We saw Alain Louafi performing 'Inori' by Karlheinz Stockhausen in the morning. Inori is Japanese for prayer, evocation, adoration, and the performance consisted of ritual movements as laid down meticulously in the score by the composer. The Centre de Recherche et de Formation Musicales de Wallonie delivered the sounds, beautifully distributed over the immense factory hall of Ainsi. When we lived in Maastricht, we used to know this as Enci (Eerste Nederlandse Cement Industrie), a cement factory that took away large chunks of the landscape of the Sint Pietersberg. It's great to see these old industrial buildings being reused as buzzing cultural centres.
I was very moved by Stockhausen's score and the performance of Louafi. My husband couldn't stand watching him because of the 'artificial movements' that kept repeating to certain recurring sounds. Well, ritual movements are inherently artificial and I found the repetition in both music and movements quite trance inducing. But then again, listening with eyes closed is nice too :)
After lunch we went for the heart of the city, the relatively new Entre Deux city mall. This is an enclosed, but open-aired mall - check the picture! Imagine the impact of the beggar's voice in 'Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet', slowly pervading the space between the shops. This well known composition by Gavin Bryars was performed by ensemble Insomnio, sitting in the middle of the mall. A lonesome trombonist walking the higher shopping galleries, intermittently taking over from the beggar's voice. Powerful stuff. Nice to see some people watching and listening for a while, then just going on with their shopping - while others stood there silently and attentively for 45 minutes.
A lovely dinner with my beloved ones afterwards, what more could one wish for? Extended family on Sunday, as it should be... Great weekend all in all, thanks everyone!
