Between August 2022 and April 2023 I have been regularly visiting and recording two recently finished underground parking spaces in the southern part of the city of Antwerp in Belgium. From the walls and ceilings of these massive concrete spaces, water drips down and transforms them into a moist molding cave-like environment with a long reverb and a constant 100 Hz sine tone resonance. When entering the parkings ‘Kooldok’ and ‘Steendok’, one actually descends into one of Antwerp’s former harbor docks. 400 years earlier this same site was about five hectares in size, covering most of the current residential area, and served as the location for the ‘South Castle’, a citadel surrounded by canals and ditches built as a watch tower.

Now its function is based on intermediacy, on connecting people with their goal above ground. Visitors either want to get rid of or retrieve their car and start either exploring the city or return home as fast as possible, spending an average time of around 30 seconds there. Because of this, the space has no meaning besides its function and is not perceived in relation to its previous functions or even its current majestic yet questionable state.

It took me several months and regular visits for this space to reveal its sounds and to show me different perspectives of how I could listen to it, both from a very concrete to an imaginary and historical way of listening. I hope that with this piece I can evoke a similar curiosity within the listener for this space and to stay attentive for the environment they find themselves in and what a space can reveal to them.

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CLICK HERE TO LISTEN/STREAM/DOWNLOAD

Composed the music for choreographer Maisie Woodford's new creation Mud Mother for Europalia Festival!

Maisie combines puppetry and dance, and reflects on the complexities and choices surrounding motherhood. For this solo performance, Maisie Woodford collaborates closely with Smila Zinecker, a costume and puppet maker. The piece also drew inspiration from the Gabriadze Puppet Theatre Company in Tbilisi, where Woodford and Zinecker completed a residency.

18 and 19th of October in Théâtre Les Tanneurs, Brussels

2nd of December in Monty, Antwerp

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More info and tickets -> https://europalia.eu/en/europalia-georgia/events/maisie-woodford-mud-mother

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Picture by Smila Zinecker

Last May I spent a week recording at Nat Gras, an artist residency hosted by artist Goele Van Dijck that borders directly on the Kalmthoutse Heide. It consists of heathland, fens, forests and land dunes. Most of my recordings were made around the Stappersven in the North East of the park which is a bit more remote and less visited by tourists. Because the Heide received the label ‘Silent Area’ in 2015’, I tried to work from that perception of loudness in my recordings and what it means for a place to be considered silent. Though the Kalmthoutse Heide definitely is silent, I could however, due to its vastness of open fields, not escape the sound of cars, trains and airplanes that gave me a constant reminder of where I was. By using hydro and contact microphones I was able to zoom in and change that perception.
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To conclude this residency time I compiled some of my recordings into three small audio works or etudes that perhaps together can be considered an audio portrait of the Heide. Tracks number 1 and 2 are edited and composed. Track 3 is an excerpt of a 46min recording of Natterjack toads at midnight.
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CLICK HERE TO LISTEN AND DOWNLOAD FOR FREE ON BANDCAMP

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For our GOVERNORS feedback research, Maarten Buyl and I are trying to explore and make recordings in multiple different resonating rooms. This video was recorded in October 2022 at an old Dominican monastery in Antwerp currently brought back to life by Extra City, an exhibition space for contemporary visual art.

Met steun van de Vlaamse overheid.

Recap of our GOVERNORS residency at Dingen Die Niet Verkopen last November in Antwerp

GOVERNORS is a research and listening practice focusing on the balance and observation of sound while working with acoustic feedback signals and the acting forces movement, material and space. We invited locals and sound design students from the Academy.
For more info go to the Governors project page!

Looking forward to upcoming residencies and research time at Overtoon and Musica!

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Met steun van de Vlaamse overheid.

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Lately I've been very much enjoying making field recordings as a listening practice.
Instead of them collecting digital dust on external hard drives, I wanted to approach them as small recording projects to SHARE FOR FREE and build an archive.
‍Unter Dem Rufensteg marks the first one of these projects and was recorded in November 2022 in Schwarzwald near Hinterzarten, Germany
I tried to capture the effects of slowness and slumber t dense and dark has on one who seeks refuge in it, as well as a shared nostalgic feeling towards our stay at Kesslermühle hotel. Though these recordings are not compositions, I do consider the choices made during the process of recording as equally engaging.
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‍CLICK HERE TO LISTEN AND DOWNLOAD FOR FREE ON BANDCAMP

I was asked by HART magazine and Q-O2, a Brussels-based space for experimental music and sound art, to contribute to their series '21 Tracks for the 21st Century, a series of playlists in which they ask their guests: 'what music does this century need?'
I put together some old and not so old stuff to which I find myself frequently referring back to. Give it a listen if you have time and let me know what you think!

