Marcel Wierckx (Canada/Netherlands, b. 1970) studied instrumental and electronic music composition in Canada before moving to the Netherlands in 1999. There he continued his studies in electronic music composition at the Utrecht School of Music and Technology, where he graduated with honours in 2001. Since then he has been active as a sound and video artist, as well as composing instrumental and electronic music for concert, film, theater and dance. He composed the soundtrack to the film Tussenland (Sleeping Rough) which was awarded the Tiger Award at the Rotterdam Film Festival, and created the video images for Mensa Secunda which won the prestigious Jur Naessens Prize in 2005. His audiovisual composition Zwarte Ruis Witte Stilte (Black Noise White Silence) has been released on the 12K/Line041 Optofonica DVD. Marcel gives performances and workshops at festivals and schools across Europe and the world. His work has been performed at major festivals such as the International Computer Music Conference, the ISCM World New Music Days, the STRP Festival and the MFRU International Festival of Computer Arts.

Press materials:   Hi-res photograph    Alternate Hi-res photograph

Optofonica: “A new and impressive DVD/Book combo has just been released by 12K/Line and it is an essential for anyone out there following contemporary sonic cinema art ... Black Noise White Silence by Marcel Wierckx alone is brilliant.“ [TJ Norris, unBLOGGED]

Optofonica: “Some pieces naturally turn out to be more memorable than others, including Marcel Wierckx's Black Noise White Silence, a three-minute, achromatic blizzard of eruptive convulsions and rapidly fluttering forms...“ [textura.org]

Entropy: “Together with the maniacal music and sound track of Marcel Wierckx the surrealism is complete ... Especially striking projections - also of Marcel Wierckx - are fascinating in the transformation of abstract graphic forms to human characters. Fragments of text call on us to be permanently drunken to forget the 'horrible burden of time'. Wierckx warns us of the dangers of a purple cow in his performance as a true René Magritte with fedora.“ [NRC Handelsblad]

Entropy: “Thanks to the tight form the audience can freely enjoy the splendid video projections of Marcel Wierckx. He lets photographs and moving images melt, shrivel, burn through and come into focus in a mysterious way, while fragments flying through the image surprisingly find their spot in the projected canvas. Everything enjoys a particularly nice combination with the collage of voice fragments, electronics and sound effects.“ [Het Parool]

Entropy: “The ingenious flowing video projections are splendid, the soundscape atmospheric and the dance interesting ... powerful images and sounds independently invoke abstract surreal situations.” [Trouw]