Revival of the readers: Music meets poetry in Perdu

Apr 4, 2013 | by Frederike | Art, Event, Music

About the author

As a twenty-five year old writer, hummusaddict, night decorator, Master student, secret girlfriend of James Franco and lover of thick books, I totally agree with the saying that wolves don't lose sleep over the opinion of sheep.

How narrow is the gap between fantasy and reality? Pretty thin, according to Luuk Imhann, who wrote several poems about this blur. A youngster creating poems might be an exception, but a youngster who creates a musical play around his rhymes is even more special. He tells the story of a boy who slightly disappears in fictional thoughts, instead of starting an actual conversation with a mysterious girl. Mix this high grade song text with a clarinet and a piano and you have the ingredients of De onverschilligheid van rozen (‘The indifference of roses’).

Hi Luuk, how did you come up with the idea of turning your collection of poems in to a musical performance?
“I already had the idea at the my book presentation last year where Sietse Damen (the pianist) already played the songs he made based on my texts. It felt very good, so I kept on searching for an even better way to incorporate sound into my performance. I worked with Kim Grisel (the clarinettist) before so the group was formed very naturally. Before this show she never sang outside the shower, so it was an experiment for the both of us. The whole process was based on a kind of instinct, that’s what I like about it.” He definitely thinks the experiment worked out well: “People are very enthusiastic and the first edition is already sold out!”

luuk

You live in a small village outside Amsterdam, is the quietness something you need to write?
“Absolutely, without it I can’t work. I think a lot of people forget that writing is also labour. If I want to produce something, I need to be completely focused for longer than a day. In the city there’s something I’d want to join every night. Here in Bakkum it’s luckily very serene.”

Eventually my main character has to choose between the real and fake world.

A few words about the story?
“My main character is too shy to talk to a nice girl he meets in a book store, and therefore makes up a non-existing friend. In the beginning this seems a good solution, but eventually he has to choose between the real and fake world. I think it’s a choice we all make at some points.”