Après le concert sold out de Stars of the Lid (2016) et l’hommage à Jóhann Jóhannsson (2018) à l’église du Béguinage – officiellement l’église Saint-Jean-Baptiste-au-Béguinage –, l’AB investit pour la troisième fois cet endroit où résidait jadis la plus grande communauté belge de béguines.

Echo Collective plays Jóhann Jóhannsson’s ’12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann’ 
Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson always loved to unite various art forms. He was able to seamlessly combine music, film, literature and theatre. The link with the visual arts was missing though. Until one of the best known and biggest British art collectors - Richard Thomas – suggested composing music for the work of Berlin resident artist Thilo Heinzmann. In turn, Heinzmann’s thoughts immediately went to Jóhann Jóhannsson.

© Francis Vanhee

After a few meetings, Jóhannsson withdrew into his studio with a number of Heinzmann’s works. The result: '12 Conversations With Thilo Heinzmann', which will be released this fall via Deutsche Grammofon. The result: twelve wonderfully refined compositions, stripped of all electronic ballast and written for a string quartet. Enter Echo Collective – as, just prior to his death, Jóhannsson had asked them to record his written compositions. The result is moving and will visit not only London’s Barbican and Berlin’s Funkhaus, but also Brussels’ Béguinage Church.

© Francis Vanhee

Où ? L’église du Béguinage (place du Béguinage 2062, 1000 Bruxelles) se trouve à 9 minutes à pied (soit 750 mètres d’après Google Maps) de l’AB.