Two Envelopes — Harpsichord & Percussion Duo

About Two Envelopes

Formed in 2015 by harpsichordist Lisa Kokwenda Schweiger and percussionist Jacob Vanneste, Two Envelopes fuses adventurous combinations of performative elements or electronics, whilst retaining a classical core.

The name ‘Two Envelopes’ is dirived from a painting from Friedensreich Hundertwasser: “Two Envelopes on a long voyage”. As the duo found this such a poetic image, they decided to call their duo to this painting. Furthermore, an envelope in electronic music, sometimes our third player, means as much as a parameter changing, evoluting in time.

Past highlights include performances at Amuz Antwerpen, STUK Leuven, Orgelpark Amsterdam, Les Ateliers Claus Brussels, Q-O2 Brussels and Mute festival Ghent, among other venues and events. In 2015 they were selected as ‘International Young Artist’ by Musica. Two Envelopes is part of the Cohort new music platform, based in Brussels.

Boem!! Tchak!!

Jacob Vanneste

Percussion

Inspiration

Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Two Envelopes On A Long Voyage

Pling Pling

Lisa Kokwenda Schweiger

Harpsichord

Projects

To widen the available repertoire aside the few pieces written in the 80s and 90s for this rare combination of harpsichord and percussion, Two Envelopes is creating new repertoire together with composers.

Two Envelopes worked with composers Julia Emmery and Michaël Denis in 2016 whilst in residence at Q-02, Brussels; since then the desire to extend the project has grown. As part of this desire, the duo's latest initiative includes commissioning pieces from 6 international composers, which will be premiered during 2018-2019. This innovative repertoire will be developed further through several residencies and performances at Les Ateliers Claus (Brussels), Festival van Vlaanderen (Kortrijk) and Beeldenstorm (Brussels).

Composers:
Jasper Van Paemel (BE)
Ruud Roelofsen (NL)
Jesse Broeckman (NL)
Boris Bezemer (NL)
Michaël Denis (BE)
Julia Emmery (BE)
Pedro Guajardo (ES)
Josh Trotter (GB)
Stefaan Quix (BE)

This project is funded by VGC (Brussels) and VG (Flanders). Co-produced by Les Ateliers Claus, Wilde Westen and Beeldenstorm.

To go beyond the borders of our instruments we explore also repertoire and music with performative character.

Coming from the tradition of performative and theatrical music (as set up by John Cage, Mauricio Kagel, Dieter Schnebel, George Aperghis and many others) we use our bodies and voices as instruments and work out the musicality of movements, actions and even situations.

Repertoire:
Retrouvailles – George Aperghis
Thierry de Mey – Silence must be

In 2015, Two Envelopes was selected as ‘International Young Artist’ by Musica. For this, we made an own creation with Clavichord, Percussion and live-electronics.

Our composition was based on the historic person Petrus Alamire, a music copyist, composer and diplomat from the renaissance time. The musical material we used was taken from the collection “LonBLR 8 G.vii” made for Henry VIII, king of England in the 16th century. Doleo super te, Dulces exuviae and Absalon fili mi are all lamenti, treating death and the loss of a beloved person with strong rhetorical images. By choosing these lamenti we want to emphasize not only the vanity of all things, in which Alamires oeuvre is in fact included. But also we want to make aware the irreversible separation from us to Alamire through his death and the many years that have passed since then.

The clavichord and the percussion, namely pergament paper played with quill pen, are sound sources that existed already in the time of Alamire. By using the Live-electronics we transform them into sound of our time. To make them sound more familiar or even more far away?

Alamento was performed in the Festival of Flanders Antwerp (AMUZ) in 2015.

Live

COMING RESIDENCY'S

2019 April - Beeldenstorm, Brussels

COMING CONCERTS

2019 June 30 - Q-O2, Brussels
2019 August 25 - Zomer in Ichtegem, Kerk Bekegem
2020 March 12 - Miry Concertzaal, Ghent

PAST RESIDENCY'S

2019 February - Wilde Westen, Kortrijk
2018 November - Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels
2016 July - Q-O2, Brussels

PAST CONCERTS

2019 February 23 - Wilde Westen, Kortrijk
2018 November 4 - Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels
2018 November 2 - Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels
2017 April 21 - courant d'air festival, Brussels
2017 March 21 - composition evening, Conservatory Antwerp
2017 March 08 - composition evening, Conservatory Brussels
2017 January 27 - Q-O2, Brussels
2017 February 04 - Ferme de Vevy, Wéron à Wépion
2015 November 2-7 - Labo#5 Champ d'Action, Antwerp
2015 April 22 - Conservatory, Amsterdam
2015 May 29 - Orgelpark, Amsterdam
2015 June 28 – AlbaNova Festival, Alden Biesen
2015 August 20 - Laus Polyphoniae (Amuz), Antwerp
2015 September 26 – Mute Festival, Ghent

Contact

Send us some envelopes to

twoenvelopes@outlook.com