For ‘Septacost’ i wrote the script and did the initial direction. I wanted the musicians to interact with the videos and the screens: this was the stage as i desinged it for the show. Frank van Hietbrink turned this design from paper to steel in a way it could be transported with trucks.

Members of Amsterdam Klezmer Band were could move the screens by turning wheels and the big surprise was at the end: what seemed to be a cliché ‘curtain at the theatre’ would be opened at the end of the gig to show a quire of ladies singing from a projected screen, The band had to play with the recordings, that were pitched by playing faster and slower, and even backward.

Poster for Septacost, a music theatre show by Amsterdam Klezmer Band. I had the honour to write the script and do the direction of the first version, i designed the stage, did the art direction and of course designed the posters.

In the tradition of Saul Bass, i try to communicate the concept of a whole show in one single and simple image. So i thought the content boiled down to ‘you can be lonely in a group’ and came up with this simple idea; the whole group moves during the photoshoot except for singer Alec, he has to stand really still. This way we see a distinction between him and the group he has been touring with for then twenty years. The photo is (brilliantly) made by Eddo Hartmann, check him out – this man is amazing!

Logo for the theatre show i scripted for Amsterdam Klezmer Band. The show was about loneliness and how to get rid of it – but the story line was inspired by the James Bond formular. So this logo was projected animating during the ‘title sequence’, part of the elements projected to get the audience into the right mood.

This is the key image of the graphic identity for ‘Septacost’. I tried to depict how one can be lonely in a group. For the poster, i asked star photographer Eddo hartman to photograph the band with a long shutter speed and Alec to stand very still. So the band became a blur, while Alec was sharp. To make a graphic image like this, for teeshirts, stickers, saddle bags and what have you, we also photographed them separate so i could use the silhouettes.

 

Front and back site for the ‘septacost’ teeshirt

Of course, while we were working on the show, I had to design publicity material just as well. Ah well, here are some flyers, saddle covers, stickers…

Like with so many identities, ‘Septacost’ also needed online banners.

Amsterdam Klezmer Band asked me to think up a theatrical show. I noticed that although they started as a ‘party’ band – they had a lot of critical notes in their lyrics and many lyrics written by Alec Kopyt were actually quite sad. I loved the idea of using ‘being lonely in a group’ for their show.

The idea of Septacost was, that the band members unfolded abstract story about loneliness and the cure of it. Was ‘to party’ and being with happy other people a cure or a distraction? I asked Amsterdam Klezmer Band to write a song that was clearly very much about loneliness, and it had to be with rudimental instrumental accompaniment. But he was backed up (in sound and image) by projections of himself singing the harmonies. At the end of the Septacost show, there would be a complete  choir, singing the song in an angelic version. The choir was recorded in advance and projected. I asked Balder Westein to make timeloops, delays and speed-ups in the film with specific percentage, so that the band could make a composition on top of this wrecked up video. So the band played live over a projected and recorded messed up video.

see the trailer for the show here

The choir is called ‘No Romeos’, conducted by Juliette Dumore. The music is written by Theo van Tol.

This is a 10 minutes impression of the show ‘septacost’ i made with Amsterdam Klezmer Band.

Amsterdam Klezmer Band is seen as a ‘party’ band’ but they are so much more. They combine styles, take the idea of Klezmer to the next level and invite guests tp make their music unique and very recognisable as theirs.

So when the band asked me to write a script and direct a show for them, I wanted to put emphasis on their ‘other side’. It is a theatre show about loneliness. They have quite some lyrics about loneliness so i worked from the starting point; is ‘to party’ a distraction so you won’t have to feel lonely or is it a cure? I combined the story telling trick of James Bond films (who always operates alone)  with the idea of existential loneliness and Pentacost masses. I used the fact that they were 20 years on the road together, that the people in the band would not have been the men they were had they not been in this band all the time. I used the contradicting characters of Job (party, everybody together on the dancefloor) and Alec (i wish i was in my hotel room with a bottle of Vodka) to create an underlying ‘conflict’ i could work with.

In the show the band members had to operate parts of the decor by hand I designed a thing with curtains and moving projection sheets that was built by Frank Hietbrink. During the show we see them as kids, as the young adults they were before the Amsterdam Klezmer Band, we see their kids and feel that we all are part of a stream of consciousness.

In the end, a quire of Russian singing ladies is singing the song Alec song on his own in the beginning. They were projected on a screen that had been behind a curtain for most of the show. The material is sped up, it goes forward and backward, at times the image would be frozen. Of course, this made the song pitched differently at moments, and the speed of the music would change. The band played live with this, as if to say: we are born into specific parameters, into a reality we did not chose for but we can work with that if we work hard enough and improvise. We have to be excellent together as well as individual. And that sums up the Amsterdam Klezmer Band.