22.04.26, 20:00, The Necks, Going, Tatsuhisa Yamamoto, GAME & Pak Yan Lau

Two idiosyncratic artists who actively unlearn tradition in order to create highly intuitive compositions that convey their very personal styles through guitar, woodwinds, and electronics.

Double bill with classically trained guitarist Chuck Roth on a curious musical exploration of the world of electronic music, and Lea Bertucci, the self-taught and idiosyncratic composer who weaves field recordings and noise techniques with woodwinds into installation art and creative masterpieces full of strings, wind instruments, percussion and creatively misused audio technology.

About Lea Bertucci

Lea Bertucci is an experimental musician, composer and performer whose work describes relationships between acoustic phenomena and biological resonance. In addition to her longstanding practice with woodwind instruments, her work incorporates spatialized speaker arrays, radical methods of free improvisation and creative misuses of audio technology. In recent years, her projects have expanded toward site-specific and spatially aware projects that initiate new access points to architecture. Her approach to music is marked by dense masses of sustained dissonance and a fascination with the sonic substance of common experience.

Her discography spans over a decade, with eight full-length solo albums and a number of collaborative projects. In 2018 and 2019, she released solo albums Metal Aether and Resonant Field on NNA Tapes, and has since gone on to found her own label, Cibachrome Editions, with 2021’s A Visible Length of Light as the inaugural release followed by 2022’s Murmurations, a duo with Ben Vida.

About Chuck Roth

Chuck Roth’s music wanders. The New York-based guitarist’s inquisitive style builds from rippling patterns that center the physicality of his instrument, roaming wherever they take him. watergh0st songs, his Palilalia debut, collects songs from the past half-decade, presenting an intimate snapshot of his music that draws from an eclectic background in classical guitar, electronic music, and improvisation.

Though Roth’s music often feels quite direct, there is a dreaminess that lives inside of it. His lyrics don’t feel too hot or cold, instead they have a wistfulness and melancholy of what it feels like to live through every passing day. His exploratory style bolsters these lyrics, giving the music its sense of ennui, as does his focus on texture. Each track takes on a different structure: “Bunny Hop” unfolds like a squirrel jumping from branch to branch of a tree, while “Private Boy” has a slower approach, growing from delayed harmonics that almost sound like bowed strings. His textures range from metallic and bristling to soft and feathery, evolving with gentleness. It is about ending up somewhere different than where it started, and watching the notes that fall in between.

About Sarah Grace Graves & Ali Choupani

Representing the GAME ensemble, Sarah Grace Graves and Ali Choupani bring Swallow’s Embrace, two works that approach the intimate, interior space joining voice and instrument. In Swallow’s Dream, Choupani traces the border between wakefulness and sleep, where sound drifts into dream and memory and imagination intertwine. In Embrace, the voice folds in on itself by way of multiphonics to create a tactile field of sound that feels both solitary and shared. Ali Choupani is a flutist, improviser, and sound designer whose work moves between classical performance, experimental practice, and sound research. Sarah Grace Graves is a singer and composer working where recital meets ritual. Her solo album Three Names was released with Elektramusic in 2025. They are both students in the advanced master contemporary music at KASK & Conservatorium.

Himself a migratory bird at heart, Japanese vibraphone and marimba player Masayoshi Fujita has written a soundtrack for the endless journey of his fellow creatures with his latest album, Migratory. He evokes a dreamlike universe in which the listener effortlessly soars above the clouds. Like migratory birds, Fujita never stays in one place for long, his restlessness disguised as a promise. He enriches the sounds of his melodic percussion with electronic effects, something Bertel Schollaert and Hein Devos also know a thing or two about. This symbiotic duo creates an equally intriguing sound world with bass and baritone saxophone and electro-acoustic manipulation techniques. Sound like a blanket that envelops you, with no clear origin and no clear contours or boundaries.

Scottish musician Brìghde Chaimbeul proves that bagpipes are anything but dusty. With her deep roots in traditional folk music, she pushes the boundaries of the Scottish smallpipes by incorporating influences from avant-garde and electronic music. The bagpipes’ typical sustained notes cast a mesmerizing spell over the whole. 

