A WE PROUD LY V 25–27.11. A 2016 N T PRESENT G YOU THE U THIRD A R D I VOORUIT A GENT EDITION OF THE N EASTERN DAZE FESTI- 2 VAL

festival is a co-joined effort between Sound in Motion, Vooruit, and ourselves. This edi-

tion is again loosely inspired by the common and parallel paths off-stream music is follow- KRAAK THISing in every corner of the world. We shift from post-postmodern exotic music over female Touareg music to possible ethnic tapecollages, zenlike proto-minimalism, kosmische music and more. One of the themes is the idea of identity and its counterpersonae authenticity. The ‘I’ can be seen as a multilayered complex of conscious and subconscious forces instead of a fixed and never changing core. In art and music especially there are many shape shifters and / or Tricksters. As well SPENCER CLARK, MIKE COOPER or GIANCARLO TONIUTTI could be seen as Tricksters. They create music that raises smoke curtains. They like to obscure reality, and to project shades of other and possible worlds into your ears. They are presenting themselves as continuous shape-shifting beings, not because they like to dress up, but because they believe in the sha- manistic power of the artist. The artist as the enhancer of the trance. Cases in point; MIKE COOPER is obsessed by Island cultures and makes records that could be read as logbooks of his inward and worldwide travels. SPENCER CLARK presents on his latest record The World of Shells a creature that travels over space, time, earth and oceans. TONIUTTI will present on the festival a post-structuralist composition to create possible ethnic cultures. Daze logo), (Eastern Olivier Smets Jelle Crama, Artwork: God) (De neus van Aroon Watcharita Design: ruttens-wille by the Flemish Government. KRAAK is supported with in collaboration by Vooruit, Daze is an initiated Eastern and Sound In Motion BEAR BONES LAY LOW could be a Venezuelan superstar, but reality let him divert from his path to arrive Brussels where he became one of the thriving forces of an obscured diy underground scene. The same scene whereYZ found his freedom to blend sufi music with electronic dance. DENNIS JOHNSON left the path of being the composer. In the 60ties he shifted from writing notes to writing mathematical formules. History forgot him, until his composition November travelled through an old cassette to the ears of Kyle Gann who reconstructed the piece. Minimalist music suddenly had a new grandfather and a Brussels pianist will perform it for at least 4 hours. Also E2-E4 is a record about which its creator, MANUEL GÖTTSCHING, never could have fore- seen its place in history. He might have conceived it as a game, or at least as a musical equiva- lent of a game. A strange side effect: techno was suddenly born. Or when you think about Sakala, an experimental short movie by SIMON HALSBERGHE, about a boy that is now known as the first immigrant of Ghent. The boy became a statue which can be called racist in some points and that is a silent witness of Belgium’s dark past. In 2016, Simon Halsberghe used the statue to raise questions about the collective memory in a poetic movie. All these storylines will cross each other at this festival, it’s main point being: music is a way to travel faster, not only over continents and cultures, but also through possible histories

and musics. magazine on music. It pins down is free The Avant-Guardian a frame articles and creates long-lasting into events temporary of the polymorphous one of the parts music. It’s for off-stream body called KRAAK — www.kraak.net Vanhaelemeesch, der Linden, Wouter Hans van Team: Editorial Amelia Cristina Ameel, Lizzy Vandierendonck, Brecht Stragier, Claire Lieven Niels Latomme, Gabriela González, Seb Bassleer, Messer, Aroon. Watcharita Anderson, Henry Moana, Floris Vanhoof, Martens

☟ movies and 80s TV you saw but never style. They are into really elaborate

A lived. Which is why it seemed fitting new age world music dress, and play

25/11 20:15 BALZAAL GIANCARLO TONIUTTI to ask about this strain that someone pretty sick new ambient fusion music. A nonsentimental journey through complexity as resource V who’s never been to California and The director went full on for the set never fully experienced that sorta kow- design and the aesthetic, filling in all Cristina Amelia Messer A abunga state of mind could attribute possibilities. as being embedded in his DNA. Might The Internet has it that Giancarlo wherein different coherent sound N explain the slang, the cartoon faces, the The Reptilian Agenda Toniutti’s music compositions, surfaces overlap. Here the use of video game appreciation. Might not. with Credo Mutwa especially the first ones, might be electronic devices is evident since But visions of Pinhead and the recent Credo Mutwa is one of the true influ- a link between Tangerine Dream and it coincides with his electro acoustic T summoning of Darth Maul as a sway- ences for “THE WORLD OF SHELLS”. Whitehouse / Nurse with Wound. The apprenticeship. “Epigenesi” repre- ing female apparition show that there He was an Artist in Afrika who created truth is, he doesn’t give a flying fuck sents a switch from electronics as G are projections at work. Indeed, the sculptures and paintings based on about categories perched on a chron- sound source to analogue devices. World of Shells Video Club has a place secret myths of pre-history alien ological and fetishised timeline This results in “layers formed with U in the world today… being, called THE CHITAHOORI… (music genres, currents, western the contribution of many diverse In the 80s and early 90s video In this video he is interviewed by canons etc) or representation of sub-­layers, so that their interaction A stores were so packed out of renters David Icke, who is a drone. But Icke reality. He has always seen himself as with the other layers is more of that small visionary directors began doesn’t talk much. All you get is six a marginal figure, never interested in a densifying type, creating specific R to have bigger budgets­ to Imagine hours of very fantastic story telling. dealing with what we are coerced to niches etc. The final form, thus, is greater heights… I am not interested I am not concerned about whether perceive as reality. The only word originated through the “conflicts” D in the slashing and the murder so his theories and stories are true, that can encompass his practice is between the continuity points within much, as an Imagineer’s gift of because the theories obviously do SOURCE. He has a penchant for layers and such “conflicts” mainly I willing visions to happen! Just like have a creative­ effect, and his work cosmogonies, the clash of forms depend on the sonic “environment” Disneyland, the Typhonian Highlife and language­ and style are what makes and morphology. A tautological generated by these process trajec- A record presen­tation was meant to one, an “Imagineer”… statement at first glance; however, tories.”* Collaborating with other physically present the imagination it encompasses three of his main musicians could also be seen as of the landscape of the record! Arcade interests: anthropology, sonic reality method, and here is worth mention- N One time only. Here are three movies “Arcade” hasn’t much real effect and word formation (a branch of ing “Tahta Tarla” with Andrew Chalk that helped me make this record! on “The World of Shells”, it has an linguistics). and”* KO/USK” with Sigmar Fricke. effect on life as I know it! There is no His sonic realities bare no images, Alien Nation Dark Horizon better example of raw budget ­special as sound is vibration and therefore After the original Alien Nation movie, effects. Straight up and down Virtual abstract. The use of field recording they made a TV SERIES. Then it got Reality Electronic Cenobytes on is strictly functional. Toniutti is not 4 canned, so the director decide to then a LawnMower Man-type Grid. The emotionally attached to this tool, make 5 MADE FOR TV MOVIES. director just believes in his world, nor to what is being recorded. This What dedication. The aliens are and for me that is the most important attempted divorce from representa- called newcomers! The newcomers quality to art, a true belief in your tion, and therefore his ego, wants to embrace this sort of junk-new age fantastically flexing head. open the gates of objectivity. Where does sound come from and what kind of syntaxes space can generate? The arbitrary element is at the core of these enquiries. There is a great deal of theory the To summarise this for the listener has to go through in order neo­phytes, I will leave the man to grasp Toniutti’s sonic realities. himself speak: His releases are always accompanied “I consider myself more like a culture by long explanatory texts, diagrams within myself, in the sense that I compare and images. This might be problem- myself, and I confront myself, with the atic in the sense that his composi- cultures of the world, preferably those on tions might not stand and speak by the margins: like Siberia or the Arctic, themselves in terms of the chosen like Chukchi, Nganasan, Yukagir, Ket, medium. But this is not just a quirk. Tuva, Eveuk, Koryak, S·uni, Aleut, etc.,

