Paul PANHUYSEN
“Twenty-Three Carillon Sudokus (Number Made Visible – Number Made Audible)”

“Carillon Sudokus” is the sonic counterpart to “Oog & Oor” (Eye & Ear), the last work that Dutch sound and visual artist Paul Panhuysen (1934–2015) realized. Oog & Oor was a design made with his daughter Sappho Panhuysen for a temporary installation in the lighted column of the Rietveld bus shelter next to the town hall of Eindhoven. It is a further development from “Eight Double Sudokus”, a series of large-scale prints exhibited at Museum De Pont in Tilburg in 2012. Both designs were created using sudoku puzzles and comprise various shapes of different colors whose structure was derived from the number sequences present in individual sudokus. Panhuysen used number systems such as magic squares, the Fibonacci series and the Golden Ratio in much of his art because he felt that instead of limiting his artistical freedom, such systems allowed him to make new discoveries and realize works that transcended his own imagination.
“A system is evidently at work behind the order of colours and shapes in these prints. On the other hand it is far from obvious what the underlying order actually is. Coloured bands and arcs converge in a rhythmic play of lines. Some originate from the same point, joining to form a right angle or part of a circle. Others touch only at the point or remain loose ends in a wave of motion. The orderliness of the structure and the erratic behaviour of the straight and curved lines strive for predominance in the series.” (from the liner notes by René van Peer).
These principles can also be applied to pitch and musical phrases. For Eight Double Sudokus, Panhuysen composed eight pieces for piano that were heard during the exhibition. For Oog & Oor, he envisioned music for the carillon on the roof of the Eindhoven town hall. The original idea was to generate 365 sudoku-based pieces, one for each day of the year that the installation was to be shown. In the end, around 50 pieces were realized in collaboration with town carillonneur Rosemarie Seuntiëns. Side A of this LP contains 11 pieces played live by Seuntiëns on the ceremonial ending of Oog & Oor on August 28, 2015. Side B features 12 pieces played mechanically by the carillon. Edition of 300 in full-color gatefold sleeve with printed inner sleeve. Liner notes by René van Peer.