Flute Cake "Make Room" Glorious Art House Café Sunday 22 October & Sunday 5 November 2017

"MAKE ROOM"
Glorious Art House Café
Rosy Tydeman & Flute Cake Trio
Jennifer Campbell, Ruth Molins, Sophie Brewer

Three Flutes

On 22 September Ruth Molins was in the Phonic FM studio at Exeter Phoenix to discuss her new creation for three flutes and any building, "Make Room", on the "Classical Journey".

Delicious Eats

"Make Room" is Ruth's composition which includes scored and improvised sections to complement and represent the rooms, corridors and stairwells of any building.

The audience determine their own experience by experimenting with listening from different locations, following the musicians, or sitting tight where they feel most comfortable, and letting the distant music come to them.

Plus Music

The première performance, on 7 October, was at Waterstones Bookshop in Cathedral Close (a unique experience, as Waterstones is now closing). Carpets, soft furnishings and books set the tone for the evening's music. 

At a Glorious Venue

On 22 November "Make Room" reappeared at Rosy Tydeman's "Glorious Art House Café.

Lively Artworks

Acoustically, the venue is quite different. Bright colours are everywhere, and the bare boards of the floors contrast with Rosy's artworks throughout the building.

A Chronometric Theme

Everywhere Rosy's creations delight the eye. Under the title of "La Vie en Rose Makery" she constructs exquisite felt sculptures and montages in every hue. Clocks feature extensively, with their intriguing contrast between rigid mechanics and the gentle flexibility of fabric.

Rosy Serves Coffees

As guests arrived Rosy was on hand to serve coffees from her hi-tech percolators - and had many different cakes and treats on offer too. Rosy kindly kept serving throughout the evening, creating a continual traffic of cups, plates, and flutes around the building.

Migrating Upstairs

As the audience sat or paced, attended or chatted, the music started. Gently, imperceptibly, the melodies developed, before the migration began. One by one the flautists disappeared up the stairs until the sound faded in the distance.

Music on Many Levels

After varying degrees of indecision and delay, the listeners followed. On the upper storeys they found comfortable places to continue their participation. Comfortable chairs were on the stairs and landings among potted plants, and Rosy's extensive art collection.

Among Potted Plants

In every conceivable place, on walls and tables, even in the upstairs lavatory, Ruth had positioned the musical scores relevant to the different parts of the building.

As well as relating to the general lay-out, the music also reflected the structural materials and their effect on the acoustics.

In Nooks and Corners

Soft fabrics inspired gentle bass notes, while hard wooden floors gave rise to a more staccato approach. Where footsteps and rattling crockery created a percussive background sound, the players responded with their own percussion on the keys of their flutes.

Music & Sculpture

Flute Cake and the Glorious Art House Café seemed made for each other. While the sculptures provided the perfect setting for the music, the music itself drew attention to the many wonderful things to see and feel in that intriguing building.

As the evening traffic, and late-night revellers, passed outside the windows a completely different world existed inside. Passers-by were fascinated by the strange experience separated from them by only a pane of glass.

Playing to Fore Street

At the very top of the building was a very different and stark environment.

Bare Boards

Here in the middle of a bare wooden floor, surrounded by whitewashed walls displaying paintings by visiting exhibitors, a single music stand stood inviting the musicians to stand in isolation and play to the dark and the moon.

With Appropriate Music

This remote and spartan environment had a special mood of its own, a perfect foil to the indulgent opulence of the other rooms. Standing on the stairs one could enjoy a perfect counterpoint between two contrasting spaces debating in which direction to move, which experience to sample.

Bathroom Bagatelle

Mid-way, and not ignored, was the marvellously sign-posted "Glorious Toilet", a small but beautifully appointed room which had perhaps the most fascinating acoustic of all. One by on the trio members squeezed into the small space and played a special sharp-edged piece to suit the hard reverberant walls of their restrictive enclosure.

Staircase Trio

As the beautiful music drew to a close, to the accompaniment of high pressure steam being released from Rosy's coffee-making apparatus, the trio naturally congregated together in their favourite spaces. The loo, of course, and also the many staircases that sported three manuscripts for just this purpose

Coffee for the Troops

At the perfect moment the music drew to a gentle conclusion, and slowly everyone made their way back down to the ground floor. Here it was possible to discuss the performance with the musicians - and post messages of appreciation and encouragement on postcards to be deposited in a convenient orange post-box - all provided by Ruth for the evening.

Many Thanks
Flute Cake Trio

This was a very special evening indeed. Many thanks to Ruth, Sophie and Jennifer, who have worked so hard on this splendid creation. And extra special thanks to Rosy for not only creating the very wonderful "Glorious Art House Café", but also collaborating with the Trio on this excellent project.

If you missed this treat or, like many attending, you would like to hear another performance in another equally fascinating venue, there is not long to wait. On the afternoon of Sunday 5 November "Flute Cake" will perform "Make Room" again at Veronica Gosling's "Studio 36" gallery in Denmark Road.

This is another hidden delight in the heart of Exeter, filled with Veronica's spectacular ceramic works - and more gallery space for visiting artists. Full details of that concert are below.

But first, here are more images of the many different and delightful experiences that were shared at the Glorious Art House.

Sophie Top Floor

Playing to the Gallery

Joined by Ruth

Ruth Readers' Corner

Jennifer Dining Room

Music in Motion

On the Stairs

Harmony of Colour

Distant Sounds

Receding

Under the Velux

Detail

Candlesticks

Duet on the Landing

Ruth Clocks

Sophie Climbing the Stairs

Resonant Woodwork

Enjoying Music and Artworks
Jennifer Campbell, Patrick Hughes

One Last Cuppa

Conclusion

Flute Cake
Studio 36 Denmark Road
Sunday 5 November 3pm
        "MAKE ROOM"  
"A musical space in which
    to reimagine oneself
      and one's surroundings"

Composer: Ruth Molins

Flutes: Ruth Molins
            Sophie Brewer
              Jennifer Campbell
Tickets: £10 (£9 in advance)
Advance Booking: 07507 568174
ruthflute@outlook.com
ruthmolins.com