In order to understand a form, one or also Mongol, Tlingit, etc., those with ☝

must try to understand how differ- which I find to have a greater continuity, ent lines of force pull it together. on the cosmogony plane… I view sound 25/11 22:00 BALZAAL Eastern Daze Research/documentation is cen- like an acoustic phenomenon and not like MIKE COOPER tral to his practice. No romanticist a codified language that implicates any connects traditional folk music and contemporary underground. fancies are allowed in this functional hierarchical codes like the taxonomical A reflection by Mike Cooper. endeavor. Therefore, his sound dependence of instruments, the existence pieces should be heard as “transla- of measuring models, questions of literary Hans van der Linden tions” of different anthropological supremacy, et cetera. This is part of and linguistic perspectives. a ­culture I don’t share anything with.” ** Hi there…What is underground? The Latin Quarter in fact had three Since the early 80’s his prac- Presumably non mainstream floors; the cellar bar, a coffee house tice has been developed through * Source: http://www.timesquotidian. pop /classical / contemporary on the ground floor and a real bar different methods. One is his 1985 com/2011/06/26/point-a-to-point-a-­ culture? Talking music that on the first floor where they had jazz. interview-part-three-authorship/ “La Mutazione” (unearthed in 2015 ** Source: http://ronsen.org/monkmink- probably means all “folk music” Jazz was still underground in the early by Oren Ambarchi’s Black Truffle) pinkpunk/5/toniutti.html is underground? 60s as well and held attraction to me when I was introduced to its more My musical life started with Skiffle complex and radical forms by saxo-

☟ which was the original DIY folk music phonist Geoff Hawkins, a pupil of Lee

genre of 50s Britain. Afro American Konitz (via correspondence course folk blues for the most part and the lessons — tapes and letters) who 25/11 21:10 BALZAAL TYPHONIAN HIGHLIFE thing that got me started. It quickly played in a later version of the Blues The World of Shells Video Club became hi-jacked by the mainstream Committee. Improvisation was the key Gabriela González and turned into a money making word I gleaned from the jazz I experi- recording industry product. Original enced. I figured it was what propelled There is no one way to introduce through Monopoly Star Child exponents came via a couple of the music and interested me. Along Spencer Clark. More like, there are Searchers; and, most recently, the sources such as Ken Colyer, a devotee with my love of song (I sang from multiple introductions to be made, dream world of Typhonian Highlife of New Orleans jazz, who had a skif- a very early age apparently ) I wanted all into the different auras that he’s brings forth the arcane, the uncanny, fle group that played between sets of to combine both but the forms seemed created over the years. With the and the archetypal through the lost his jazz band and Chris Barber who to contradict one another. The song Skaters, he assumed half of a gurgling sounds of distant memory. had a similar set up. Soho had skiffle form is fixed and repeatable while persona, swallowed by the crackling But Spencer Clark is really a total cellars where only coffee was served improvisation is fluid and illusive. echoes and screeches of two ence- dude—yes, in the Lebowskian sense. as refreshment. It was underground At least that was what I thought until phalic hemispheres colliding and You see him ambling towards you, in all senses. My participation was I looked outside of my own tradition bouncing off of each other in a holy wearing that Inspector Gadget trench brief and I graduated to the next phase of English folk song or pop music. feedback dance. Alone: initiatory rites coat and his signature snarl, and will quite quickly which was to singing My instrument of choice is lap and ceremonial intonations rattle most likely be greeted by a wave of in a Rhythm and Blues band, The steel guitar or “Hawaiian Guitar” as off with Vodka Soap; warped melo- goodwill, perhaps with “Hey G, how’s Blues Committee, still underground, it should be called, for it is indeed dies construct a funnel of escapist it vibin’?” or something along those mostly at The Latin Quarter Cellar a Hawaiian invention, at least as far symbolism and spiritual freedom lines. Something evocative of the surfer Club in Reading where I grew up. as I know. Imported into mainland

North America, by Hawaiians, The act of sliding an object along music that seems to be at the heart of through repetitive beats and move- it captured the imagination of a string is Hawaiian guitar in Hawaii A what creating trance music is about ments. The spontaneity in which we blues and then rock musicians who but it exists in other cultures as well, and in their responses they touch still react to repetitive drumming turned the slide into bottleneck and although often not on a guitar but V upon the impossibility of understand- and music might be traced back repositioned the instrument into some other local instrument like ing the music outside of the ritual of to this sort of natural selection. In its original playing position but the a vina in India for instance. There A live performance. short, the people that drum together, true believers still play it “lap style”. are glissando strings in most folk In “Why Do People Sing? Music in stay together! Hawaiian music is a true under- cultures and my own playing is in- N Human Evolution (2011)”, evolutionary In today’s day and age it’s not like ground / folk music — lap steel guitar formed by many of them now not just musicologist Joseph Jordania puts we still need to hype each other up is called, in the Hawaiian language, Hawaiian music. Chinese, Korean, down a thesis that early human sur- to go out and kill a wooly mammoth Kika Kila and there is an acoustic Japanese, Vietnamese,Greek, Arabic, T vival was aided by creating a collective en groupe, but there clearly is still finger picking version caled “Slack African; all of these musics feature state through music known as the a strong connection between trance Key” or Ki Ho Alu. People (especially a string instrument played by sliding G “battle trance.” All night long sessions inducing music and the bonding Americans) tend to forget several an object along its strings. Often that of ceremonial drumming and danc- of a community. And there is still things about Hawaii; first that it is, instrument is in fact a lap steel guitar U ing made participants enter a state of a need to come together and expe- now, part of America, and secondly because the Hawaiians and their mass hypnosis, an altered state where rience something that connects us it wasn’t always; thirdly it has its own guitar conquered almost every corner A pain and fear were thrown out of the to to each other as it did our former language and last but not least it was of the globe with their underground window and where they acted as a sin- ancestors. Nibul most probably won’t illegally stolen from the Hawaiians by language, music and instrument and R gle unit, ready to sacrifice their lives play all night long on Eastern Daze American business men who deposed they still do. for the community. III, but they will surely conjure some the monarchy (locking the then D Self-awareness dissipated into sounds that will spark our ancient, ruling Queen into her own home) unified thought and collective action reptilian brains. and culturally occupying the minds I and hearts of the population. At least thats what the Americans thought. A ☝

In fact language and music was the one weapon that the Hawaiians did N 26/11 20:15 BALZAAL maintain and proceeded to use to SANSKRITI SHRESTHA great effect from the occupation and OUTGROWING ­TRADITION: In an article for Dawn.com* into the 20th century. Few American Pakistani author Uzma Aslam Khan asks herself where the women mainlanders spoke Hawaiian but Hawaiian music and Hawaiian mu- tabla players are. Well, here’s one: Sanskriti Shrestha. She plays sicians became extremely popular at I realised that in all of the musics­ in the ensembles Avatar and Moksha as well as performing solo. the begining of the 1900’s. Hawaiian quoted above (as well as in jazz) im- 6 Growing up in Nepal, she took her tabla and the traditionial music music was one of the first musics to provisation played a huge part in its be recorded (first onto wax cylinders) energy and contributed to its long life. she was raised on and ventured out for the North. and went on to become the biggest Coming back to your question of Claire Stragier selling form of music on records where am I on the traditional / con- (78 rpm) right up until the 1930’s. temporary continuum? Combining cs What convinced you to play music­ syllabus working together with the Most of it initially sung live and on with my love of improvisation and professionally? teachers. It is made for the applicants record in an underground language various techniques acquired from who are good but there idea’s or the (Hawaiian) in a deliberate attempt by playing and investigatimg Blues, sanskriti shrestha: The combination work doesn’t fit into any of the study Hawaiians to maintain contact with Hawaiian, Greek and other folk music of my love for what I do and the op- programs that the school can offer. their hi-jacked culture by singing I finally found a way of releasing portunities I got, are what naturally I am very happy that I could be under in a language that mostly only they the song from its fossilised state and took me into the direction of making that program and the academy had understood and even if perhaps you turning it into something non-repro- music my profession. such an open platform. did happen to speak Hawaiian you ducable; a fluid form that is different needed also to understand context, everytime I perform it. Anything cs Was it immediately clear that you cs During your studies, were your cultural references and hidden mean- non-reproducable is of little interest would focus on the tabla as an peers interested in Nepalese ings within the poetry of the songs to the mainstream and hence remains instrument? ­traditional music? to appreciate what was going on. underground — fortunately. ss When I started playing Tabla I was ss Yes, they were interested in both very little and it was more of a toy Nepalese and the Hindustani tradi­

