Open Space

Fie Schouten (NL) clarinets
Vincent Courtois (FR) violoncello
Pierre Baux (FR) spoken voice
Sofia Borges (PT/DE) drums

Relative Pitch Records 1255, March 27, 2026

“Open Space is more than a performance; it is an invitation to reconsider how we inhabit space, listen to sound, and engage with words. For those willing to meet its intellectual rigor with curiosity and generosity, the experience is transformative, poetic, and unforgettable.” Thierry De Clemensat, Paris Move

“Wenn echt schräge, moderne Literatur auf eine passionierte Bassklarinettistin trifft, die sich auf neuzeitliche Musik spezialisiert hat, kommt dieses Meisterwerk dabei heraus….” Elke Thamm

“The music drifts along. It drifts behind the words. It drifts ahead of the words. At times it becomes more urgent, less tangible, more muffled, rougher, porous.” Martin Hufner, Neue Musik Zeitung

“frei, aber keineswegs strukturlos und in der Auswahl und Zuordnung der Instrumente ebenso durchdacht-vertrackt wie anarchisch. Das reicht von diversen – und immer anders klingenden – Klarinetten bis zum dramatischen GlöckchenKlingeln und vermag den Hörer immer wieder neu zu packen.” WESTZEIT, Karsten Zimalla

Open Space is a compelling avant-garde jazz and improvised music release. Recorded with a focus on textural depth and spontaneous dialogue, the album explores the sonic possibilities of acoustic instruments within a minimalist, atmospheric framework. Bob Osborne, Different Noises

The (improvised) music is inspired (and structured) by the iconic book of Georges Perec from 1974 titled Espèces d’espaces (Species of spaces; Träume von Räumen; Ruimten Rondom).

We designed a musical story following the chronology and the emotional evolution of the book.

The opening is a list where the word Espace (space) is flanked by other words, every combination evokes a different feeling. In the bed & the room Perec reminds us that only one bed will ever be ‘our’ bed and asks the question – with some possible answers – when a room starts to feels like ‘your’ room. Moving in is a linguistic game, quick and bright, made of words that belong to the ritual of unpacking, placing, inhabiting. Walls is a game of perception: when you hang a painting, you forget there is a wall, on a wall one can write but we rarely do it… The street: crowded, restless — people, vehicles, animals passing each other in an unplanned dance. In a letter we hear about a man sitting in a café, wanting to begin a letter… and lingering in the moment before the first word. In the neighbourhood Perec reflects on when an area can truly be called by that name and it is a meditation on belonging like in “the bed & the room” — at what point can you call a place yours? In the city he speaks of his love for Paris, for wandering without purpose, for being both a local or a tourist. In the country – borders Perec notes that the same air drifts over both sides, but our bread changes. And people kill each other, often for only a strip of earth. The final track is called Universe: a space with no borders (perhaps). A vastness both inviting and unmeasured. And then, the return. One final address, precise and unmovable: the home of Perec’s childhood. The journey closes in the same way it began — from the infinite to the intimate.

Music, too, generally needs a ‘void’ to move. It demands openness and, as such, is an invitation. Being in the world is a negotiation with space, a way of entering it and sharing it with others, a constant search for balance. (Jan Nieuwenhuis)