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Michel van der Aa
Michel van der Aa, winner of the 2015 Johannes Vermeer Award and 2013 Grawemeyer award, is a truly multidisciplinary figure in contemporary music. A unique voice, he combines composition with film and stage direction, and script writing. Classical instruments, voices, electronic sound, actors, theatre and video are all seamless extensions of his musical vocabulary. Van der Aa’s musical materials are hard to tease apart, constantly switching between stasis and high energy, concrete and abstract, acoustic and electronic, pure’ and processed, brand new and half-remembered. Many of them are as visual as they are aural. The possibilities of digital and audio- visual technology often feature, not as a surface gloss to his work but at the core of his artistic outlook. Van der Aa’s imaginative music theatre works Upload (2020-21), Eight (2018-19), Blank Out (2015–16), Sunken Garden (2011–12), The Book of Disquiet (2008), After Life (2005–06) and One (2002) have received critical and public acclaim internationally. His repertoire also includes concert works and chamber music for small ensemble, soloists and soundtrack, such as his cross-media cello concerto Up-close (2010). Michel van der Aa is published by Boosey & Hawkes, and his stage works are managed by Intermusica. Many of his works are released on Disquiet Media, an independent multimedia label for his own work. Van der Aa’s projects are developed and produced by the doubleA foundation.
Songs See All
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This may be my life
Michel van der Aa & Sjaella
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Hysteresis: I.
Kari Kriikku, Amsterdam Sinfonietta, & Michel van der Aa
Albums
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Time Falling 2020
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Michel van der Aa: Violin Concerto - Hysteresis 2016
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Michel van der Aa: Spaces of Blank - Mask - Imprint 2010
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Van der Aa: Here Trilogy 2010
Singles & EPs
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From Dust EP • 2025
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Wake Single • 2024
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I Think of Fire (feat. Kate Miller-Heidke) Single • 2020
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The Aleph (feat. Kate Miller-Heidke) Single • 2020
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Michel van der Aa: Up-close Single • 2016
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Auburn (Performed By Wiek Hijmans) Single • 2014
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Rekindle (For Flute and Soundtrack) Single • 2010
Videos See All
Artist-made playlists