Film Works
Twin Twinkler is a film based around excerpts from my piece by the same name.
Twin Twinkler was a commission by Philharmonie Zuidnederland for wind instruments, two percussionists and myself
Twin Twinkler was performed in Oslo, Norway, at the Ultima Festival (in an extended version commission by the Ultima Festival!) as well as in the Netherland. Despite the monumental work and logistics involved it saw two performances in Eindhoven, Maastricht, and at November Music Festival in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
The film was directed by Dries Alkemade and myself.
It is only available via the streaming service Stingray. Click here
Here is what Classic.nl had to say about it:
Philharmonie Zuidnederland presents digital artwork
Philharmonie zuidnederland presents a new and highly unusual digital artistic sample of work for a symphony orchestra: Twin Twinkler . An oppressive black and white video clip of a classical orchestra playing an ‘out of the box’ composition by and with composer, singer and guitarist Stian Westerhus. The clip can be seen on Stingray Classica since August 3.
No one untouched
Stian Westerhus wrote Twin Twinkler for wind instruments, electric guitar and vocals for the South Netherlands Philharmonic. The work premiered in Maastricht and Eindhoven in February 2018. And as expected, the audience was divided: many found the new work extremely demanding and emotionally moving. Others thought the music was over the top. Stian’s music leaves no one in the audience undivided or emotionless. And that is the real strength of his way of composing and making music.
Breathtaking movie version
After the performance, intendant Stefan Rosu and artistic programmer Jos Roeden took the time to think about the ideal context to present Twin Twinkler to a wider audience. And in the end they suggested to Stian to convert Twin Twinkler into a visualized version to offer digitally to the public. Dries Alkemade, who previously worked successfully with the South Netherlands Philharmonic, was asked to direct. At the end of October 2019, the film was shot in a destroyed industrial building, in the NPF tower of CHV Noordkade in Veghel. In the following months, the film was edited and cut. The result is breathtaking. philharmonie zuidnederland is convinced to have delivered a true digital work of art with this ‘film version’ ofTwin Twinkler .
Extra relevant in this time
Originally, Twin Twinkler was about the death of human values (what makes us human) by the dawn of a new era where artificial intelligence is superior to humans. And the rules that apply to us in the new digital reality. Stian Westerhus notes that the work is especially relevant today: “The work has multiple layers of contextual relevance in 2020 as the coronavirus has accelerated digitization and ‘surveillance’: world powers are changing and politics is ultra-polarized. As the song’s lyrics say, “We’re only meta in a Democratic ad campaign.” In many ways it seems like there is a race for worse times, and unfortunately Twin Twinkler reflects just that.”
The video clip Twin Twinkler can be seen via Stingray Classica. Go to http://stingray.com/philzuid and log in with the code ‘zuidphil’ to try Stingray Classica for free for a year.
