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Anne Vanschothorst (The Hague, NL) is a landscape music composer, minimal harp pioneer and multi-media artist exploring creativity in applied music, film & spoken word (poems, philosophical quotes) — using 47strings and overdub to make sound sculptures ;               60x60 EK IS EIK
made an unique sound-mark in modern (harp) music, it goes beyond the beaten track.      / The meditative Beautiful World album is crossing borders via ARTfusion = the wondrous synergy between the (fantastically) weird and the unheard, unseen, unspoken, and recognized as 'post-ECM spaciousness'.      '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'.      The producer of abstract and tactile music is part of the US composer network LandscapeMusic.org, and a member of the Haagse Kunstkring.

The harp and soul - creative label is active in the music and audio/visual sector | focusing on the expansion of art, the ongoing (harp) sound search in the 21st century & making global impact through an original sound mark ~ a butterfly effect ~ in a contemporary soundscape / music that turns out to be an universal expression of the human longing for the beauty of peace. How fortunate we are !            The record company was founded (2007-) as a platform for the artist's music to take flight. Since the beginning of her career, she wanted to produce her own music as a way to maintain greater artistic independence & freedom to go beyond conventions and (music) styles. This means that the label will oversee everything, from audiovisual recording to artistic direction / from concept to product and publication.          Besides creating in .wav, .mp4, .png & .pdf formats, the harp and soul - studio produces also tangible art works such as sound sculptures, (music) books & CDs.  

 

For harpandsoul.com Anne received critical acclaim as an audio visual producer. Hifi.nl qualifies the intimate sound recordings as hq audio engineering. Stingray TV lists multiple video concepts. Several poetry/films are talked about and screened during conferences, lectures and exhibitions. In collaboration with Het Zuid-Afrikahuis a promo video was produced for 'klip lied snaar'. With the animated poetry 'Transparency of the Sole' by Diek Grobler - created on behalf of harPoetry, she makes her entrance as a film producer at the major international film festivals. New multi-media is in the making to be experienced on the big screen and as an installation.

Sonic landscapes (sometimes augmented with electronic effects) frequently evolve into music for ARTfusion. Audio/visual artists, film direcors, animators, (game) design studios, brands, poets, writers, painters, book illustrators, dancers, choreographers, remixers, radio makers, podcasters, scientists, researchers, universities, teachers, museums, curators (ao), signed a (non) exclusive license agreement for the use of (pre) recorded audio in their art/project with the intent to share & stage the content and express the harp and soul - sound through a platform : from online, app, event, rtv and 'in a room', to the (multi-media) production itself. / TO NAME : museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Museon, Museum Jan Cunen, EYE filmmuseum, Bonn Landes Museum, Studio Drift, dutch IGLOO, Studio Joost Grootens, Ateles Films, RSP Nature, NPO, NFF, Pathe, Kino London, Zebra Film Festival Berlin, Tropfest New York, PBS, Discovery Communications (OWN, Animal Planet, TLC, travel ao), GUCCI, Christian Thompson, Bronwyn Lace, Bell & Golfieri, Harriët van Reek, Joost II Sickenga, Aimée de Jongh, Willem Samuel, Diek Grobler, Antjie Krog, Diana Ferrus, Ingrid Jonker, Jan Eijkelboom, Marion Bloem, Anne Vegter, KB, \  — This timeless, stilled, poetic, dreamy, mystical yet edgy sonic universe is where Anne locates her practice - next to the existing harp planet and music world. / It proves that the inventive harPoetry is a style of its own, it indicates that her unique voice is a new chapter in music history.  ​

THEN AND NOW

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 landscape music 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 'sonic imagination' and 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 artist William Kentridge & Animateur Phala Ookeditse Phala during Season 7 - 2021 at 'the centre for the less good idea' in Johannesburg. The 'Pater Noster' harPoetry movie is talked about in the virtual listening room during the 'International Alliance for Women in Music' conference 2022.    Marion Bloem wrote a poetic pamflet ( AV) on behalf of the exhibition of Fiona Tan @ EYE Filmmuseum (2022).        Diek Grobler, visual artist & animator - transformed 'Transparant van die Tongvis' (written and read in Afrikaans by Antjie Krog, translated to English by Denis Hirson), into animated poetry / the 'harp and soul - film' has become finalist and is screened during the 2022 ed. of the Haus für Poesie - Zebra Film Festival, Berlin. / 'Die Tongvis' takes also part @ the PoetryFilmTage, Weimar (2023). Various recordings will be placed at ATELES Films. In collab. with the Grammy Award winning record label PARMA Recordings a brand new album is scheduled for release some day this year.

ABOUT 'THE POET OF THE HARP MUSIC' [..]

Antjie Krog  (author, poet, journalist)

'Dear dear Anne - how is it possible that we could breathe so like one ... i am completely overwhelmed by what you have done. It sounds so ... normal/right/like it was always like that, has always been supposed to be like that. My appreciation is twofold: first for the natural way in which you let this happen, the breathing of text and music, the perfect balance of word, human voice and instrument, the wonderful balance of poems, their order. But secondly, how remarkable the rhythm, phrasing, pace, other sounds and pitch of the music with the text, but especially what you do beTWEEN the poems. Sometimes it just ends, sometimes you take the listener further, and i love the two intermezzos.'


 

Annemarié van Niekerk - book reviewer Trouw
'Do yourself a favour and listen to Anne Vanschothorst's beautiful harp compositions accompanying Antjie Krog's poetry. Hauntingly beautiful.'



NIEUWE NOTEN
​'Those scant, long-flared notes sound like musical abstractions.'
 


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.'
   


JAZZ MOZAIEK
'Compositions in which each note accentuates the surrounding silence and vice versa.'


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.' 


Lex Bohlmeijer - NPO Radio Klassiek

'Such efficient and impressive music, every note counts, touches... i find that daring and moving for that matter too.'



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!' 

​​

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!'


Marjolein van der Heide

'Anne travels solo in this enchantingly beautiful modern 'Alice in wonderland' like fairy tale ; during this enriching & transforming sound search, for herself and the listener, she discovers unique stories to tell.'



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.'  ★★★★★


DE VOLKSKRANT
'Striking is the wonderful minimalist and subtle film music.'


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?'

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