Thread

Audiovisual performance

CD Lithuanian Music in Context III. Experimental Ventures. - Vilnius, Lithuanian Music Information and Publishing Centre LMIPCCD071-072, 2013

In his close circle, composer Vidmantas Bartulis is also famous for being an excellent cook. In some of his mixed media works he managed to combine both of his talents. For instance, during the performance called Thread he was preparing a roast on stage: he chopped the loaf of meat and onion, humming motifs that imitated the noise of his newborn son and crying all along from the pungent aroma of a chopped onion. The onion was real, by the way, contrary to the meat – the composer was ‘tenderising’ a wet rag instead… Thus at the end of the performance he did not invite the audience to taste his creation, but took it backstage. (It was almost twenty years later that the composer appeared as a cook in his opera Pas de deux. He cooked a huge pot of soup, which was enough to satisfy every listener after the show.) According to the composer, Thread is a tribute to his juvenile experiences: the infamous irony of Frank Zappa, the hopelessness of heavy metal and optimism of classical rock, ‘Ionesco-ish’ sadness and craziness of his lost generation.

Linas Paulauskis