{"id":3668,"date":"2022-04-01T11:30:20","date_gmt":"2022-04-01T10:30:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/?p=3668"},"modified":"2022-06-07T22:44:23","modified_gmt":"2022-06-07T21:44:23","slug":"jeremiah-chiu-marta-sofia-honer-een-kwestie-van-geen-tijd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fr-nt.nl\/en\/2022\/04\/01\/no-time-is-of-the-essence-for-jeremiah-chiu-marta-sofia-honer\/","title":{"rendered":"No time is of the essence for Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Front is media partner of\u00a0Rewire<\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 rom 7 to 10 April 2022 in The Hague. In addition to Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer,\u00a0<\/em>Alabaster dePlume<\/em><\/a>,\u00a0<\/em>Mabe Fratti<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>bela<\/em><\/a>, <\/em>Leo Svirsky<\/em><\/a>, and\u00a0<\/em>Oceanic<\/em><\/a>\u00a0will be performing. More information can be found at\u00a0<\/em>Rewire's website.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Experimental composer \/ modular synthesiser guru Jeremiah Chiu and viola virtuoso Marta Sofia Honer had been living and playing together for many years, but it took an impromptu adventure to a place without time for the two to finally collaborate on a full-length LP. Recordings from the \u00c5land Islands<\/em> offers both exactly what the title suggests, and a journey that far transcends its specific locale.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Written by: <\/strong>Ruben van Dijk<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Alan Lightman\u2019s 1992 novel Einstein\u2019s Dreams<\/em>, a small town in the Swiss Alps goes through a different configuration of time with every new chapter. Time runs in circles, or time is a nightingale, occasionally trapped. And in one of them, time stands still, but only in said town. \u201cAs a traveller approaches this place from any direction, he moves more and more slowly. His heartbeats grow further apart, his breathing slackens, his temperature drops, his thoughts diminish, until he reaches dead centre and stops.\u201d Such is the experience of listening to the musical scrapbook that is Recordings from the \u00c5land Islands<\/em> by Jeremiah Chiu & Marta Sofia Honer, which came out earlier this year through International Anthem. \u201cAn eternity of contentment,\u201d as Lightman would put it, \u201cFixed and frozen, like a butterfly mounted in a case.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Until a few years ago, Chiu nor Sofia Honer had even heard of the \u00c5land archipelago, an autonomous region of Finland, located where the Baltic Sea meets the Gulf of Bothnia. You can hardly fault them: \u00c5land is home to a mere 30,000 and, due to its politically neutral and demilitarised status, has managed to mostly steer away from conflict in the last 150 years of European history. That a group of creative people from California ended up where they did, was largely the result of happenstance. In the end, it yielded an album that captures the place better than any brochure ever could; a boundless, yet oddly faithful ode to a place where time\u2019s an eternity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe love travelling and we get inspired by travelling,\u201d Chiu tells me, the both of them sat in their living room in LA. \u201cBut I\u2019m also a very bad vacationer. I can\u2019t do it. I\u2019m always trying to think of a project to do.\u201d And so, when Chiu reconnected with Sage Reed, an old friend from his Chicago days, and learned about her plans to start a hotel on the island of Kumlinge with her \u00c5land born mother, he jumped at the opportunity. \u201cShe was like: \u2018If you know anyone that wants to come and help make this thing happen, we\u2019re open to it.\u2019 And it sparked a lightbulb for me. Can we get a group of people to help her barn raise this small hotel \u2013 with the hopes that one day it might become this really beautiful place for us to visit, to go work on projects\u2026?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember when we finished the concert, and one of the audience members was like: \u2018I come to this church every week, but I\u2019ve never heard this organ played this way, ever.\u2019\u201d<\/strong><\/p>Jeremiah Chiu<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJeremiah is a very good instigator,\u201d adds Sofia Honer, \u201cWe decided to invite some friends with us, some of which we were already pretty close with and some we weren\u2019t as close with yet, so it was a surprise group of people. It really worked, because it\u2019s a special kind of person that jumps at going somewhere unknown, not quite knowing what is going to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The couple brought some instruments to \u00c5land, as well as a recording kit, \u201cbecause there\u2019s always a bit of a side project involved, whether we know it or not.\u201d But recording an album was far from the intention. Chiu: \u201cWe set out to do demolition on walls, paint walls, rebuild this place\u2026\u201d Sofia Honer: \u201cBut we found moments where we just started improvising, writing a little bit of music, taking field recordings while we were exploring different islands, composing things and slowly piecing them together.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although their first visit lasted only two weeks, the hours seemed in abundance on the archipelago, located at the southernmost point on the Northern Hemisphere where white nights can be observed. Sofia Honer: \u201cWhen we went, it was right around midsommar<\/em>, when the sun never really sets, which we\u2019d never experienced before. Even past midnight it\u2019s just endless dusk. Along with the landscape of all the islands, the water, and the granite, the colour and energy of having that eternal sun was something new to us, and it was super captivating.\u201d Chiu: \u201cFor both of us, there was this feeling of not having to regiment to any sort of schedule. It felt like there was no time happening there. Which is a strange experience, but one I love so much.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n