At the entrance to the Amsterdam Gashouder we are given earplugs. Earplugs at a classical concert? Wonderful. Icelandic film composer Hildur Gudnadóttir will perform the award-winning music she composed for the HBO series at the Holland Festival Chernobyl.
In the large round factory hall, the audience stands around a stage full of electronics. You can walk around it, sit on the floor, or lie down next to it. The concert starts traditionally. The Groot Omroepkoor, led by Benjamin Goodson, sings a cappella compositions by Gudnadóttir on the north side of the hall. Neoclassical, simple and effective – it is reminiscent of minimal music à la Arvo Pärt. This certainly applies to ‘Vichnaya pamyat’ (eternal memory), based on a Slavic Christian prayer for the dead.
This first part lays an emotional foundation for the rest of the concert, which consists of a penetrating soundscape emanating from the main stage. Here are three electronic musicians, including Sam Slater, the composer’s partner. She herself acts as a singer of long, distorted notes that add warmth to the soundscape.
Field recordings from nuclear power plant
Gudnadóttir made field recordings at the closed nuclear power plant in Lithuania where the series was filmed. She put these industrial sounds through the computer. It hums, thunders, crackles and rustles. The hall vibrates with loud, long booms topped by metallic, pulsating sounds. With dark noise, interspersed with desperate ambient, she expresses the disaster of the Russian nuclear power plant at Chernobyl, at the end of April 1986.
The industrial soundscape of Chernobyl sounds in the Gashouder
Photo Natalia Knycz
Chernobyl wants to be a total experience. “We invite you to be fully present,” says the announcer at the start. To this end, around sixty fluorescent tubes – one hanging vertically – flash from the ceiling like the failing control rods that played a disastrous role in the explosion at the nuclear power plant. The Gashouder slowly fills with smoke. During the softer parts with lamentations, the hall is bathed in purple light, while the alarming parts are accompanied by an orange glow of fire.
Concerts with film music are popular. That is understandable, thanks to the films, that music is better known to a wide audience than average classical music. Film music slides in easily and you can hum along. But the music was made to support the film emotionally. Disconnected from the images it quickly becomes boring.
Gudnadottir, associate artist of this year’s Holland Festival, is no ordinary film composer. She does not spread a bed of violins, but experiments with sound and enters into a dialogue with the images – more prominently than usual. In the movie The Joker protagonist Joaquin Phoenix was inspired by her music to create his famous madness dance.
It is special for the award-winning music of Chernobyl can be heard performed live by the composer himself, but ultimately the one-hour soundscape with light show is not exciting enough. Those earplugs are not necessary.