In De Gezichten, Delle Donne Consort collaborates with composer Frederik Neyrinck, sound artist Maarten Buyl, recorder player Juho Myllylä and writers Leonore Spee and Sascha Bornkamp to create a new full-length performance for recorders, soprano Naomi Beeldens, and live electronics.

Inspired by Tove Ditlevsen’s 1968 novel The Faces, the piece delves into the disintegrating inner world of a woman battling depression and addiction. As her perception of reality fractures, the faces of those around her begin to shift and transform. Ditlevsen’s haunting portrait of isolation becomes the springboard for a sonic exploration of distortion, transformation, and identity.

The project blur the lines between human voice, recorder, and electronics. Through modulation, timbre transfer, and gradual transformation, a dynamic, ever-shifting sound world emerges—at once fragile and unsettling. Everyday sounds are reimagined; the physical act of playing becomes audible and embodied.

Inspired by Sylvestro Ganassi’s 1535 treatise Opera Intitulata Fontegara, in which the recorder is described as the instrument closest to the human voice—valued for its expressive flexibility— Frederik Neyrinck reinterprets this Renaissance ideal for the 21st century. The vocal qualities of the recorder and the instrumental potential of the voice are placed in dialogue, seeking resonance in timbre and texture.

Each performer—four recorder players, voice, and electronics—assumes a distinct musical persona, moving between acoustic purity and electronic saturation.

De Gezichten unfolds as a continuous, immersive arc in which text and sound intertwine, inviting the listener into a world where perception falters, identities mutate, and the line between inner and outer reality begins to blur.

With support of the Flemish Government (DCJM)

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