Van Gogh gets a trance music soundtrack

Introducing Rakewell, Apollo’s wandering eye on the art world. Look out for regular posts taking a rakish perspective on art and museum stories.

With the news that two paintings stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in 2002 have been recovered in Italy, staff at the Amsterdam institution must feel due a well-earned celebration. What luck, then, that the museum has just announced a partnership with veteran Dutch DJ Armin van Buuren, for which the maestro has assembled (curated?) a special trance soundtrack to accompany Vincent’s most famous paintings.

Titled ‘Embrace Vincent’, the soundtrack will be part of a special multimedia guide for fans, which will also feature running commentary from the Grammy-nominated rave merchant. According to the Independent, the initiative will present a ‘potentially seizure-inducing juxtaposition’, including the prospect of headbanging to Van Buuren’s tune Off the Hook as ‘you stare into the piercing eyes’ of Vincent’s self portraits.

‘The paintings come to life, it’s hard to get them out of your head. And I instinctively linked the paintings to music’, Van Buuren says. ‘Van Gogh is inspirational, and he certainly inspired me.’ Well, now we know.

Got a story for Rakewell? Get in touch at rakewell@apollomag.com or via @Rakewelltweets.