☟ for me. I was sent to dance and tional music. One of the reasons

Vocal classes but the way I bonded many people I have collaborated with the sound of the Tablas and the with chose to have me because they The people who drum together, stay together! 25/11 23:00 BALZAAL NIBUL way I could communicate with the are also interested on the musical Wouter Vanhaelemeesch language of Tablas, was different than background I come from. I have also any other musical direction I tried worked with different folk musicians When asked about musical influences There is definitely a ritualistic and to go into. So yes, I would say it was where I mostly try to bring a lot of Nibul percussionist Bertrand Fraysse communal aspect that drives Nibul’s pretty clear that Tabla was the instru- materials from the Nepalese folk names the exploratory and lengthy music that seems to be found also in ment I would focus on. tradition too. improvisations of jazz colossus these examples. Fraysse and saxophone John Coltrane and the American player Julie Gineste state that interac- cs You moved from Nepal to Norway cs Should Western and non-Western Primitivism of guitarist and com- tion (with each other and the audience) to study music. Which program music still be treated differently poser John Fahey. He also casually and energy are key to their jams. That did you choose and why Norway? in music education? Is it time to mentions a youtube list he keeps would explain why Nibul always insists get rid of the divide? updated regularly that goes deep into on playing on the floor with the audi- ss I had always wanted to go out of all types of ethnic music. Scrolling ence gathered around them. This live my country to study for discovering ss I personally think the line between down this impressive list of footage experience — instigating and being part the different styles or the scene of the Western and non-Western music from all over the world one can find of the ritual or communion — is what music. Of course the tradition I come has been fading out gradually since examples of Sacred Shinto music, matters most to them, confessing not from is very rich and the process of a couple of centuries. That includes Bulgarian polyphony, traditional being overtly interested in reproducing learning never ends but my heart the education too. People are very Ghanese drumming to Tibetan nuns their sound on record. Or as they put always said there is more! It started much open to all sorts of music and singing and much, much more. What it; “music is not the center of what is with the interest of learning different especially in times like now where we connects these forms of music for happening at a concert”. kinds of percussion traditions. have access to reach to anything we Fraysse is that they all favor drones Nibul clearly aims to bring an Norway was the first country like, the division is disappearing itself. and have some form of explicit com- audience together into trance and the overseas I travelled for perform- There shouldn’t be any bounda- munal aspect. And, most importantly, Toulouse based duo do this through ing. It was a talent project in Forde ry between any kind of genres but it’s the sort of stuff that simply moves improvised sets of long and brutal folk music festival. I was 17 years yet keeping its own identity is also him personally. drones, created by loops and saxo- old and very curious and keen to important for deepening the learning phone and augmented with vocaliza- play with everyone. I got to get in process of any kind of music tradi- tions from both members. The Tibetan touch with many good musicians tion. The tradition becomes richer style percussion propels these into and also ­travelled here the year later if we broaden up the way we bring a high energy maelstrom that is hard for a tour with the local musicians. it together. When it comes education, to swim out of. Fraysse and Gineste In that way, it was very natural for me I don’t necessarily think we have talk about how when they started to move to Norway since I already to get rid of the division between Nibul the music was supposed to be had some projects starting before categories but it’s definitely essential “free”, but say a sort of unplanned I moved here. to have the programs where people structure somehow emerged, a mold I got enrolled in a program called can get deepened knowledge about that they use to get where they need “Free candidate study program” the genres they want to explore which to go. There is a functionality to their where you basically build your own also helps in new creations.

