Classical guitarist Robin Scherpen (live @Willem Twee 2023)

“Not being able to see my guitar neck also gave me unprecedented freedom. I had to play on intuition.”
Due to an eye condition, guitarplayer ‪@Robingitarist‬ Scherpen wasn't able to read his scores. An eye operation that was as daring as it was successful forced him to spend quite some time in a dark room during his recovery. On pure intuition he honed his creative urge there and took the first steps in composing. That has now resulted in the album 'For The Unseen'. There was light at the end of the tunnel.

00:00 Intro/Improv
01:26 Still
04:55 To Continue
07:02 Ardency
09:55 Ongoing Reverie
12:55 Son
15:55 Lingering Patterns
17:06 YM&W

Always broadly oriented, he started arranging South American music. 'Aurally I brought orchestral parts back to solo guitar,' That worked out very well. ‘I then started composing step by step, everything by ear and in ultimate freedom.’
At the end of that period in solitary seclusion in the dark, he began to see better in his left eye and had written the foundations of eleven compositions with which he should be able to continue. The foundations for an own album were there.
Scherpen's artistic process may have been born out of necessity, but it has led to a new, liberating insight: 'Music is a language. It does not necessarily have to be understood to be effective. You must first know the spoken word for understanding. This is not necessary with music. A score is nothing more than a tool to make music insightful.

The album 'For The Unseen' is a tribute to that closed period and the realization that intuition is the only thing he needs to exist as an artist. 'Without visual noise, I feel complete freedom to compose from the heart.


Crew:
Editors: Melchior Huurdeman, Aad van Nieuwkerk, Sakti Khedoe, Kaya Belfor
Camera & lighting: Ramon de Boer, Edwin Vermeulen, Jan Rein Heitinga
Sound: Marc Broer
Producer: Jorinde Hiddema/Pippa Harris
Director/Editing Reinier Bruijne

This video was recorded at Willem Twee 2023 in ’s Hertogenbosch for VPRO Vrije Geluiden: music program made by the Dutch public broadcast organization VPRO

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