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

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TAKE EFFECT REVIEWS

The composer and harpist Anne Vanschothors pays homage to the legendary American poet Emily Dickinson, where 7 poems are put to music, as much intimacy radiates from the emotive presence. “A Harp Note To Emily Dickinson” opens the listen with the mesmerizing and elegant strings unfolding with much care and atmosphere, and “Nobody knows this little Rose” follows with Annie Einan’s gorgeous voice alongside the emotive harp that suits the poetic climate. Deeper into the listen, “Where have all the birds gone?” has the harp creating a rich landscape of warmth and mystery, while “I hav’nt told my garden yet” brings back Einan’s vocals to the dreamy demeanor of stirring song craft and vivid wordplay. The last 2 tracks, “Trees of mercy” and “If I shouldn’t be alive”, are memorable, too, where the former is quite minimal and artistically gentle, and the latter is just as tranquil, via the flowing strings that emit beauty and the sounds of nature that adds much allure. An aesthetically soothing and minimal body of work, Vanschothorst’s playing is striking, and the texts certainly draw us in as well.

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Núria Serra,  Sonograma

'That I did always Love is a beautiful and striking recording; the author, aware of the importance that women have had in this process of transmission of the sensitive world, has composed a work of sound art with music and words of the spirit.'
 

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Muziekweb

'Vanschothorst ontwikkelde haar eigen intuïtieve stijl: een vloeiende, natuurlijk ademende muziek met pure harpklanken, natuurgeluiden en gesproken woord."

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Ron Schepper,  Textura

Dutch harpist Anne Vanschothorst has clearly found a kindred spirit in American poet Emily Dickinson (1830-86). Despite being separated from her by significant temporal and geographical distance, Vanschothorst has distilled the essence of the writer's sensibility into the mesmerizing That I Did Always Love. With Annie Einan reciting a number of Dickinson's poems in harp-based soundscapes fashioned by Vanschothorst, listeners will feel as if they've stepped into the poet's world and are hiking through the Amherst countryside, breathing in its replenishing air and taking in its sights and sounds—even if after the age of thirty the reclusive poet spent most of her time indoors. Of course, immersing oneself in the gorgeous nature settings of The Hague isn't all that far removed from doing the same in Massachusetts. Living where she does, the harpist is near the birds, buzzing flies, and rustling winds that accent the sound paintings on the album. There's a stillness and calm to this music that's conducive to reverie and contemplation. Einan's calm, sober readings of the seven poems reinforce that quality, whilst also deepening the transporting effect of the material. While the pieces are as expansive as the outdoors, they're also intimate in the way they connect with the listener. Dicksinson's words naturally lend themselves to the treatments the harpist has devised for them. In place of performances focusing on virtuosic display, Vanschothorst's are on poetic expression and creating sound design complementary to Dickinson's writing. Graceful harp patterns, plucks, scrapes, slides, and strums operate as the orienting centre around which other elements constellate, be they chirping birds, ominous nature rumblings, or the crunch of outdoor footsteps.

The attraction of the poet for the harpist doesn't stem only from her words but from the life Dickinson lived and the differences between women's lives then and now. Only ten of her approximately 1800 poems were published during her lifetime, with hundreds shared with friends and correspondents and the greater number kept to herself. After her death, her sister Lavinia found a treasure trove of poems in Emily's room and dedicated herself to getting them published. Her timeless reflections on love, death, and immortality—“Ah Little Rose – how easy / For such as thee to die!” (“Nobody knows this little Rose”) and “That love is life – / And life hath Immortality” (“That I did always love”) merely two examples of many—resonate as powerfully today as ever. While the album is largely a solo Vanschothorst production, others beyond her and Einan contribute. Maarten Voss is credited with mixing and production on “Where have all the birds gone?,” a mournful setting that conjoins strings and (what sounds like) theremin to harp, and “Higher she flies without feet!,” a pretty reverie that likewise augments Vanschothorst's playing with shimmering atmospheric textures; Bert Barten is also listed as the co-composer of “There's a certain Slant of Light” and “Trees of mercy,” both of which weave electronic elements into the musical fabric. All praise to Vanschothorst for conceiving such an imaginative and original project and bringing it so splendidly to fruition. That I Did Always Love is an arresting music-and-text creation that both honours Dickinson's enduring artistry and the harpist's talents as a conceptualist, composer, and, of course, musician.

Christina Rusnak,  IAWM conference report
"The second program opened with Anne Vanschothorst haunting 'Paternoster' in which she vocalized by spitting out rhythmic lines as delicate waves of harp playing, and gentle visual animations rolled past."
 

Antjie Krog  

'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 2 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!' 
 

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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 CLASSICAL-MODERN MUSIC REVIEW 

'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 - NADELUNCH.COM
'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?