Jaap Blonk, YappiScope

The Dutch composer/performer Jaap Blonk, known for his vocal improvisations and extraordinary onstage eccentricities. has extended his work to include videos, scores he wanders through, interactive animations, live sound to silent films and other multi-media ingredients. In December 2014 he presented this performance entitled YappiScope at Experimental Intermedia Foundation in lower Manhattan.

Jaap Blonk (born 1953 in Woerden, Holland) is a self-taught composer, performer and poet. He studied mathematics and musicology but did not complete a degree. In the late 1970s he took up saxophone and started to compose music. A few years later he discovered his potential as a vocal performer, at first in reciting poetry and later on in improvisations and his own compositions. For almost two decades the voice was his main means for the discovery and development of new sounds.

From around the year 2000 on Blonk started work with electronics, at first using samples of his own voice, then extending the field to include pure sound synthesis as well. He took a year off of performing in 2006. As a result, his renewed interest in mathematics made him start a research of the possibilities of algorithmic composition for the creation of music, visual animation, and poetry.

As a vocalist, Jaap Blonk is unique for his powerful stage presence and almost childlike freedom in improvisation, combined with a keen grasp of structure. He has performed around the world, on all continents, with a stellar array of collaborators.

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