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Updated my calendar with upcoming events and residencies! 

This year I'll mostly be working on my feedback research GOVERNORS with Maarten Buyl.
Happy to have gotten some support from Overtoon, Dingen Die Niet Verkopen, Musica, Stuk and ChampdAction! 
Maarten and I have two performances fixed beginning of next year with some more on the way! 

Meanwhile I'm also focusing on recording in the field as much as possible!

Last May GOVERNORS (Maarten Buyl and myself) played at Q-O2 in Brussels during the Emerging Sound showcase from STUK, Musica and Q-O2.

We recorded it in DMS with his SoundDevices MixPre6 but decoded it to stereo. I finished the mix yesterday and the video of that performance is now on YouTube. You need to give yourself time to watch and listen to this. Headphones are definitely recommended to hear the details and interactions of overtones, especially in the higher regions of the frequency spectrum.

Thanks again to STUK, Musica, Q-O2 and ChampdAction for thesupport!

Picture from a concert on 11th of March at Sojo in Leuven.
I combined feedback with a track I made consisting of field recordings from the Ukraine taken from aporee.org, as well as with recordings I made in Antwerp. The idea was to juxtapose and superimpose everyday sounds that are currently not present anymore in the Ukraine due to the war.

The track can be listened to HERE or by going to the Other Works page

Picture by Benina Hu

Last month Maarten Buyl and I worked on GOVERNORS during our first residency at Musica Impulscentrum voor Muziek as part of the work having been selected for the Emerging Sound Showcase organized by STUK Leuven, Qo2 Brussels and Musica.

You can listen back to an interview + sound sample where I talk about what we did during that week-long residency.
From resonant frequencies to tuning, to difference tones to me mumbling in Dutch..
Head over to the GOVERNORS WEBPAGE to check it out

The calendar has been updated with upcoming concerts and residencies for the first half of 2022!
Besides having a few cool opportunities, I'll mostly be focusing on two projects.

1. 'Governors'  with Anne-Lene Nöldner and Maarten Buyl was selected for the Emerging Sound Showcase hosted by STUK Leuven, Q-O2 and Musica. We will be in residency at the latter during the second week of February.

2. 'Alternative Icons', a research with dancer Anne-Lene Nöldner. For this we will spend a week at ChampdAction.Studio in DE SINGEL at the end of February and a week at Kunstencentrum Nona in April.

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I'll be sending out a first newsletter at the end of this month!
I've never done that since I've always been relying on Facebook to connect with people.

I will not be using facebook as a platform of sharing my professional activities anymore.
Seeing my work surrounded by posts with holiday and food pictures, political rants and commercial companies simply reduced my motivation to actually post.
I'd rather have a more direct connection to the people who have shown interest in my work even if that group might be small to start off with.

Content - wise this newsletter will not only focus on my own work but will also include works of other artists. I will not spam you and will send one out maximum once per 1 or 2 months.

SUBSCRIBE by filling in the form in the TOP RIGHT CORNER on this page!

I was never really familiar with working with video or comfortable with seeing myself on video.
However because of the pandemic, video became a natural part of my professional and artistic work.
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I filmed myself while having lunch and listening to Messiaen's organ work ' Apparition de L'Église Éternelle'
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Happy to be a part of this!  

ChampdAction ism ArtMusicApps en HERMESensemble - IN C - Terry Riley.

ChampdAction invited 15 artists with whom they work on a regular basis to participate in this special project which will be broadcasted by Radio Klara during Late Night Lab.
Musicians were asked to record their own version of IN C at home while listening to a backing track generated by the IN C App. This allowed them to play with all the musical freedom which is the trademark of the piece.
The Hermesensemble offered their willingness to participate with six of their musicians.
This way 21 musicians from the new music scene to be featured in this recording mixed by artistic director Serge Verstockt.‍

‍28th of April. 10pm on Klara

[Welcome to my new website]

Click the menu above to get info on me and my projects.
On the scratchpage I will frequently post a collection of content that I find interesting as well as works from people I respect.

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