Jaap Blonk
Lars Opstad
A person and megaphone.
Jaap Blonk
Jaap Blonk is one of the foremost sound poets of our day and this is a rare Madison appearance. In sound poetry, the voice itself becomes an instrument and lends new meanings and subtexts to the words. Blonk, in his current show, Dr. Voxoid’s Next Move, is continually developing the performance and it may include invented language, “phonetic etudes” and live soundscapes.
media release: Arts + Literature Laboratory welcomes Jaap Blonk for his current voice and electronics performance, Dr. Voxoid's Next Move, on Tuesday, October 17, 2023 at 7:00pm. Advance tickets are $20 ($15 student/ALL member), or $25 at the door for everyone.
Dr Voxoid's Next Move is Jaap Blonk's current voice and electronics performance. It is in constant development, new possibilities being added frequently. He prefers to choose a specific program on the spot and may even change it during a performance.
Dr Voxoid's Next Move may contain:
- sound poetry (his own works and possibly an occasional 'classic' from this tradition)
- pieces in invented languages, for instance in "Onderlands" (the language of the Underlands, a variation on Netherlands)
- phonetic etudes and processes
- live soundscapes
- improvisations, both for solo voice and in dialogue with his live electronics
- and more...
"We can add to [the] short list of 2011 [Festival International de Musique Actuelle de Victoriaville] highlights the mind-bending Dadaistic vaudevillian virtuosity of the Dutch Jaap Blonk, who does things with his voice and texts (including historic 1920s-era sound poem works by Kurt Schwitters and others) that nobody else does. I felt my mental pores opening up during his solo show, called Dr. Voxoid’s Next Move. Some semi-Godly vision of controlled abandon welled up inside of me. Or maybe that’s just Harold Camping putting the religious inklings in me, redirected toward the dada side by the shaman Blonk. It’s the kind of epiphany occasionally to be found in this cowtown, although you never know when it will hit and zap your sense of wonder. Such is life." --Santa Barbara Independent
Some video examples:
- Kurt Schwitters' Ursonate, First Movement
- Performance in Other Minds Festival, San Francisco
- Quarantine concert for ESS, Chicago, June 2020
Some sound examples:
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