Cummings and Goings TRY OUT

Eric Thielemans (BE) – Drums, percussion; Josse De Pauw (BE) – Spoken word; Kris Defoort (BE) – Piano

Poems by E. E. Cummings (1894–1962), performed by acclaimed actor Josse De Pauw, accompanied and supported by exploratory percussion, stuttering grooves and melodic drumming by Eric Thielemans, and the music of composer-pianist Kris Defoort, which moves between composition and improvisation.

Three unique voices. Performing, exploring, singing, speaking, conversing. Cummings’ work was pioneering because of his experiments with form, syntax and language. The poet invented his own words and gave existing words a personal meaning. He saw the poem both as a visual object on the page and as a text to be read and recited. In “Cummings and goings”, Eric Thielemans, Josse De Pauw and Kris Defoort also add their own meaning to his groundbreaking work through musical interpretation.

‘Cummings and goings’ is performed as a concert in which each performer wears headphones. The result is introspective yet expressive, musically maximalist and resonant, without any explicit translation in the performance. It is as if the audience were allowed to witness the intimate setting of a recording session.