☝ In this, I would like to add that it, I am more myself and I become

I have felt the division when it one with the music. Like they say in A comes to the platform. Some venues Sami vocal tradition “Joiking”, one 26/11 22:15 BALZAAL LES FILLES want to have certain kind of music. doesn’t Joik about someone but one V Here, I am not talking about the Joiks someone or something. In the fusion music we know about. same way, I feel what I play is the A DE ILLIGHADAD Sometimes for a musician like transformation of myself than I am Seb Bassleer myself who likes to bring in different playing something. Everything in na- N inspirations together and create some- ture and around us has its cycle and Modern Ishumar tuareg music is not cousin Alamnou Akrouni, a renowned thing new, a new sound, it can become it repeats. It applies to music too and just a male affair anymore, let it be vocalist. The “tende” is named for little difficult to get the platform to it definitely gives me a lot of energy T heard. We now slowly see female the drum, stretched with an animal perform it. It is not always very easy during the performance or while I am artists stepping out of the shadows, skin and is joined with polyphonic to categorize everything specifically practicing. Especially I do that very G bringing with them the tradition chants. In a place with the absence and that becomes a challenge, I think. much when I practice. of female chants set in an acoustic of sound, no hum of electricity, no U sound. Fatou Seidi Ghali & Alamnou cars, no white noise, and no physical cs What’s the biggest difference Akrouni are two young women from impediments, the tende travels far. ­between Asian and European A Niger who call themselves Les Filles As the village plays, people get drawn music scenes? De Illighadad, named after the village in from around. Singers exchange R where they come from. Illighadad the lead, backed by the chorus of ss I can’t talk about Asia in general is a small village in the central Illighadad echoing in polyphonic but I feel that the European music D heart of the Niger Sahel, a clutter of harmonies, with staccato clapping, scene is very open to innovations mudhouses without electricity or led by a deep and continuous thump- whereas in some parts of Asia we like I wi-fi access. It’s a world apart from ing that goes on for hours. to keep the tradition. Going far away Agadez, from Niamey — both major from that is something not everyone A cities in their own right, dense with can digest. You might sometimes people, noise, and the trappings of cs What is your personal relation- be mistaken for it and people might modernity. During the rain season, ship with traditional Nepalese think you do what you do because N the desert is vibrant and green, after music? you are not skilled enough to carry the rains have parched the otherwise on the tradition. thirsty landscape. The desert here is ss I was born in Nepal, and the tra- cyclical, and follows a predictable ditional music in Nepal is not there cs Tell me something about your schedule. The days in Illighadad just for performing or expertise but sextet Avatar. are long, and time is not measured is very much included in our daily 8 by hours, meetings, or not even by life. It is as rich as the culture itself. ss Avatar is a band that I put together the muezzins prayer call — but by The debut album‘Les Filles De Therefore, it is in my blood and I con- a year ago. It is an outcome of all the the suns passage, the movement of Illighadad’ on Sahel Sounds was nect to it very easily and naturally. new influences and forms of music the animals, and the sound of the one of sublime and intimate purity, I also sometimes perform Nepalese I have encountered these last years. crickets. Music here comes with recorded under the trees in the classical or folk dance which is like Especially the creative thinking, the rural character of the seasons open air of the desert with flutter- meditation for me. It brings a differ- openness, free style of playing, spon- and the extremes of weather are not ing bird sounds in the background. ent personality to me. In this last few taneity is something that I experi- easy on musical instruments, which While Christopher Kirkley had the years, I have been aware of the fact enced a lot in the music scene here in often appear in a dried, bended and original concept to meet Fatou and how the music from my own ethnic Europe which I just love. At the same worn state. record her guitar, every night was group is getting extinct and I really time, I can’t stop getting fascinated Fatou Seidi Ghali plays an old accompanied by tende. Guitar by day, feel that I have a responsibility to by all sorts of old traditional music blue guitar that has been tormented tende by night, as the tradition goes, protect it and bring it more forward I have come across. From the Tibetan by these conditions. As one of the a reminder of the village music that in different musical context. prayers to the noise music, all of it is very rare Tuareg female guitar play- inspired the guitar, and continues so powerful and gives so much that ers, her playing style is measured to do so. In the end, they produced cs Should we guard and protect you have to somehow express it out and calm, and speaks to a different an LP with two sides — each unbro- traditional music, make sure in some way. So as a musician pro- pace. Before recording the ses- ken sessions, representing the two it’s written down and recorded cessing it out through my own com- sion that would become the album, sides of the music: the mellow guitar for future generations? positions was the best way and that’s Christopher Kirkley of Sahel Sounds and personal expression of Fatou where Avatar comes in the picture. saw Fatou playing a long session. It in intimate songs, the timid voice of ss Yes, Definitely! We have always Most of the players are mostly moved seamlessly from one song to Alamnou flickering back and forth learned from the old and that’s how occupied with jazz and improvised another, with many covers of Tuareg like a firefly and the cooperative and we have been able come up with many music. Some of them are also very group Etran Finatawa whose music constant village music of the tende. interesting idea’s and creations. I feel much into folk music. I think the is renowned in this part of Niger It’s sublime dreamy Ishumar music that I am able to do what I am doing band gets different elements from the and the main inspiration for her to for those who want to get intoxicated. now and adapt to all other kinds of each member while sharing the same pick up the guitar. She insisted that Eastern Daze is proud to support music because I have a strong bond direction of creativity, which has she doesn’t just play guitar, but plays their first ever tour in Europe and my the traditional music or the tradi- given it a very distinctive sound. and performs tende as well with her it promises to be quite an impact. tion I have followed. My own tradition has always been a major inspiration cs What do you like most about for me in my work. improvisation? ☝ cs The link between all the artists ss Freedom! booked for the Eastern Daze festival 26/11 22:10 BALZAAL BEAR BONES, LAY LOW is that they reach a state of trance cs When does improvisation Ernesto González can be found under the name Bear Bones, Lay with their music through repetition. go wrong? Low. But the young musician has also been called ‘the Brussels ss I agree with that very much. I love ss For me, it is when I don’t feel like based prince of modern psychedelic electronics’ for several years. the process of repetition. One thing I can contribute to something that’s Next to this alter ego was Ernesto a part of the band Sylvester I have experienced is that the repeti- happening and that doesn’t mean not Anfang II and other formations. You can watch him live with his tion gives you time to really get into playing! tones and rhythms and feel it. It’s like power drone project Bear Bones, Lay Low on the 26th of november you let the vibration from the instru- cs What’s in the future for you? on the Eastern Daze Festival at the Vooruit (Ghent). ment do it works. In this process, I usually feel that I become so small ss In the future… there is a lot of mu- Lizzy Vandierendonck and the sound just covers everything sic! The first half of 2017 will be occu- around me. It also puts a huge impact pied by tours with bands that I play The friendly Ernesto is born a col- experimental chapter started on on the changes you bring after each in. Avatar will be giving out its debut lector. In his house, that is currently Belgian territory. His first band was repetition, which makes both musi- album in autumn 2017. I am also very situated in a typical Brussels subur- at the age of twelve with his sister cian and the audience feel what is glad to be doing solo projects, which bia neighbourhood, are artworks on (who is also part of The Avant- going on. people will get to listen to more of it every wall, a well organised record Gardian’s editorial team) and best in near future. There are always a lot collection and videocassette-filled friend. Trying to make the same cs How important is that state of of ideas popping in my head which shelves. There is coffee for the guests kind of music as Tool, they didn’t trance for you? Does it give you I don’t always get time to work with. and sweet pretzels on the table, like their sound that was similar. energy? I really look forward to experiment Ernesto prefers ginger tea. González says he always felt more all those ideas and hopefully, it will In 2003 he arrived in our attracted to the more fucked up side ss Yes, it is important for me! be something I can present it or share humble Belgium, all the way from of popular music. Giving an exam- Whenever I have had a chance to take with people and experience it togeth- Venezuela. And even though ple of Nirvana’s ‘Radio Friendly Unit

my time, have repetitions and feel er with the music lovers. * Source: http://www.dawn.com/news/1103287/where-are-the-women-tabla-players he always played music, his Shifter’ and peeping guitars. At the age of 17 he made a couple always liked making trippy music, The emotional and the psy- of CDR’s he put out through his own sometimes it can be poppier (the E chological plays a very big role in record label, Eat The Sun, and a tape 2012 album El Telonero), other times both chess and E2-E4. As I pointed on the Canadian Knife In The Toaster. abstract, like Hacia La Luz. His A about above: the game of chess Since then his discography expanded music is mostly a mixture of styles, thrives upon rationalized rules and to more than 20 releases. His latest something I see back in his home S limitations. The concrete output is album, Hacia La Luz, is out since decoration. defined by the players consciousness. august through No ‘Label’ (Rush Improvising is González first T But even more by our subconscious, Hour). He created it in the home of attempt to make a Bear Bones track. as we are not the enlighted, rational many underground affiniodos, Les You can compare it as making creatures we’d like to be, but driven Ateliers Claus, between the 13th and a collage, but with layers of sound. E by forces that are the result of thou- 26th of april 2015. Sometimes it starts with a melody in sands of years of evolution. Composed out of repititive forms his head whereafter he makes the rest R This defines the way we perceive and layers and layers of ancestral of the song up. He records a synth or the composition. He himself meant synth, hand drums and shakers, a bass so he can come back to it later. N it as a abstract, minimalist piece. González created a mind expand- The result is that most of the time his But history taught us that the record ing soundscape that lifts us off into albums are an mix of old and new D influenced a stream of dancers and a cosmic space and lets us spin songs. And this probably explains techno musicians. You can either in a Tangerine dream. He says he him having the habit of doing dif- A listen to it, or dance to it. But the ferent things at the same time. But complexity of sounds, created by with Hacia La Luz his work progress Z Chess is a closed circuit with a minimum of sources, let’s you drift was a bit different. He created it at very defined rules. Each piece has away in it’s sheer beauty and emo- his recidency in Les Ateliers Claus in E its own movement, weaknesses tional warmth. The record does not two weeks time. Mostly all the sounds and strengths. The board has only contain emotions, but I’m sure it he produces go first through an amp, I 64 places and the goal is very simple: conveys a lot of emotion. then through a mic and then onto you have to conquer the other party’s This brings me to what I have tape. Which is a slower process than king. Paradoxally, its very rigid set of seen as a striking parallel between recording on the computer. But the S rules and limitation creates a field in the game of chess and the record. result is far more authentic that gives which endless possibilities appear. On minute 32.00, or just 2 minutes his sound a warm layer. S It’s a field in that enhances imagina- far in the part that is called Promise, His aim is to make under- tion, psychology and poetry. You start somewhere in the beginning of the ground music for his people, with U a game, and by intuition you move B-side if you’re used to listen it on no intention to make hits. Playing pieces. You can learn about the best vinyl, suddenly a guitar kicks in. with a bunch of effects, guitar fuzz E opening moves, and how to respond Göttsching is a master guitarplayer. and vocals, his music evolved from to the other’s moves, and eventually His work with Ashra Temple, and bedroom dronemusic to colourful N threats and attacks, but you can never even more the album Inventions for sounds. You can find him on stage sit- rationalize the game completely. electric guitar exemplify this. Moment ting behind his synth filled desk that O A game develops by having uncon- 32.00 is a flipping point in the is elegantly draped with blankets. scious preference for certain pieces record. It suddenly changes the com- V and their moves. Some people even plete mood of the album. Depending claim that you can be read through on your mood, it could make the ☟ E the moves you make on the board. timeless sounding synthesizer

