Roel MeelkopAntithesis

Looking in one direction inevitably implies missing out on other sides. This is not necessarily a bad thing. Sometimes it is good to just look one way and go there. It can be very rewarding to realise preconceived goals in such an effective way. At other times though, it is certainly possible for doubts to pop up in the mind about a certain path. Questions arise about the direction taken, the course followed, the decisions made. It might then be favourable to take a sudden exit somewhere, leading to a destination unknown. And yet another possible road is to head back, to turn around on the way leading here in the first place and start all over again. Whatever the route taken, there is always the option to double back on decisions and choices made before, if only to prove the opposite. This implies a notion of intellectual and emotional flexibility; issues are very rarely only black or white. More often they are like shades of grey, incorporating each other’s counterparts. This is fine, as long as it leads to new and undiscovered areas to explore. Researching a certain area, only to discover its opposite, is thrilling, even if there is some discomfort or disbelief at first. Follow that path and see how one leads to the other and another, and so on. These opposite entities are only apparently antipodal, for they are inherently unified in their origin.

We humans are part of a vast ecosystem that allows for many directions to evolve into. Many of these branches seem to have interests opposing ours, but that is only a superficial observation, like seeing shadows only. Looking the other way, it is possible to observe the origin of the shadow and the light behind it.

Featured on this release are six tracks that form an antithetic unity. Five tracks, mainly based on temporal sound events, put together to create a dynamic system of theses on one hand. On the other hand, a one hour long drone track, composed entirely with granulated sounds. This is not a paradox, but more like an antithesis, a research into opposites and their attraction. As yet, synthesis is not achieved, but that is fine, because it was not the initial goal anyway. Who knows where future roads will lead us.

Roel Meelkop, Rotterdam, 2026

Press-release