At the request of Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Germany), director and artistic director of Zonzo Compagnie Wouter Van Looy created a project that was rooted in the local community of Bruckhausen. Composer Jan Van Outryve looked for songs that travelled with the migration flows or were passed on by German culture; from Turkish lullabies via Romanian dances to the Steigerlied of the miners.
Documentary maker Annabel Verbeke and sound scaper Gedeon Depauw provided images and sounds that portray the neighbourhood and interact with the chosen songs. The performance took place in a UFO, a pop-up theatre developed by architecture collective Raumlabor Berlin.
Songs With Roots - Project
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Zonzo Compagnie Et al.
Our Songs with Roots project likes to nestle in a city, district or village. Whereas Alan Lomax still had to travel to archive his songs, they have now ended up in many places with migration flows. There we go in search of songs and the stories of people with whom they travelled and then bring them back to sound in all their beauty.
Duisburg - 2022
credits
vocals & performance Aleksandra Popovska
direction, scenography & concept Wouter Van Looy
arrangements & concept Jan Van Outryve
sound design Gedeon Depauw
video Annabel verbeke
dramaturgy Anna Grundmeier
Zeebruges (BE) - Concertgebouw Brugge - 2024
Together with Concertgebouw Brugge, we went into the homes of Zeebruges residents in the spring of 2024 in search of special songs with a unique story. We looked into the homes and hearts of these people and talked about their childhood and their musical memories. In Songs with Roots, their songs and stories were transformed into a multimedia concert that was very close to the people and their stories. It became a strong interaction between five individual performers and the renowned string ensemble Bruges Bryggen Strings.
credits
voice Lieselot De Wilde, Amel Sdiri & Aline Goffin
kora Mamadou Dramé
lute & arrangements Jan Van Outryve
drums Simon Segers
Bryggen Bruges Strings
video Bárbara Jarque
research Li Li Chong
end direction Wouter Van Looy
Opéra de Rouen - November 2024
As part of the BIG BANG Festival, the Opéra de Rouen Normandie and Zonzo Compagnie have been building a successful partnership for many years. A collaboration in the context of Songs with Roots was therefore bound to happen.
Barbara Jarque created video portraits of Rouen residents who once left their homeland for the Normandy capital: Iran, Poland, Romania, Turkey, ... Together with the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Aline Goffin, Jan Van Outryve, Lieselot De Wilde, Mamadou Dramé & Sep François performed beautiful songs that enhanced these video portraits at the end of November 2024. A dream project.