E2-E4 is like the game of chess. structures sound like a cheesy, kitch, It’s equally meticulously composed, outdated lounge track. Is it the guitar 26/11 23:05 BALZAAL M MANUEL GÖTTSCHING following a very strict set of rules and shredder Göttsching coming in, as An essay on E2-E4, an opening move in chess or a highly influencial B limitations. It’s a truly teutonic musi- a persona, pointing out that elec- record in contemporary music. cal composition, more dehumanized tronic music is minor to real instru- than Kraftwerk ever will be. If you lis- ments? Or couldn’t he just resist to Niels Latomme E ten closely, the piece is made out of 8 show off his guitar skills? layered sources. The sources — synths, It could be also another equiv- Let me tell you something about the Wikipedia says: “White opens with the R delay effects, drumcomputers — are alent to a game of chess. Every millennium old game of chess. Some most popular of the twenty possible open- synced together, by a very influential game of chess has a flipping point. people find chess incredibly dull, ing moves. Although effective in winning 2 invention called MIDI. It allowed the The point of no return to which others are addicted to it. The game for White (54.25%), it is not quite as composer to prepare a set of limita- everything before was building up fights a war between two minds, successful as the four next most common 0 tions and defined rules, and let every to. The point that makes clear who is equipped with the same weapons, openings for White: 1.d4 (55.95%), source slowly fade in and out. During losing and who is winning. Mostly and the same limited amount of 1.Nf3 (55.8%), 1.c4 (56.3%), and 1.g3 1 each part Göttsching tweaks and the game evolves pretty quickly after moves. It’s a war ruled by restric- (55.8%).[2] Since nearly all openings triggers the sounds, so that a slowly that point, one of the parties will tions, and it is incredible poetic; or, beginning 1.e4 have names of their own, 6 shifting structure appears. It’s not lose his or her important pieces and depending on which side you’re on, the term “King’s Pawn Game”, unlike unlike minimalist avant-garde music, the game falls apart. it’s a game for nerds, boring, slow Queen’s Pawn Game, is rarely used to in which the base structure is founded If the Guitar Part is consciously and abstract. No matter which angle describe the opening of the game. on a few basic notes or structures conceived as the point of no return you look into, it earned its place in Advancing the king’s pawn two that are repeated with a very limited in the Göttsching record, I think he the history of ­mankind. It even pro- squares is highly useful because it amount of variations. The context truly understands the game of chess, voked a complete mythology, as it occupies a center square, attacks the ­creates this extraordinary effect in and its merits. He could have kept was a huge shock for mankind when center square d5, and allows the devel- 9 which the slightest change of the on building up towards the so-called a chess champion got beaten a com- opment of White’s king’s bishop and parameters — could be the note, ‘drop’, the point in which the beats puter. Not to speak about books like queen. Chess legend Bobby Fischer the cadense, the rhythm, or the filter falls away on clubfloors, to pimp The Chess Novel, by Stephan Zweig, or said that the King’s Pawn Game is and the frequencies — has a maximum up the dancers. But he didn’t… he the records by Wu-Tang Clan. “Best by test”, and ­proclaimed that of consequences in the sound; the choose to use his master guitar skills Some people feel the same “With 1.e4! I win”.[3] minimum of changes even defines to change to mood, as one of the about the record E2-E4 by Manuel King’s Pawn Games are further the nature of the piece per se. The possible outcomes of the rigid game. Göttsching, recorded in 1981, but classified by whether Black responds revolutionary­ aspect is that he applied To point out the endless possibilities released in 1984 — in some ways with 1…e5 or not. Openings beginning minimalist idea’s to new technol- and to prove that a rigid structure a pivotal year. I was talking to with 1.e4 e5 are called Double King’s ogy, and showed the way for Derrick can be the portal to deepened aes- Spencer Clark and he finds the Pawn Games (or Openings), Symmetrical May, Juan Atkins, Jeff Mills and likes thetic beauty. record incredibly dull, and values King’s Pawn Games (or Openings), or how to let people dance themselves Ashra’s output way more than this Open Games — these terms are equiv- towards transcendental salvation. piece. But other people think it’s alent. Openings where Black responds Although the record suggests one of the best records ever made. to 1.e4 with a move other than 1…e5 are a defined start and end, and even This record, not unlike the game of called Asymmetrical King’s Pawn Games though it has 8 defined parts (again chess, earned its place in musical or Semi-Open Games.” 8; 8 × 8 = 64, the same amount of history, being considered as the The title of the record mislead- squares on the board of chess) with first house or techno record. (A side ing, though. The opening is just one names that suggest a specific mood, remark: Göttsching admitted that of the 18 possible moves, and is not there is more to it. On a deeper level, he not really likes dance music.) as defining as such. Depending on you can consider E2-E4 as just one The record is loosely inspired by the players, each game goes its own possible output. Göttsching could chess. But, it has more resemblances path. Although… If you think deeper have started with other filters or other to chess than the cover and the about cause-consequences, each tunings and drum rhythms. As if title. Let’s start with the title: “E2- opening has its consequences for the every game of chess is one possible E4” is an opening move in chess, rest of the game, and I think you can outcome of the very rigid system it’s called the King’s Pawn Game. apply this to the record too. beyond it.

☟ yz C’est ça, Sufi music is too static for or that tradition is a bit difficult.

