After the successful (and also promptly sold-out) concerts by Stars of the Lid (2016) and the tribute to Jóhann Jóhannsson (2018) in the Béguinage Church (officially: The Church of Saint John the Baptist at the Béguinage), AB heads back for a third time to the place that once housed the largest Beguine community in the country.
Echo Collective plays Jóhann Jóhannsson’s ’12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann’
Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson always loved to unite various art forms. He was able to seamlessly combine music, film, literature and theatre. The link with the visual arts was missing though. Until one of the best known and biggest British art collectors - Richard Thomas – suggested composing music for the work of Berlin resident artist Thilo Heinzmann. In turn, Heinzmann’s thoughts immediately went to Jóhann Jóhannsson.
© Francis Vanhee
After a few meetings, Jóhannsson withdrew into his studio with a number of Heinzmann’s works. The result: '12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann', which will be released this fall via Deutsche Grammofon. The result: twelve wonderfully refined compositions, stripped of all electronic ballast and written for a string quartet. Enter Echo Collective – as, just prior to his death, Jóhannsson had asked them to record his written compositions. The result is moving and will visit not only London’s Barbican and Berlin’s Funkhaus, but also Brussels’ Béguinage Church.
