As an organist I never forget that the organ is a wind-instrument. My installations for organ (they often last many hours) ask: Am I realizing a piece? There is hardly anything you may hear in the church. The organ releases as a jewel each single sound, each stream of air, each noise – disappearing into the space of the hall.
The sound of music, the noise of music, the sound and the noise of everyday life: they cut into each other. Both, the sound and the noise of music, do not depend on silence, do not need any silent location. They are quiet themselves; their quietness creates silent rooms welcoming all sounds.
It is organ the machine and human beings working together. What about sounds of (almost) eternal duration? The organ sometimes seems to be able to breathe endlessly.
The sounds, the wind, the airy sounds of the organ as a wind-instrument, and the silence of wide spaces: a beautiful coincidence. The space turns into a location for listeners, inviting them to do nothing more than just to be here and there and to breathe. Listen: unhindered by any possible meaning of the streams of air.
(Following Eva-Maria Houben: presence – silence – disappearance)
Videos:
Eva-Maria Houben, organ installations I, II, III
Orgelpark, Amsterdam (NL), 29.10.2022
Eva-Maria Houben, organ installation II
Kulosaari kirkko, Helsinki (Finland), 13.10.2022