24.04 — 05.05.2023

Open Space: Time Capsule Turangalîla 

Musica, Impulse Centre (BE)

The Rhythm of Life

Turangalîla Time Capsule

Open Spaces are productions that directly engage the audience in the creative process. Local communities new to music work with a curating team to create a musical work that may be presented at a partner’s music festival. Although a quality artistic result is a goal, the priority is to create a meaningful musical experience for audiences. Open Spaces represent a safe zone for testing different techniques that will be re-tested in different cultural contexts.

Time Capsule Turangalîla is about life and the joy of playing music together.

“Compose the work you want, in the style of your choice, with the duration you want and the instrumentation you want, and I will not impose any deadline on you.” That is the task Messiaen was set by Russian conductor Sergei Koussevitzky. The result was the Turangalîla Symphony, a work larger than life: as if Messiaen was trying to capture his understanding of life in music.

Inspired by the Turangalîla Symphony, seven duos of grandparent and grandchild (8 to 14 years old) with different roots made music together under the guidance of Osama Abdulrasol and Hilde De Clerck. Drawing upon Messiaen’s work, they explored how to look backward and forward, over 3 days of workshops.

Nobody knew beforehand what the final result would be, but on Wednesday 3 May, the participants proudly showed their wonderful creation to the audience of a sold-out chamber music hall in Concertgebouw Brugge. This performance was an intense and beautiful experience. 

On Friday 5 May, the participants went together to watch the Turangalîla Symphony, performed by Brussels Philharmonic & Kazushi Ono.

See photos of Time Capsule Turangalîla

Interested in Sounds Now’s Open Space formats? Check out Goodiepal & Bananskolen at SPOR Festival and Fonetica by Tiptoe, organised by Wilde Westen