tracklist:
1. DO’UN (56:24)

Release date: November, 2017
All music composed by Mireille Capelle
With HERMESensemble (musicians: Peter Merckx, Marc Tooten, Stijn Saveniers, Karin De Fleyt, Geert Callaert, Melike Tarhan, and Osama Abdulrasol)
Mastered by Jack Allett
Front image : Anish Kapoor, White Dark VIII, 2000, Fiberglass and paint. © Anish Kapoor, 2017.
Produced with the support of the Flemish Community
Design by Jeroen Wille

DO’UN is an Architecture Sonore composed for the exhibition INTUITION curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti, at Palazzo Fortuny, in Venice, 2017. 

The world of Mireille Capelle is one of music and theatre. She has performed as a singer in numerous European opera houses, under the artistic direction of the foremost stage directors and conductors. Mireille Capelle is singing professor at the Ghent School of Arts and member of the artistic board of HERMESensemble.

She has a particular affinity with contemporary music and art, characterized by many encounters with the most important contemporary composers. DO’UN is an “architecture sonore” (“sonic architecture”) composed for the ­exhibition INTUITION (2017) curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti in Venice. ­Mireilles sound scapings are electronic sculptures to be performed as a live format. DO’UN was presented as a live installation by Mireille Capelle and HERMES­ensemble with visual artist Angel Vergara at Palazzo Fortuny in May 2017.

Inspiration for DO’UN comes from the philosophy of the Greek philosopher Democritus and his ideas about cosmology and the void. DO’UN is a one-hour piece characterized by rich sonic layers ­embedded in a drony atmosphere. A very intuitive piece.

Mireille Capelle in her words about the piece: Even though when I talk about it, I find that intuition is closer to mind than instinct, the sound architecture DO’UN, created for ­Intuition, seems to prove the opposite. This piece is very sensory. ­Perhaps ­intuition is what most closely connects visual to auditory art. Sound needs the sensitivity of the physical body to receive intuitive auditory information. As if listening to the invisible is really a human act, a human need. Something that is within us and that we inevitably seek, either consciously or unconsciously. The rhythm that is often used for the communication of ancient peoples with the invisible universe, and that goes against our rationality, is present in the installation. The meaning of the call, the sense of water and fire, a predominance of the colours Si and Fa. Yes, there is a lot of fire and a lot of water in Do’un’s waves. Clear yellow flame.

Biography

Mireille Capelle appeared in various films and plays, as in an impressive number of operatic roles ­including Wagnerian parts such as Eva and Kundry, or ­Salome and Der Komponist (Richard Straus) and a slew of French characters from Charlotte and ­Metella to Jeanne d’Arc (Jeann d’Arc au bûcher, by ­Honegger). In parallel she developped a large concert ­repertoire including main sacred and secular works from early baroque to contemporary music. She sang under the baton of Marc Minkowski, Jos Van ­Immerseel, ­Massimo Zanetti, Sylvain Cambreling, Seiji Ozawa, Silvio Varviso …and was directed by Robert Carsen, Guy Joosten, Andrea Breth, ­Krzysztof Warlikowski, ­Alvis Hermanis…

Mireille Capelle belongs to the most versatile singers of her generation. She manages to combine most intimate singing as a classical recitalist and opera singeer with pioneering all round “performances” as a vocalist, ­composer and soundscaper. Her apport to contemporary music is enormous, including fruitful encounters with composers such as Cage, Crumb, Carter, Maxwell ­Davis, Kagel, Battistelli, Sciarrino, Brewaeys, ­Hubber, Wim ­Henderickx… Furthermore she is linked to the HERMESensemble as a member of the artistic committee and performer.

Her sound scapings also defined as Sonic Architecture, are electronic sculptures to be performed as a live format. The first one, Kinesis Akinetos, was created at the art community Kanaal Axel Vervoordt (B), beneath the Anish Kapoor installation entitled “At the age of the World”. Nefesh and Ruach were created at the “Contemporary Music Festival” in Liège (B). Anello and Tra at Palazzo Fortuny in Venice, eventually Naga had its première in Paris.

As a Professor at the Royal school of arts from Gent she has since many years largely contributed to the all round vocal education of the next generation singers.