E them. Although, nowadays there is I’m influenced by everything YZ YZ is Younes Zarhoni’s moniker to create a highly 26/11 00:00 CAFÉ more a revival of music coming out what I see and hear, and by what personal blend of Sufi mysticism and electronic music. His powerful A of the Sufi tradition. Also the better I like — Arabic music, free jazz, voice sings medieval Arabic poems on top of acid-like electronics singers are coming out of that back- blues or whatever… At the same time S ground, like Rachid Gholam. my own memory and my parents and beats. Music led him towards a deepened identity in which theirs — my origins so to say — influ- beauty, freedom and spiritualism is more dominant than culture, T nl Do still make music together with ences me. As kid I heard something background and the place where you’ve been born. those guys? that triggered me, something that E connects. My granddad collected In November he will release his debut 10” on Lexi Disque, and yz No, not really. I still see them time long-distance radios that could re- he will conclude the Saturday of the Eastern Daze festival in to time, but that’s all. ceive stations from all over the world. R Before my dad shipped them to my Ghent. We met him at the always cosy Brasserie Verschueren, nl How come you started playing granddad, I used them to scan all in the center of hipster Sint-Gilles. N solo, as you were used to do music these stations. I always heard connec- Niels Latomme in groups? tions between different traditions of D music. I’m convinced that those are nl Tell me something about the yz You find Sufism over the whole yz It was a purely practical thing, there. In Mauritanian music I hear co-joined release by Lexi Disques world, from Morroco to Senegal A ­because I was a lot abroad. On the Flamingo for instance. and Pneu Records. to Indonesia. The main concept is other hand, I always have a very The diaspora effect is pretty trance and music is a tool to get Z ­defined idea about what I wanted interesting as it connects all those yz They were recorded last January. into it. Sufi rituals are meant to last to do. My solo music was a starting traditions. I have written 5 to 6 tracks, which to whole night. Music, meditation E point, in which I laid down foun- Although I notice that the fact I used to play as defined pieces with and movement can take on different dations that could be used to play that I sing in Arabic involves ­people an end and beginning. More and forms, depending on the context. I together with others. But it turned into something more complex, more I noticed they are becoming By example, in Tanger, rhythm is out I felt more comfortable with the which shouldn’t be if I would sing more vague. Mostly I play pretty late very important. Myself, I’m more foundations. So I choose that path. in Flemish. It isn’t contemporary and loud, and people dance to it. interested by the lyrics. S In collaboration with ‘Western’ Arabic, neither street dialect. One I feel that it would be better if they I see a parallel in both Sufi musicians — although I consider poem is for instance written by don’t have this defined start and stop, Mysticism and dance music. Both are S myself as a ‘Western’ musician as a poet out of the Saath Dynasty, that so that you can stay in the trance. trying to achieve a state of tran- well — I choose for people with a very was located on Zanzibar in the 18th scendentalism through repetition. U specific sound. For my earlier band, century. It has a very beautiful and Although, there is a difference. I don’t Spandau, I wanted to work with specific cadence that is in strong wanna be too negative about techno E Nico (Sale) and Mathias, with a back- contrast with the electronic music. and the club scene, because it’s also ground in contemporary classical I always like things that are made a form of making sense in your life. But N music, or free jazz people. Although out of strong contrasts. Sufism aims to become closer toward I noticed in those ­collaborations that God, or another transcendental thing. O it was very hard to create one entity, nl I think the answer seems pretty Sufism is about taking distance of the and that people took an individual complex, but is in the end pretty ego, and it becomes the context for an V position. It made that I was seen as simple for music. In 2016 you ethic or moral code. The trance is not the ‘non-western’ musical element, have this framing, which is about the goal in itself, but a tool to reach E which felt a bit uncomfortable. identity. But I don’t think it this. It’s all about creating meaning in ­matters for good music. your life. It’s about a purification of nl Because you were seen as yourself — all things mystical, you see. M an exotic­ part? yz If you look at the Cuban music hype from some years ago, it didn’t It was never my intention to create nl You told me earlier that as B yz No, not really. The music started matter if people didn’t understand dance music. It came out naturally a kid you use to sing in Arabic to lean towards world music. Maybe the lyrics. Although I’d have to admit because I like it. On the moment ensembles. E we never managed to create a sound people are more aware about Arabic, I started to play live shows, I noticed that transcended the clichés of it. certainly when it’s not music to dance that the music started to vibrate yz When I was 6 years, I started sing- R to. But I think definitely defined within the audience, and that there ing in mosques, I learned singing the nl How you feel then about being by context. are possibilities in the music to make Qur’an. You can recite it, but you can 2 part of a festival that highlights a more dance oriented sound. I’m still also sing it. It’s a discipline called the the mutual influence between nl Do you have the feeling it matters figuring out how to create a more fluid tajwid, in which you learn the scales, 0 non-Western and Western music? in the Brussels cellar scene where and transcendental structure out of pretty similar to classical singing. I’m aware that framing people in you mostly perform? the elements of the original songs. It’s Later I became more interested in 1 this black-and-white opposition new territory. The challenge is to avoid Sufi and religious music and also the can cause that we overlook what yz No, not at all. In that way is Brussels the clichés of techno, but still make M’shmuda anasheed and unshuda, 6 matters, and over the complex a great city. I always wondered what something that is still rudimentary which is more politically and socially thing music is. Especially your I could do sound wise, and that’s and that triggers people. One way is engaged Islamitic music. In the 80ties music, you can be considered why I think Arabic is interesting. In to use the same elements, but using and 90ties in certain circles it was not as Brussels, but also as Arabic, Brussels I have the freedom to present them in another way — for instance done to use instrumental music, which but does it matter? it in that way. People care more about playing with the pitch of the harmo- started a new genre. Tanger was pretty to the fact if it’s musically interesting nies — so that the mood becomes known for these groups. yz For me it doesn’t matter that or not, if there is beauty in it, if it vi- different by changing the pitch. You’d In the 90ties several students out 11 much. I think framing people in this brates… and less about where it’s from. have to start think like a dancer, not of this movement moved to Antwerp like a singer or songwriter. It’s the and Brussels to study. It was there craftsmanship of a DJ, Quoi. that I got in contact with them. It was ☝

