Tickets and info: https://meervaart.nl/agenda/hardkoor

a stream of self-consciousness, set to techno, trip hop and choral music

“I am not being burned out at home. I am at home burning out my doubts. And once my doubts are burned out, I will come out and I will play with you.”

Naomi Velissariou’s razor-sharp language, seamlessly blending English and Dutch to shatter suffocating human ideals, is interwoven in HARDKOOR with the mind-bending sound design of Joost Maaskant (Maask) and Frank Wienk (Binkbeats). Previously, Velissariou and Maaskant formed the duo PERMANENT DESTRUCTION. Producer Frank Wienk translates their sound in HARDKOOR into a composition that explores the boundaries between acoustic and electronic music. This composition is performed by drummer Jens Bouttery and Nederlands Kamerkoor (Dutch Chamber Choir).

The performance unfolds in a setting described by designer Boris Acket as a “brutalist techno temple”: a modular installation of light and sound technology, with a special role for the choir’s voices. The costumes consist of high-fashion loungewear, designed by MAISON the FAUX.

The combination of painfully honest text, hypnotic sound design rhythms, the grandeur of choral singing, the raw austerity of the installation, and the high-fashion aesthetic of the costumes make HARDKOOR a harmonizing ritual of meaning in times of hysterical reality.

HARDKOOR is a co-production of Theater Utrecht and Nederlands Kamerkoor, in collaboration with Holland Festival, NKK NXT alumni, and Nicole Beutler Projects.

English and Dutch spoken, with English surtitles.

Warning: This performance involves loud noise and flashing lights, and a stroboscope is used.