Experience a new landscape
Bats use ultrasonic sounds for orientation and hunting insects. These sounds can be made audible with a so called batdetector. Combined with atmospheric and groovy music and creative and theatrical lighting, a very special environment is created. This blending of bats in the wild and human reaction through music and light design makes for a unique experience.
The mobile audience
The music and images are improvised within frameworks, but ultimately the activity and behaviour of the bats on the night control what might happen in the performance. The audience can move freely within the estate, first with a bat guide and later individually. Length of performance: 45 minutes.
Performance Elswout
On the 17th and 18th of august 2006, in cooperation with Staatsbosbeheer (Dutch State Forest), Stichting Het Krakende Ei organized a location project Batscapez on the estate of Elswout.
Batscapez was an unforgettable experience. The silence and darkness and the sounds of the batdetectors from the woods together with the improvised music and lights made a very striking combination. It was a hypnotizing experience to perform in this special environment with the sounds of live bats. Because of the beautiful weather the bats were in a good mood for making a lot of noises. The estate was because of the very special acoustics (thanks to the special lanes and coachhouses in the park) and the beauty almost ideal for this production. The result was amazing: fairytale-like images and fascinating soundscapes.
In total around a hundred people watched the two performances. It was a very varied audience. Besides Enric, Seamus, Oguz, Clare and Ben whom I want to thank for their inspiring playing and their great company I would like to thank the people, mentioned in the next column, who played a crucial role in this production.
Wobbe van der Meulen, 16th of june, 2006