In songs, you have the concept my first musical experience that was of duration. You are restrained to not related to the Qur’an. They played think within 3, 4, 5 or 6 minutes. The a lot of covers of Arabic singers like 27/11 13:30 BALZAAL STEPHANE GINSBURGH duration and timing is very important Sabah Fakhri and George Wassouf, NOVEMBER MUSIC in a real song — to kick it off, let it but they changed the lyrics into Brecht Ameel develop and finish it properly. In more a more ethical and Islamitic version. trance-like music, this works differ- It was a great time, we were one ba Stephane can you tell us a little somehow influential in my evolution, ent, over a longer time. The organic of the first youngster bands started in about your background, both as and discovering the vast territories of character is way more important; it’s Antwerp. Later I joined a band with a pianist and as a listener? music and knowledge in general. more about mixing than compos- adults that played a lot. Every week ing. I rather like working on longer two, three shows all over Belgium, sg My first experiences as a listener ba Do you remember when you be- tracks than to be a constrained by in mosques, wedding parties, reg- happened in a music loving family came aware of Dennis Johnson’s a standardized timeframe. ular concerts and so on. Which where I could hear all kinds of styles music? What was it that attracted was pretty cool. On a certain point ranging from the early classical to you to his work in particular? nl You could say you are in search I met the singer who was more Sufi- the modern, opera, Lieder, chanson for a method in which the songs oriented. With him I formed a new française as well as alternative rock, sg I have been familiar with so- serve as context, more than group. Strange enough, the Islamitic and even some electronic music. called minimalist music for many a structure­ to hold on? Movement music was pretty awkward The transition to playing music was years when I participated in my towards their tradition, because Sufi therefore quite natural and I started first recording of Morton Feldman’s yz Yes, totally. music is less engaged, I suppose. playing the piano when I was 6 years music for Sub Rosa with Le Bureau old. I never stopped since then. des Pianistes in 1990. Minimalism nl Is it something that is equally nl This movement was more about What followed consisted mainly in has played an important role in important in Sufi Music? empowerment? encountering musicians, all of them the way I consider doing music today. In 1992, American compos- of the audience who hears er Kyle Gann received a tape and the performance? E a few sketches of Dennis Johnson’s DENNIS JOHNSON November from La Monte Young. sg I always prefer being the perform- A RECONSTRUCTING NOVEMBER: This is a recording of Young told Gann that the piece had er but I think in the end that in all a major work that has been lost to history for fifty years. influenced him a lot in writing his musical experiences, the perform- S Well Tuned Piano. And it’s only quite er and the listener tend to merge Kyle Gann recently that Gann proceeded to somehow. We are not considering T work — hard — on the material he had anymore performing as the active My first hint of its existence came 21 when he wrote November, 23 when received in order to reconstruct what part and listening as the passive one. around 1992. I was writing an article he recorded it at Terry Jennings’s seemed to be a 5 to 6 hours long min- Every person present become an E about the music of La Monte Young, mother’s house. Because of the ­wobbly imalist and tonal piece, probably the actor in the listening experience. The who in the 1960s had introduced pitch, correctly transcribing the tape first one of its kind. I became aware performer simply being an operator R long drones into the music of the would have been a dicey operation of the piece when pianist Andrew of sound or a transmitter. avant-garde, and in so doing secured without the score; comparing my Lee released his recording of it a few N himself as reputation as “the father transcription with the score clarified years ago on Irritable Hedgehodge. ba I wonder how much of any of minimalism.” La Monte gave me actual pitch levels. current recording of “November D a hissy cassette tape of some slow, It took months of work to copy ba Do you think there is a rea- Music”, or any current perfor- faint piano music. It was one of down all the notes on that tape, son why Mr Johnson chose mance of this piece, is actually A those thin, unreliable 120-minute including some thick chords that ‘November’ rather than an improvisation based on just cassettes, and the pitch wobbled the tape’s pitch waviness wouldn’t ‘December’ or ‘January’? a couple of ideas that were out- Z badly. It was marked as containing let me match exactly on the piano, lined by Johnson? a piece called November, dated 1959, but the effort was amply rewarded sg I haven’t found any information E by Dennis Johnson, though the as I learned more and more how about that except that one fragment sg Well, the piece is basically a series recording was indicated as being the piece worked. November, if it was is dated from early December which of harmonic patterns which are played I from 1962. The music was glacially truly written in 1959, rewrites the could mean that the piece was started rather freely. There is absolutely no calm and meditative in the extreme, early history of minimalism. Before in November. But that’s only a very notated rhythm. So you could say and cut off abruptly after 112 min- November, Young and Jennings had weak hypothesis. there is some improvisation involved. S utes; in fact, there were a few gaps been writing extremely slow atonal But improvising does not mean you in the audio elsewhere, too. On tape, music, climaxing in Young’s String ba Is the indication to start off with do whatever without reason. The S voices murmured in the background. Trio of 1958, a twelve-tone piece with a ‘Very Slow’ tempo Johnson’s, material somehow always imposes its Occasionally a far-off dog barked. notes and chords sustained for several or is it an addition made after own way to the performer. As Feldman U And La Monte credited the work as minutes at a time. November started off Johnson’s own recording was once said to Stockhausen: “You don’t having been the inspiration and pre- in the key of G minor, and was thus discovered? push the sounds.” This means for me E decessor to his mammoth magnum the earliest available tonal piece in that the sounds themselves take part opus The Well-Tuned Piano, which the new style of minimalism, which sg The indication is not found on in the way they are played. N I had come to write about. would reintroduce tonality back into what seems to be the original sketch Dennis Johnson was one of avant-garde classical concert music. and might have been added by Kyle ba Do you need to physically prepare O Young’s college friends at UCLA; In addition, November was apparently Gann after listening to the recording. yourself for this piece? Or is it they met in 1957 when Young heard the first piece to proceed through the a mental thing? V him practicing Webern’s Variations for repetition of small motives, which is ba If there would not have been any piano, and barged into his practice the technique now most commonly indication, how would you decide sg I do indeed prepare myself phys- E room to see who it was. Along with associated with minimalism via the on a tempo for a piece like this? ically because playing for 5 hours is their friend Terry Jennings, Young works of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. quite demanding for the back. The and Johnson were the original min- November is the first static or repetitive sg Well, in this case, the recording is longest piece I have ever played was M imalists, composing austerely slow piece to be several hours in length important in reconstructing the piece Feldman’s For Philip Guston which and static music years before Steve (Young’s earlier String Trio having and apparently, the tempo IS very lasts 4 1/2 hours. But I know pianists B Reich and Philip Glass got involved. been approximately an hour long slow. On the other hand, the style who play much longer. The mental Young’s “Lecture 1960,” published in without a break). It is the first known is clearly minimalistic and invites preparation is very important in E the Tulane Drama Review, describes piece to proceed via additive process, the performer to play slowly. This is ­order to remain concentrated for Johnson as having performed a piece i.e., starting with two notes, repeating also the case with some of Feldman’s a very long time. One of the best R called Din, with 40 performers in them and adding a third, repeating pieces which have no indication ­exercises I know for this is walking a darkened hall clapping, scream- those and adding a fourth, and so on; but cleary belong to a universe and mountain hiking. 2 ing, shuffling feet, and so on. Young the technique would become famous of slowness. recounts that after the concert a critic a few years later in the late-’60s music ba When I listen to piano music of 0 asked if the group was “part of Zen,” of Steve Reich and Philip Glass. ba I mean this in the sense that Dennis Johnson, La Monte Young and Johnson replied, “No, but Zen is In short, in November most of with instrumental pieces which and Morton Feldman (to name 1 part of us.” Johnson was also known the elements we now think of as obtain a sort of ‘canonical’ status, three composers who were for a work using only four pitches, minimalist appeared all at once. there often tends to be a sort of ­involved in creating looooong 6 titled The Second Machine, and a jazz Only the slow, drawn-out time established notion about tempo. ­piano pieces), Johnson’s seems to piece written in chord changes called sense was anticipated by Young and For example, a Satie Gnossienne be the most clearly overtly emo- the 109-Bar Tune. After a few years of Jennings. Assuming it really came needs to be slow. No one dares tional. Would you agree on this? avant-garde performance, though, from 1959, Dennis Johnson seems to to take it fast (anymore). Johnson gave up music around 1962, have created minimalism with all its sg No I don’t agree. I think music and for decades almost his only basic elements at once — and then the sg Of course, but there still remains rouses emotions, but it does not public historical record was a hilari- original piece with which he did it was quite a large range of speeds even contain any. Music is made of sounds 13 ously immature letter (credited only forgotten for almost half a century. in slowness. You can always play and as such, it can touch the listener to “Dennis”) in the 1963 new-music The manuscript score ofNovember slower than slow. I think speed is not in many different ways. The differ- compendium An Anthology, edited is a puzzle. It contains two pages of necessarily an absolute data but also ence between Johnson & Young on by Young and Jackson Mac Low. “motifs,” numbered first with Roman depends greatly on the length, the one side, Feldman & Cage on the A rumor persisted, however, that numerals and then switching to harmonics and the quality of sound. other, resides in the fact that the first November was supposedly, in total, Arabic ones, often out of order, with ones rely on tonality while the two six