Oh Mensch in Brazil!

Guitar dus Oh Mensch (with Matthias Koole and yours truly) is currently preparing for concerts and a recording in Brazil! We're currently rehearsing two pieces, Turgut Ercetin's "Catalysis (a)" (world premiere) and Michael Maierhof's "Specific Objects", at Matthias Koole's homebase Belo Horizonte. We'll do a showcase/open rehearsal at the local conservatory and then it's off to São Paulo for a concert at Ibrasotope.

Ercetin's score and Maierhof's specific objects

Then on friday we're off to Rio de Janeiro to record Turgut Ercetin's piece "Catalysis (a)" for an upcoming album release, more about this soon!

The Long Now 2017

Last weekend I premiered my new project No [more] Pussyfooting at The Long Now, the grand closing event of MaerzMusik Festival. The event took place in the amazing location of Kraftwerk, Berlin and lasted 30 hours for which I performed the opening set.

I stuck around till the very end and it turned out to be an amazing and powerful musical experience that defies all sense of time, listening to the music of Alvin Lucier, Graindelavoix, Tim hacker and many more.

Now onto the next event, Rewire 2017 in The Hague!

Here are some impressions of my set by photographer Camille Blake:

No [More] Pussyfooting

I'm in the final stages of presenting my new solo-project "No [More] Pussyfooting", a reconstruction of music from the experimental studio albums "No Pussyfooting" and "Evening Star" by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp.

In these albums from the early '70s Brian Eno blends his tape-loop experiments with Robert Fripp's rock guitar, creating unique layered soundscapes. Using contemporary technology in combination with the original “frippertronics” set-up of two reel-to-reel tape-recorders, "No [More] Pussyfooting" aims at restoring these gems of experimental repertoire, originally created in the studio, and bringing them back to the stage.

Playlist:

1. The Heavenly Music Corporation (A-side of No Pussyfooting)
2. An Index of Metals (B-side of Evening Star)

I'm very excited and humbled to do the first performance at MaerzMusik's big closing event "The Long Now" in Berlin on march 25th, with a fantastic line-up including Alvin Lucier and Graindelavoix, among many others) followed by a second performance one week later on april 1st at The Hagues Rewire festival (also here among an incredible line up with artists such as Daniel Lanois, Swans, Slowdive, and many more). 

More performances are planned at Ear To The Ground festival in deBijloke in Ghent, at AlbaNova in Alden Biesen, Meakusma festival in Eupen and Sonic City in Kortrijk.

More dates will be announced soon! Here's a full list of upcoming performances, hope to see you at one of them!

25/03/2017 MaerzMusik - The Long Now, Kraftwerk, Berlin

01/04/2017 Rewire Festival, The Hague

13/05/2017 Ear To The Ground, deBijloke, Gent

25/06/2017 AlbaNova, Landcommanderij Alden Biesen, Bilzen

09/09/2017 Meakusma Festival, Eupen

11/11/2017 Sonic City, Kortrijk

With the support of ChampdAction, the Flemish Government and AP Hogeschool Antwerpen

Jardin des Secrets - Ictus at Opéra de Lille

Ictus takes over the Lille operahouse with "Secret Garden" a nocturnal journey through the music of Joanna Bailey, Jean-Luc Hervé, Morton Feldman and Terry Riley as well as "Breathcore" an immersive breathing sound-piece by Michael Schmidt.

I'm happy to be part of this event in a performance of Terry Riley's "A Rainbow of Curved Air", preceded by a solo-improvisation in the Foyer of the opera house. 

New CD release!

Zwerm just released its latest album "Wandering Rocks" on the French Alamuse label. The CD contains material from two recent projects with French composer François Sarhan: Wandering Rocks and Commodity Music, both created in collaboration with La Muse en Circuit.

Wandering Rocks is a composition by François Sarhan, an immersive piece for four electric guitars and 16 speakers, which was premiered at Palais de Tokyo in Paris in 2014.

Commodity Music is an installation/music theater work created by François Sarhan and Zwerm for the 2016 Darmstadt festival for new music.

The CD contains material from both works in one 40-minute track and was released on december 10th after a performance at Nouveau Théâtre de Montreuil in Paris.

for more info click here!