Lute player Sofie Vanden Eynde’s presents this autobiographical project on burnout which includes a full album ànd a listening play, with text by Annemarie Peeters.
Sofie put her instrument aside for nine months to recover from a severe burn-out. Five years later, the need arose to look back. Annemarie interviewed Sofie and used the interviews to write a text that reflects the three phases of burnout. The run-up to it, the phase of total stagnation during it and, finally, the cautious way out of a burnout.
Sofie looked for pieces from the solo lute repertoire that she intuitively associated with the different phases of the text. Sometimes she chose the rich, powerful sound of the theorbo. Then again she opted for the fragile, hushed sound of the Renaissance lute. The music of John Dowland, for example, draws on the typically English penchant for melancholy. The fantasias and ricercares by Francesco da Milano reflect not only the bright colours of the Italian Renaissance, but also the constant search for a new beginning. The Cancion del emperador by Luis de Narvaez is an arrangement for lute of the famous chanson Mille Regretz by Josquin Desprez, a song that breathes serene regret for everything that is not. Finally, in Les Sylvains by François Couperin, a recurring refrain alternates with contrasting phrases. Hope, tenderness, revolt and acceptance thus pass the baton to one another". Alongside and between masterpieces from the Renaissance and the Baroque, new work by Russian composer Vladimir Gorlinsky can be heard.
"Vanishing Point" is a book, a piece of music, a journey: meandering between fragile comfort and cautious happiness. Annemarie Peeters put Sofie's journey to zero and back into words. Artist Emilie Lauwers drew the inner lines of it. Composer Vladimir Gorlinsky looked for sounds. Sofie interprets them. © Antarctica Records