hours long — the eventual length many cross-outs, alternative pos- ba If you could choose, who would others are mostly atonal. of The Well-Tuned Piano. sibilities, and self-questionings by you like to be: the performer of For years I kept that ancient cas- the composer. These are followed by “November Music” or a member ba Music of long duration… I can’t sette, thinking about it and occasion- three further pages on which Johnson wrap my mind to decide what ally listening to it. Not until the mid- tried, with only partial success, to is the most thrilling moment of 2000s did I have enough technology analyze his improvisation and arrive a 5 hour voyage: the beginning, at my disposal to digitize the record- at a more exact notation. Little anno- when all is still open, and you ing and make transcribing it a reason- tations among the notes, in the same wonder what will be next, where able possibility, which I did in 2007. handwriting of Johnson’s letter in and how it will grow, what it will The tape contained only 112 minutes of An Anthology, show him cogitating on lead to… or the end of such a piece, a six-hour work, and I knew I couldn’t paper and rather humorously arguing when all of the notes themes completely make sense of it without with himself: “maybe replace IVb reverberations suddenly turn out Johnson’s help; luckily, composer with this”; “sounds better to enter to be a conclusive thing, leaving Daniel Wolf was able to provide me with low A#”; “maybe add low E# a listener with a ring in the ears Johnson’s address and phone number in first chord — NO!” to take home and brood over. in California. Johnson generously sent Along with the score, Johnson me a copy of the manuscript of the sent me a note with the following sg I sometimes wonder if there is work, six pages of melodic cells and description: a beginning and an ending. There are diagrams for conjoining them. He told Here is the complete “score,” certainly in the performance, but not me over the phone that he was born in if that is the correct term. It con- in the music. Music is almost infinite. late 1938, so he was presumably 20 or sists of “motifs” plus rules of which motifs can follow each given V & VI G# natural minor again as predecessors. Given how focused from the listener’s point of view, motif — at least that is what it should 7 & 8 E natural minor E American composers were on the maintain a seamless logic. I tried be, but I’m afraid that it isn’t made 9 Bb major (though with a disso- music of Anton Webern at the time, to use in the improvisatory, second entirely clear. Items 1-15 were ­written nant Db at one point) A I also think it is not far-fetched to half of the reconstruction the same around 1970-1971. Pages A + B are, hear in Johnson’s two- and three-note kinds of logic, additive process, repeti- I think, an attempt to make the tran- Others, however, were inconsistent in S motives the influence of Webern’s tions, motivic rhythms, and harmonic sitions more explicit — or possibly this regard. Little curved arrows sug- Piano Variations, even though connections apparent in the material to write down the transitions as gested movement from one motif to T Johnson’s language is mostly far captured on tape. they occur in the recording, but it another, but these were inconsistently more consonant. Expanding the piece’s length was never finished, so the recording added, and didn’t always match the Becoming a little obsessed, to the alleged six hours presented must stand as the primary definition progression on the tape. In one place, E I wanted to play the piece, or have some difficulty. The original six-hour example of the piece. The piece was a frequently recurring chord on the it played, and we had the perfect performance, if it did run that long, not meant to be entirely fixed, but tape did not contain the same notes R opportunity coming up at the seems likely to have contained more somewhat improvisatory, with the as its counterpart in the score, which 2nd International Conference on material than was eventually cap- given transitions as the rules for the may have been a transcription error N Minimalist Music at the University tured in notation. A six-hour recon- improvisation. No rules were implied on Johnson’s part; as instructed, of Missouri at Kansas City, in struction using the extant material about the times spent on any of the I took the recording to be the authen- D September of 2009. I set to work on might be needlessly repetitious; our motifs, nor on the number of recur- tic version. a performance score. I didn’t know 2009 performance went four and rences/recycles of any motif — they Johnson also preserved in the A if I could sit five hours at a piano, a half hours, and Andrew has made do recur in the tape. manuscript an intriguing example but the amazing pianist Sarah a version running almost five hours. This is an enigmatic note. I called of his formal thinking. In an exam- Z Cahill was going to be there too, Even so, an authentic performance Johnson soon afterward, and we had ple on area III, he numbers motifs so we agreed to alternate by hours. requires considerable creativity on a nice conversation, but his health IIIa-d and IVc with a kind of poetic E My ­solution for a score, on which the pianist’s part, along with some is failing; he warned me that his refrain notation, so that IIIa appears Andrew Lee’s performance is based, analysis of the transcription to get short-term memory is very bad and as numbers 1, 3, 5, 7, and 13, motif I was, first, to as carefully as possible into Dennis’s musical thinking. that he would probably repeat his IIIb as 2, 6, and 12, and so on. transcribe the 112 minutes of the tape, I made my own private recording questions, which he did. He con- Follow that in a kind of bounc- and then create a performing version of the work on August 12, 2009, and firmed, though, that the score he ing-ball motion, and the resulting S for the remainder based on contin- Sarah and I (re-?) premiered the piece sent me was made after the fact, in pattern gives us a succession of uing the kinds of patterns heard on September 6 at UMKC. I’m thrilled an attempt to set down what he had motifs in the form S the tape with the remaining materials that Andrew Lee, a pianist devoted performed several years earlier; the found in the score. to minimalist repertoire, has made description above suggests that it ABACABACDCDBACDCDEDE U I marked off blank measures it a special project and even given was made in 1970-71. Whether he was of 5/4 meter with the 8th-note at its European premiere. listening to the tape as he did this More simply put, he works his way E 60 pulses per minute; this way each Musicologists aren’t done with is impossible to ascertain, though it gradually from A to E by alternating measure corresponded to 10 seconds. Dennis Johnson and Terry Jennings. seems plausible, because a couple of between adjacent motifs in a kind N At this music’s ultra-slow tempo, Someone needs to locate the scores the transitions match the tape pretty of permutational additive process. I figured that placing every note to The Second Machine and The 109- exactly. By implication, some of the Presumably this type of process O within half a second was generally Bar Tune and research the chronol- motifs (those numbered 16 through 18) could be used to link other motifs in precise enough. I transcribed the 112 ogy of the original minimalist trio. were written after 1971 and may repre- performance as well. Approximately V minutes into notation software and The importance ofThe Well-Tuned sent new material not played in 1962. half the material on the score is afterward deleted (or made invisible) Piano adds to November’s place in One passage in the score is dated used in the tape, which means that E all the note-stems and rests, so that history, but the work also abundantly “Dec. 1988.” Perhaps Johnson con- it is fairly easy to imagine how the disembodied noteheads would stands on its own. I’ve listened to our tinued adding to the piece this late. to ­double the length of the tape float in a John Cage-like proportional recordings many times, and enjoyed Much information is missing, and by similarly adding in the other M notation. Even though no pulse runs the limpid pool of tones it creates, speculation can znly take us so far. material. However, I also found on through the work and rhythms need its gentle repetitions and insouciant Nevertheless, the score clarified the tape passages of material not B not have been notated, Johnson in his changes of tonality. Had minimalism much of what I found on the tape, reflected in the score, which could performance patently grouped certain never happened, Dennis Johnson’s though inconsistencies remained. well mean that the original six-hour E notes into recurring phrases, and at November would be a beautiful and A motive labeled “Ia” (G D C in the tre- performance, if it did run that long, this first stage it was important to pre- radically innovative conception, ble clef, G Bb in the bass) was followed contained more material than has R serve exact timings to avoid falsifying well worth recording and hearing. by IIa, IIb, IIc and IId in succession; survived in the score. the phrasing profile of the original. Given the piece’s seminal position Ib came somewhat later. Some, Among other things, November 2 I had to reconstruct some music that in sparking a rebirth of tonality in but not all, of the numbered sets of anticipated The Well-Tuned Piano took place during gaps in the tape, 20th-­century music, I would like to motives were unified by being all in in being an improvisatory piano 0 using the same logic evident in the think that the piece will take its place the same diatonic scale (each number piece whose large-scale areas are relationship of manuscript score to as one of the more influential monu- standing for several related motives): held together by occupying the 1 tape. Where the tape gave out, I made ments in musical history as well. same harmonic field. As models of up a continuation score containing Kyle Gann is a composer and I G natural minor (though with music improvised from materials 6 the remainder of the motifs from the author of five books on American a B-natural in Ib) written out and played in any order, manuscript score, laid out in a plausi- music. He was new-music critic for II G major we might also cite Stockhausen’s ble order so that the pianist could con- the Village Voice from 1986 to 2005, III G# natural minor Klavierstück XI and Boulez’s Third tinue improvisatorily. My hope was and has taught music theory and IV F# major (though with one B#) Piano Sonata, both completed in 1957, that the entire performance would, ­history at Bard College since 1997. 15

27.11 25.11 26.11 E2-E4 ) (2015), (2015), November (2016), (2016), free entrance free Sakala of A Story ) with Mike Cooper, Cooper, with Mike . . . Screening Screening 11 min. Halsberghe, dir. Simon Screening Sounds Sahel 82 min. dir. Neopan Kollektiv, talk Panel Giancarlo Tionutti and Ernesto González free entrance free –  –  & Shrestha  Sanskriti Tejaswinee Kelkar ( performs Ginsburgh  Stephane Dennis Johnson’s Giancarlo Toniutti Typhonian Highlife Mike Cooper Nibul ( fair Record –  Les Filles de Illighadad Low Bones, Lay Bear Göttsching plays Manuel YZ Sebcat DJ ...... BALZAAL BALZAAL CAFÉ BALZAAL FRIDAY 20:15 21:10 22:00 23:00 SATURDAY 14:00 15:00 20:15 21:15 22:10 23:05 00:00 SUNDAY 13:30