Discography

– Mireille Capelle, Anello. Naga. Sunyata (Triple CD set, audioMER., 2009)
– Mireille Capelle with HERMESensemble, Aurum (CD, Inspiratum, 2015)
– Mireille Capelle, DO’UN (CD, audioMER., 2017)

REVIEWS

Vital Weekly
Sometimes land on this desk, where I scratch my head and think ‘oke, so is this all about’; this release by Mireille Capelle is one. “The world of Mireille Capelle is one of music and theatre. She has performed as a singer in numerous European opera houses, under the artistic direction of the foremost stage directors and conductors. Mireille Capelle is singing professor at the Ghent School of Arts and member of the artistic board of HERMESensemble”, I read on the website. She has a triple CD set on the same label (in 2009) and one by Inspiratum, and with one called ‘Sunyata’, I was thinking I tapped into the world of new age perhaps. There are no instruments listed for the Hermes Ensemble, but I understand that that “DO’UN is an Architecture Sonore composed for the exhibition INTUITION curated by Axel Vervoordt and Daniela Ferretti, at Palazzo Fortuny, in Venice, 2017”. A lot of this deals with voices that much is clear. In the first half of the pieces these voices sound resonating through a space, wordless humming and such, but then moves over after the twenty-five minute in a spoken word piece, with various different voices reciting texts and a slow sort of drum sound below all of that. That lasts about ten or so minutes and then moves into that layered voice stuff again, but perhaps now with the addition of instruments (strings perhaps) or effects (reverb no doubt). While I thought this was a enjoyable release I am not sure what to make of it, and that is mostly due to the somewhat new age vibe that comes from this, but I might be entirely wrong about that. That wordless, long sustaining humming is not so much for me, but I liked the spoken word/drum bit and the more processed vocal stuff at the end. Strange one indeed. (Vital Weekly, October 2017)

Look Hoes Talking, De Morgen
De hoes van 'DO'UN', van Mireille Capelle toont Anish Kapoors 'White Dark VIII’. In de rubriek Look Hoes Talking gaan we op zoek naar het verhaal achter een Belgische platenhoes. Deze week: DO’UN, de nieuwe plaat van Mireille Capelle, met artwork van de Brits-Indische kunstenaar Anish Kapoor. In 1985 was Mireille Capelle in de running voor de Belgische inzending van het Eurovisiesongfestival. Vandaag staat ze vooral bekend als mezzosopraan, componiste, soundscaper en docente aan het conservatorium in Gent. Mireille Capelle componeerde DO’UN voor de tentoonstelling INTUITION van Axel Vervoordt en Daniela Ferretti in Venetië. Het resultaat is een uur durende soundscape van etherische elektronica – een fascinerende trip. “Het was een logische keuze om dit artwork te kiezen”, zegt ontwerper Jeroen Wille van platenlabel audioMER, “omdat het beeld White Dark VIII van Anish Kapoor deel uitmaakt van de tentoonstelling. Het is overigens ook de cover van het boek dat de expo begeleidt die nu loopt tijdens de Biënnale van Venetië.” Voor DO’UN haalde de Belgische artieste de mosterd bij de thematiek van void (Engels voor een gevoel van leegte, elv.). “Het is bovendien een centraal thema in het werk van Kapoor. Je moet zijn sculpturen fysiek ervaren. Je kan zijn werk moeilijk vatten, het is een intuïtieve beleving.” En dat is bij de soundscape van Capelle niet anders. “Dit werk mikt op je zintuigen. Er is slechts één ding dat visuele met auditieve kunst verbindt, en dat is intuïtie”, zegt ze. Anish Kapoor leverde zijn werk als coverbeeld, maar het artwork van DO’UN bestaat uit drie luiken, zegt Jeroen Wille. “Je vindt binnenin een zwart-wit foto uit Straatman van de Belgische kunstenaar Angel Vergara. Hij creëerde die performance, samen met Mireille, in Venetië. Het was dan ook logisch om dit beeld in het artwork te verwerken.” Er is daarnaast ook een woordenwolk. “De partituur van de compositie is niet uitgeschreven in noten, maar manifesteert zich als een grafische partituur en bevat woorden en fragmenten van zinnen. Er heeft een selectie de platenhoes gehaald”, aldus Wille. Mireille Capelle liet de muzikanten van het HERMESensemble die woorden en zinnen interpreteren en vertalen naar muziek. “Je zou het experimentele poëzie kunnen noemen. Het woordbeeld is even belangrijk als de woorden op zich.” Wille hield de platenhoes van DO’UN opvallend sober, maar dat was een bewuste keuze. “Gezien het minimale karakter van het artwork, zou typografie afbreuk doen aan het beeld.” Op de achterflap is de albumtitel in een Arabisch lettertype geschreven. Waarom? “DO’UN is de uitspraak van een oud Berbers woord. Mireille wilde een stuk maken over intuïtie, en bij haar onderzoek naar het begrip stootte ze op dit oude Arabische spoor. Het woord is een van de oudste beschrijvingen van het begrip.” DO’UN van Mireille Capelle verschijnt op 27/10 bij audioMER. / N.E.W.S. (Elmo Lê van, De Morgen, October 2017)