Uploaded August 2023 | Updated September 2026, 3 days ago
"After having toured with Phill Niblock, where I made five installations and seven concerts in Krakow, Wroclaw, Lodz and Warsaw, my visit to the Plasy monastery meant the finale of a one-month trip. I didn’t know much about the space where I was expected to present my work, neither about the social and cultural context in which the event would take place.
Jana and Miloš told me immediately after my arrival about a wonderful freshly renovated chapel in the convent, which they expected to be perfect for my installation. They showed me the space, and I agreed with them that St. Bernard's chapel is a wonderful sound chamber with very lively acoustics, echoing and reverberating, and sounding warm and beautiful. It also has a very beautifully shaped Baroque interior.
This made me decide to make an almost immaterial installation. I only stretched five piano-strings from the hinges of the open doors to the hinges of the windows. The strings were stretched with turnbuckles. The distances between the door and the windows tuned the strings. I didn't use amplification, no P. A. and no acoustical resonators. I decided to have no audience in the room, since the presence of people in a space mostly changes the acoustical qualities. The chapel was to become the instrument itself with the musicians inside. The doors were the sound-hole through which the music left the instrument into the corridor where the audience was. I invited Phill Niblock to play two of the strings. I played the three other strings myself. I invited Jo Truman, since I like her voice and the sounds of her didgeridoo and I wondered how these would sound in this space. I invited Michael Delia after I had heard his drum and kalimba in the space. All the sounds melted together in the chapel. This was a remarkable experience."
Paul Panhuysen, Plasy 1992
Long String concert in the st. Bernard chapel, together with Phill Niblock, Michael Delia, Jo Truman was recorded by Avik. The concert took place on June 20th, 1992.
Video: vimeo.com/302871494
"After having toured with Phill Niblock, where I made five installations and seven concerts in Krakow, Wroclaw, Lodz and Warsaw, my visit to the Plasy monastery meant the finale of a one-month trip. I didn’t know much about the space where I was expected to present my work, neither about the social and cultural context in which the event would take place.
Jana and Miloš told me immediately after my arrival about a wonderful freshly renovated chapel in the convent, which they expected to be perfect for my installation. They showed me the space, and I agreed with them that St. Bernard's chapel is a wonderful sound chamber with very lively acoustics, echoing and reverberating, and sounding warm and beautiful. It also has a very beautifully shaped Baroque interior.
This made me decide to make an almost immaterial installation. I only stretched five piano-strings from the hinges of the open doors to the hinges of the windows. The strings were stretched with turnbuckles. The distances between the door and the windows tuned the strings. I didn't use amplification, no P. A. and no acoustical resonators. I decided to have no audience in the room, since the presence of people in a space mostly changes the acoustical qualities. The chapel was to become the instrument itself with the musicians inside. The doors were the sound-hole through which the music left the instrument into the corridor where the audience was. I invited Phill Niblock to play two of the strings. I played the three other strings myself. I invited Jo Truman, since I like her voice and the sounds of her didgeridoo and I wondered how these would sound in this space. I invited Michael Delia after I had heard his drum and kalimba in the space. All the sounds melted together in the chapel. This was a remarkable experience."
Paul Panhuysen, Plasy 1992
Long String concert in the st. Bernard chapel, together with Phill Niblock, Michael Delia, Jo Truman was recorded by Avik. The concert took place on June 20th, 1992.
Video: vimeo.com/302871494
