This crowdfunding therefore not only supports the recording and publishing the album, but also the musicians involved. The Dutch Investeringsfonds Muziek has been able to cover part of the production costs, but unfortunately, they are not there yet. Would you like to support them? You can make a great contribution to:
– Renting the recording studio, MCO Studio 1
– Mastering by Frerik de Jong
– Fee of the musicians & conductor Lucas Vis
– Rent of percussion instruments at Pustjens
The release of the album is planned for 13 November 2022, to which Bongers will invite all partners! Until that moment, please follow her on social media (Facebook, Instagram).
(Bianca Bongers)
Debut album Bianca Bongers on Spotify
Debut album Bianca Bongers on SoundCloud
Published 4 years ago