pjotr van schothorst photography

The poet of the harp music [..]


​Anne Vanschothorst makes poetry, imaginary sound-sculptures and landscapes with her harp (Muziekweb) ; compositions in which each note accentuates the surrounding silence and vice versa. (Jazz Mozaiek)      Such efficient music, every note counts, touches .. i find that daring and moving for that matter too. (Lex Bohlmeijer)     Striking is the film music, for once not bombastic or orchestral, but minimalist and subtle. (De Volkskrant)     In this very beautiful enchanting, modern fairy-tale book, kind of Alice in wonderland, Anne travels solo ; during this enriching sound search - for herself and the listener - she discovers unique stories to tell. (Nadelunch.com)      Do yourself a favour and listen to Anne Vanschothorst's beautiful harp compositions accompanying Antjie Krog's poetry. Hauntingly beautiful. (Annemarié van Niekerk, book reviewer at Trouw)
Those scant, long-flared notes sound like musical abstractions. (NIEUWE NOTEN)

AV (The Netherlands) is a landscape music composer, minimal harp pioneer and multi-media artist exploring creativity in applied music, film and spoken word — using overdub and making sound sculptures with 47strings ;           60x60  &  'EK IS EIK' have made an unique sound-mark in modern (harp) music. Beautiful World is applied in art fusion projects.     'klip lied snaar' is the artist's harPoetry debut album. The bundle and CD are noticed as 'an unique translation' by the 'Tijdskrif vir Geesteswetenskappe'. A PhD researcher is writing a scientific article focused on the relationship between art and the landscape based on AV's art fusion philosophy.    The producer of abstract music from 'the low lands' is member of LandscapeMusic.org - founded by American composer, librettist, and multimedia artist Nell Shaw Cohen. 


For harpandsoul.com Anne received international critical acclaim as an audio-visual producer. Multiple video-concepts are on the Stingray TV channels playlists.         

Sonic landscapes (sometimes augmented with electronic effects) often evolve into music for in-a-room, film and spoken word | museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Museon, Museum Jan Cunen, Bonn Landes Museum, Gucci, Studio Drift, dutch IGLOO, Ateles Films, NFF, Pathe, Kino London, Tropfest New York, PBS, Discovery Communications (OWN, Animal Planet, TLC, travel ao), NPO, Christian Thompson, Amy Bell & Valentina Golfieri, Willem Samuel, Antjie Krog, Ingrid Jonker - to name a few.      This inventive, timeless, stilled, poetic, dreamy, mystical yet edgy sonic universe next to the existing harp planet and music world, indicates that Anne walks off the beaten track.

Many (inter)national musicians have added the written notes scores to their repertoire / you play i listen playlist \ Jeroen van Vliet piano can be heard in UTOPIA. Harpist Josh Layne also gives words and wings to Anne's compositions. The poet of the harp music has a specific dialect - as can be read in her credo - to empower her identity and affirm the character of the harp and soul - productions / to fabrik sonic art and other tactiles that come from the HARPlab. Online media platforms like imagine | installations & offline landscapes are incredibly inspiring and the obvious modern formats to create and share new work.              'STILL LIFE' (sculptural video & sound installation) = Bronwyn Lace + Antjie Krog + AV // the online collaboration is offline exhibited and co-curated by founder William Kentridge & Animateur Phala Ookeditse Phala during Season 7 - 2021 at 'the centre for the less good idea' in Johannesburg. Diek Grobler - visual artist and animator - transformed the poem 'transparant van die tongvis', written and read in Afrikaans by Antjie Krog and translated into English by Denis Hirson, into animated poetry. The affirmative harPoetry 'Pater Noster' movie is selected to be screened and talked about in the virtual listening room during the International Alliance for Women in Music conference 2022. 

For 2023 a new album is scheduled for release in collab with PARMA Recordings

HIFI.NL

'High end audio engineering.'  9/10


ALL ABOUT JAZZ

'There is a stunning soundtrack quality to Anne Vanschothorst's music, but that should be no surprise as she has been called upon to provide such to the visual arts.'   



AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE

'Many of the miniatures remind me of Erik Satie -- not that her music is in his style, but that both composers so thoroughly explore an artfully restricted sonic universe -- in which chords and single melodic lines appear in alternation and at a pace slow enough to experience them almost as if they were sounding sculptures.' 



MUSEUM BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN - SJAREL EX

'I saw her literally dancing through the room. I love how it goes with intervals, one sees her standing still and then she gets moving again, i really experienced that all of a sudden 'la petite danseuse' stepped out of her glass case as that happens at night in a museum when the lights go down. Now we witnessed it ourselves, how very beautiful indeed!' 
 

 

LORI LIEBERMAN  (singer/songwriter (Killing Me Softly a.o.)

'Anne Vanschothorst is such an amazing and passionate artist / she makes impressively beautiful music, just love it !' 

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TEXTURA CLASSICAL MUSIC REVIEW

'Extremely beautiful music !'   



GAPPLEGATE

'The sonic landscapes are a structured but dream-like realm of enchantment, a freely unfolding exotic sort of classical ambiance of mood and expressivity, a sort of post-ECM spaciousness. Her playing is authoritative, precise and expressive. Anne's best work so far.'



STUDIO DRIFT - RALPH NAUTA

"Your composition gives exactly the feeling i am looking for; melancholic and yet free."  



SONOGRAMA

'Anne's music is an antidote to the present'



HARP COLUMN 

'Anne takes us by the hand to see all that is beautiful around us, and what a marvel it is !  9/10'   



MUSICALLY SPEAKING - MELL MINTER

'Anne Vanschothorst plays with a confident virtuosity that fully animates the extraordinary (and for me, unexpected) breadth of her instrument’s expressiveness.'   



BABYSUE 

'Anne puts more emotion into her harp than anyone we've ever heard before. The compositions on this album are smart, precise, reflective, exacting and purely beautiful.'  ★★★★★


GRAPHICINEMA​ - FERNANDO FERREIRA

'It is very striking how the music, especially in the animation by Aimée de Jongh, reinforces the emotions.' 



SCORE MAGAZINE

'Thanks to the amazingly beautiful harp music the moving pictures received extra motion.' 



TOBIAS FISCHER - TOKAFI
'Anne is really living inside music - her perspective on many of our questions has a feeling of coming from another realm, almost. A realm I would certainly love to visit myself.'



BURNING AMBULANCE

'Fascinating soundscapes — simultaneously multifaceted and thoroughly cohesive, the music is beautifully written and performed, and well worth any open-eared listener’s attention.'


ANDREAS VOLLENWEIDER

'Dear Anne, i went to listen to some of your music, and once again i am pleased to notice how the harp sends a strong message, all by itself ; whatever we play, it turns out as an expression of the profound human longing for beauty of peace, aren't we fortunate ?'