Projects

Performing and improvising ensemble led by saxophonist, woodwind-player and composer Koen Boeijinga.

BUI (Advancement of Utrechtian Improvisation) is a collective of improvising musicians that creates on-site music performances and organises free play events. 
I co-found this collective in 2018 and withdrew myself from it in 2021. 

Bara is my newest project. Bara is a 35+ mins performance with my music as a starting point, telling the story about 'just being'. 

Bara sitter och titta. Just sit and watch.

Bara fokusera på rörelse och rytm. Just focus on movement and rhythm.

Bara fokusera på balansen. Just focus on the balance.

Bara vara. Just be.

“Ad Colen’s newest project ‘Bird’s Eye View’ reflects his musical character: fresh, imaginative compositions with bubbly improvisations that make his fellow band-members smile. Music that makes you happy. Colen beams with joy when explaining the difference between birdsongs and which particular elements have inspired his music. His explanations really deepen the listening experience. The sound of one Jackdaw might be dull, but a whole group crowing together is a truly rhythmic spectacle. It is elements like these that Ad uses in his compositions.

Over the past couple of years Ad has been transcribing various birdsongs in order to use them as the base for compositions and improvisations. New sounds arise when bird sounds are for instance delayed. Whimsical melodies, both in style and rhythm. The song of a hermit thrush has a lyrical character, whereas that of a (Eurasian) wren resembles a modern-classical melody.

Ad Colen is able to capture a unique sound. Never before has a jazz artist released a whole album inspired by the kingdom of birds. Just like jazz standards can be the starting point for an improvisation, so can the rhythms, melodies and sounds of birds.”

Mike Roelofs (Fender Rhodes/piano), Yonga Sun (drums), Ad Colen (alto-/tenorsax & composition), Dion Nijland (double bass), Rogier Hornman (cello). ©Hester Doove

LJUS - a plea for magic

LJUS is the first hour-long music circus performance created by Rogier Hornman. LJUS is a mixture of physical games, virtuoso music making and aerial maneuvers. In an attempt to create a vivid playful world, the audience will (re)discover their inner youth and try together with Rogier to defy gravity. Shall we ever succeed? If not us, who will?

Rogier Hornman - LJUS Teaser 2019 from ROGIER on Vimeo.

Rogier Hornman - cello/performance/music/concept; Elsa van der Linden - tenor saxophone/performance; Lucas Kloosterboer - trombone/performance; Gustav Janata - circusperformance; Mar Olive Nieto - circusperformance; Sarah Lynn Huizing - violin; Deborah Witteveen - soprano saxophone; Lars Visscher - accordion; Bart Soeters - fretless bass guitar; Mees Siderius - drums; Marco Spek - sound design; Harm Wellink - lighting design; Esmée Olthuis & Lidy Six- artistic supervision; Sam De Roos, Kim Tadema & Sebastiaan Goedknegt - production
LJUS was part of  Rogier's graduation exam from the bachelor Musician 3.0 at HKU Utrecht Conservatory.

IF
Mar Olivé Nieto (knitted rope) & Rogier Hornman (cello)

If… the silence speaks.

If… the ropes dance.

If… the gaze screams.

If… the taste listens.

If...the tenderness sings.

A space between silence and gaze knitted by the tensions of some ropes.

IF - Somehow. (teaser) from ROGIER on Vimeo.

I have always had a big fascination for circus. As a kid I made my own trapeze and was always obsessed with flying in a theatrical context. This fascination later became my research, as I was looking for a musical way to communicate this fascination. What interests me most in circus is the virtuoso way in which the performers play with gravity and rotation. Two physical elements that are so fundamental for us human beings in understanding the world around us. Gravity and rotation became since the elements I wanted to grasp in my music/performance. Working with improvisation as well as written music I make a complete experience which is essentially abstract. The name ‘Tight Wires’ obviously refers to the circus discipline called tight wire, and in fact there is this physical/bodily element of tightening ropes/wires which directly speaks to my imagination and virtuosity. Like weight put on the strings of my cello by bowing it, the sound changes, and this fascinates me massively. 

Next step in this project was implementing contemporary circus disciplines in my work, I was working towards a 1-hour circus inspired music performance due June 2019.

Esmée Olthuis (altosax), Rogier Hornman (cello & composition), Mees Siderius (drums), Lars Visscher (accordion/keys), Bob Barlag (bassguitar). ©Fréderique Purnot