tafelmuziek: placard & cd

july 27, 2005.

This thursday, july 28th, as 0 ok, 0:1, we're doing an exclusive 'open air wireless mini placard' at the back of Paradiso, on the Weteringschans in Amsterdam.

Which seems as good an occasion as any to provide some answers to the f.a.q. regarding 'placard' ... which always seems to remain somewhat of a 'mystery' to all that did not yet have a chance to 'be there' ...

So ... tell me ... "What is in a Placard?" ...

A placard is a headphone concert: the audience witnesses a (live) musical performance through a set of headphones. In most cases also the musicians will perform their music wearing headphones. The performers may be in the same physical space as the audience, or - thanks to the ease of audio streaming over the internet - (part of the) audience and (some of the) performers may be, literally, worlds apart.

Attending to a performance through head phones may create an intimacy between listener and musician that in more traditional concert situations often is difficult to establish. Or too easily disturbed. Especially in the case of - less imposing - types of music.

It also is a format that enables one to go and try unusual things. In unusual places.

A placard may be a means to organize very loud and very 'big' concerts in very quiet and very small places. Or very quiet and very 'small' ones in very loud and very big places.
Just to give one example: using the placard format, it is easy to organize a three days-and-nights festival in your tiny rented big city apartment, while remainin friends with all of your neighbors.

We owe the concept to Erik Minkkinen, who set up and ran the first placard in his Belleville 'chambre de bonne' (the size of a cupboard, whence the name: 'placard' is french for cupboard) in 1998, from the early afternoon of september 26 till the late afternoon of september 29.
Erik continues to organize 'placards', and coordinates the set-up of placards by others, on a yearly basis. In the course of the years the idea of 'placard' became a veritable underground 'meme' that is persisting still continues to spread ... all over the world. This year's edition (the eight) of what has become an 'international peripatetic festival', like those of 2003 and 2004, is a chain of events, of placards of all sorts of sizes, occurring over a period of three months, in many different places. >

(Regular readers will have come across several earlier mentions of 'placards' in the soundblog. You may search and will find the corresponding entries. No way that I would/could even attempt here to sketch anything resembling a 'history'.)

[ added september 2006 : there is a link to a short video documentary including an interview with Erik Minkkinen in the SB entry on the 2006 parisian 'grand placard' ...]

 

It was Peter's idea. To 'hi-jack' the wireless connection of Paradiso, that (Dutch and international) 'icon' of 'upcoming' and/or eternally 'underground' pop-, rock- and whatever-music, and do a 0 ok, 0:1 mini-placard on its door-step ... or rather: at the back, in the small outside space between the backstage and the Singelgracht.

We then actually (thanks to Jan Dietvorst) got Paradiso's cooperation in staging such a 'hi-jack' ... The event will take place, as said, this thursday, between 20h00 and 23h00. If the weather is fine, we will be outside. If it's raining (it has been, for the past couple of days ...) we will try to think of something half in / half out (with open doors).

[This 'tafelmuziek placard' is meant to be very small scale and low profile, and we have no more than ten headphones available for the audience. As Paradiso did put the event on their agenda, there might be more than just ten listeners. So if you think about dropping by and have headphones and a laptop with wifi, do bring these along!]

Thursday's placard nicely coincides with the release of the 0 ok, 0:1 "Muziektafel/Tafelmuziek (2004)" CD, with a selection of tracks based upon the material we recorded last year on Ameland, as part of the 'Treasure Island' project. Quite a bit of this material comes from the direct-to-disk recordings of the 'tafelmuziek placard' we did back then, achterom bij 'Galerie Dit Eiland', in the village of Hollum.

You can get yourself a copy now, achterom bij Paradiso, on the Weteringschans in Amsterdam ... If you can't make it there, but still would like to get one, do drop us a line ...

Thanks for your support :)