Music and poetry by Hendrik van Oordt, Robert Roth and friends

Como alimento poetico, de cuando en cuando el bother Robert, comparte sus colaboraciones con Hendrick. Aqui algunas palabras de presentacion paykuna pura.

I met Hendrik van Oordt in Amsterdam while visiting my family there. He was extremely intense and generous in his attention. We kept in touch by email. At some point he asked if I would like to collaborate with him. He would compose a piece and I would write words. Maybe 1 to 5 lines (which on rare occasion have extended into 7 lines). Art work would also be included. The pieces would be posted on YouTube. Non have exceeded three minutes. Some have been far shorter. We have done close to 60 of them so far. This includes four videos using Hendrik’s music and my words. The different artists and video artists have done extraordinarily beautiful work. Somehow all the different elements seem to play almost magically off each other. Generally it is Hendrik who comes up with an idea. Occasionally I do. There are times I take an idea of his and run with it in a direction far from what he had expected. Once in a while there is a push pull as we need to accommodate the others sense of what is being attempted. It is an interesting process to give up something that you like but that doesn’t work in the larger creation. Hendrik is also a writer and a visual artist. His compositions for our project are short, all very different, yet distinct. People talk glowingly about his music to me. The visual artists who have participated have come from many places around the globe. Our creations have been very different from each other. Sometimes playful, sometimes mournful, sometimes overtly political, sometimes meditative and deep. The great pianist Lotti van den Dikkenberg-Methorst performs in almost every one. For the most part Hendrik brings all the elements together. It is always mind blowing seeing them for the first time. Four times though video artists have used his music and my words and have created mini masterpieces with them.

Early on I felt I was piggybacking on the pure talent and hard work of Hendrik and all the artists involved. To compose music, to create art, to direct a video took hours of time and focus. Having done as many as we have I feel less that way now. I am very proud of my own contribution to all that we have created. (Robert)

Robert is too modest! All his texts stand as good poetry in their own right. It is stand-alone art that just happens to combine well with my music and the images contributed by other artists. The only merit I have is that I started the whole thing, because I felt that too many artists sit alone in their corner and that collaboration can spark the artistic fire and that we need more art if we are to keep civilization alive. And although I cannot speak for Robert, I guess he has a similar drive, as reflected in his magazine, And Then… I love Robert’s lines and very original viewpoints (“A lost thought is found under a sock”, the text for Usual Argument with Death and many others). His contribution is equally strong to mine and for me a challenge to write for (the third pillar being the excellent artists we manage to interest and the fourth being Lotte, who plays with a lot of feeling). Being Protestants at heart, the Dutch tend not to hand out glowing accolades but a number of friends have commented on Robert’s texts and find them insightful or funny or interesting. But I’m Dutch too and too much praise makes me feel uneasy, and so, here’s to future work, hopefully as inspired!