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CHACHA, aka charles krutzen
(Feb. 28th 1960, Heerlen, the Netherlands): artist.
(chacha is a combination of "charles" and the French word for "cat", "chat".
so it has to be pronounced in French. Thanks to Georgine Robin-Sikkel.)

Started around 1980 as normal poet, in 1993 he began
to experiment with language, voice (as a sound instrument),
declamation, sound and composition. The way in which he combines
instrumental sound with spoken word is striking: all mentioned elements
are equally important, so that more than once it seems that the lyrics
are rather sung than spoken. Added to that drama elements.
And so, in 1994 he created the word "PerpHoetry" out of "poetry" and
"performance". His studio he called: "the Laboratory of PerpHoetry".

On stage one can see a performance that finds its origins in pop music.
Sometimes totally "unplugged". But live always: VERY energetic! Or as
a Belgian put it once: "it sounds roughly like Leonard Cohen in hell."?

Besides, he has done some acting: early 1999 he played the part of
Herod in a stage performance of Oscar Wilde's SALOME.

In 2002 he started his "Memorandum 500" sound 'n' video project.
Experimenting with the sounds and looks of Fiat 500s, breaking new
ground for himself: video. The sum of a lot of things he's done and
most of it is still doing: graphics, painting, performance, sounds.

In August 2003 he finished and shown for the first time to an audience
his second film The Face and after that his third video film "MOK" (mug),
totally different products than "Memorandum 500" .
In February 2004 followed by "Call Me", a graphical video clip
for his sound piece with the same name.

His latest video is called "Bengal Light", in which his brown
tabby spotted Bengal Cat Tricksy (officially called Star Dance) plays
the role of a fireworks...


What's more?

What you can hear when he is on stage
All sorts of sounds: it may be classical, it may be poppy, it may be
"musique concrète"-ish, noisy, electronically, it may be industrially, it
may be voices you'll hear, played on tape or CD or a computer. Every
sound composition he puts together at home. Sometimes he uses
instruments on stage: keyboards, a computer, instruments made by
himself, an effect processor played like a musical instrument and even
a theremin.

What's most important is what he does with his voice in combination with
the sounds on a PC, tape or CD etc. He always uses an effect
processor to process his voice as part of the overall compositions and
sound. So the voice effects are never on their own; they are very
carefully chosen. If composed freely, he improvises with his voice and
lyrics.


HOWEVER, there's another side of him that is totally different:
his non-amplified side. Even without a microphone. He acts, talks, murmers,
mumbles, shouts, yells, whispers, sometimes without saying anything,
"selling" words to the audience it seems to understand but it doesn't...
his DaDa acting side.
He even once (accidentally) had a conversation with a dog, in front of
an audience.


What you can see
Chacha is a very energetic and activ person on stage: a
combination of an actor, a spoken word pop singer, a mime artist and a
performing poet. So the vision element is equally important as the sound
and acting element. Sometimes stormy and hectic, sometimes intensely
quiet.


Where did he perform
Various places and times in Heerlen and Maastricht (e.g. with Up There,
with Berend Willem Hietbrink and the PolyPoetry Festival 2001), Zaal
100 (together with Alan Laurillard and solo) and Entrepot Dok (also with
Alan Laurillard) Amsterdam, Sju-huis (again with Alan Laurillard) and
several times Theater Kikker Utrecht, Perron 55 Venlo, Hotel De Plasmolen
(near Nijmegen), Groningen, Sittard, Geleen. All in The Netherlands.

Chez Lulu in Liège (with Alan Laurillard and solo), Genk, Tongeren,
Zuutendaal. And: twice the Machomet-sound-festival (Intro Maastricht) in
's-Gravenvoeren, appearing both nights with Scot Jenerik from San
Francisco and with Sonic Boom from England. All in Belgium.

Several times in Aachen and once in Mainz, Germany.

He had been invited to do some performances in England in June 2001
during a literary festival (as the only not-Brit !), but they had been
cancelled due to the foot-and-mouth disease.

In August 2004 he did performances during the Limburg Festival in
Roermond (NL) in front of the cathedral. Very funny and for most people
in the audience very shocking and not-done: the catholic centre
of Limburg in combination with the heretical Krutzen.
Almost like a priest of a heathen culture.
For some info and photos, see the Limburg Festival web pages.

Since the end of 2004 he's done quite a few performances of Kurt
Schwitter's URSONATE (1932), a 20 pages long syllable and sound poem.
The first performances took place in Theatre Lexor, Heerlen on
Not only does he recite that "text" in his own very different
way, but he also adds some theremin playing and a video on the
background curtains or wall and on his body.
Those two performances could be made possible thanks to the financial

AND chacha has translated the German sounds of the Ursonate into the
sounds of his own dialect. The Ursonate is then called Umsonate.
Besides Schwitters' Ursonate he also acts/recites Raoul Hausmann's
Plakatgedichte and his own DaDa sort of poems.

Come to Schwitters, who used to be a dada-ist in the 1910s and early
20s, Charles has also connections with dada-istic 391 in the USA.


In October 2005 Charles did a performance in Shin Urayasu, near Tokyo in Japan.
Thanks to Jesse Glass.
The show has been recorded on video tape.


His first official book/video/sound on cd-rom has been released on June 29th, 2006: a very special cd-rom containing poems, video and sounds, titled "51", released by
Uitgeverij Lemmens.
At first only in Dutch, but probably it will also be translated into English.
The official presentation of the cd-rom has taken place in Café Pelt, Heerlen
the same day.

He is also working on a very noizy electronic music CD.

Some dates:
July 29 - August 18, 2006: participation in "Amateurkunstweken", Glaspaleis Heerlen
with his video "Call Me"
August 30, 2006, from 21.00 - 24.00 h.: participation in "Cinema Flinx", Museum Het
Domein Sittard with the "Call Me" video.
September 8, 2006: he performed Kurt Schwitters "An Anna Blume" and Jan Hanlo's
"Oote oote boe" during Het Parcours, Maastricht.
March 13, 2007, Comedy Café, Amsterdam: a.o.: "An Anna Blume" and a
combination of "FMSBW" (Raoul Hausmann), "Ursonate"/"Umsonate",
"Oote" (Hanlo); "Bits and Scratches" together with his best friend Jean Hendriks on
drums; and a show in which he did his normal performance work, like "SHE"
and "Blitzkrieg".


Because making videos is one of his biggest passions since he started
the "Memorandum 500"-project, there will be a lot more videos with
sound art in the near future.
For example a video (DVD) of the UR(UM)SONATE
and three NEW projects :
Cat Symphony (he obviously loves cats. See the pictures) and he is doing a
performance called "bits and scratches": live electronics, minimal and very loud noizy and feedbacks and video-art. He has done two shows now and they were very successfull.
His animation video "Call Me" has been selected to participate in an arts exhibit in
Heerlen from July 28 until August 18, 2006.
Of course DaDa will be present (again)... as almost always.

But... there is still more !
In November 2006 he has started making assemblages.
And in the meantime he's begun experimenting with photography.

For reviews of some of his work, like two CDs and poems by Jesse Glass
he performed on CD, please visit Sonoloco's site in Sweden.

Er is ook een dada-leuke pagina geschreven door Philip Jozèf.

You can download an info file here (most of it is in Dutch). PDF, 41,4 mb.

For more information AND reactions, please contact:

c h a c h a @ c h a r l e s k r u t z e n . c o m

Goselingstraat 164, 6415 EJ Heerlen (NL)