As maximalist as his outfits (and his piano) are, the music of American multidisciplinary artist Charlemagne Palestine is minimalist, and he is anything but easy to pigeonhole. Seppe Gebruers also displays a certain contradiction. His two pianos are not tuned to the same pitch, but are slightly out of tune by a quarter tone. What is wrong, and what is right? How much space is there between the white and black keys of the keyboard? Everything you thought you knew about tuning is called into question.  

Double lineup featuring Bhutanese-American free jazz guru and debut of a brand-new homegrown improv duo.

Clara Levy & Ruben Machtelinckx built up a well-deserved reputation as adventurous improvisers on the jazz circuit. For Ruiskamer they will play a duo set together for the very first time.

Ruben Machtelinckx’ music has evolved from gentle melodies and folk influences to a sound world where friction and a hidden discomfort reside, without letting go of the power of songs and strains. In extension of his musicianship he runs Aspen Edities, an independent record label for contemporary music that issues both improvised music and compositions, often combined in a peculiar interplay.

Clara Lévy is a French violinist and improviser, whose career is mainly focused on what is commonly called « new music ». For the past few years, she has been developing solo projects, questioning in turn the conditions of listening and the dramaturgy of the concert (Outre-Nuit), or the sometimes blurred edges between interpretation and composition (13 Visions).

Tashi Dorji's playing takes an intuitive approach that feels both lyrical and feral, hinting at tangent references that disappear through improvisations on both acoustic and electric guitar.

Dorji's first improvisations on acoustic guitar came to life on a number of tapes that found him exploring its properties and boundaries between melody, texture and the unknown. A mystifying vision that continued throughout a number of solo and collaborative albums with such luminaries as Susie Ibarra, Mette Rasmussen, Michael Zerang or Tyler Damon. 'we will be wherever the fires are lit' marks his return to Drag City with a collection of improvised instrumental "torch songs" for acoustic guitar, that balance the delicate and fierce in its intimate execution, imbued with a pathos of resistance.

With support by Maris Pajuste and Francisco Rojas of GAME, the Ghent Advanced Master Ensemble, consisting of the musicians and composers of the MANAMA Contemporary Music programme.

Maris Pajuste and Francisco Rojas, students of contemporary music at KASK & Conservatorium, explore the boundaries between language, sound and meaning with two works: Imagination by François Sarhan and Only the words themselves mean what they say by Kate Soper. Imagination invites us to a playful yet unsettling reflection on the act of imagining. Soper's composition mixes vocal techniques and spoken word with flute. Listening beyond the familiar is the message.

This RUISKAMER presents the music of Portuguese composer/producer/guitarist Rafael Toral and Swiss percussionist/composer Julian Sartorius; gourmet music for the advanced.

Rafael Toral has been exploring the boundaries of sound and the essence of music since his teens. With roots in rock and ambient, and offshoots in contemporary, electronic and free jazz music, he is a producer, composer and performer who is always looking for new ways to create sound.

Julian Sartorius shapes sounds into new forms. He mainly uses layered rhythmic patterns, the hidden sounds of found objects and prepared instruments. He bridges the gap between organic timbres and the vocabulary of (experimental) electronic music. Sartorius will be flanked by our in-house ensemble GAME, a dynamic group of students with a specialism and affinity for all things contemporary.  What this group of musicians are capable of together? You will find out this night!

Pierre Bastien creates mechanical constructions that produce sound. Instruments that hardly look like instruments, but with the necessary acoustic amplification they can produce amazingly musical sounds. Bastien composes for them and makes music with them. Whether in a duo or as a concerto grosso, his violin and trumpet merge with his self-made orchestra into a unique symbiosis.

Casper Van De Velde — known from Schntzl, Donder, An Pierlé Quartet and more — is without a doubt one of Belgium’s most acclaimed drummers. In addition to his versatility as a performer, he also completed a two-year research project on electro-acoustic music at the AP Hogeschool. Whether in a duo, trio, quartet or solo, a musical adventure is always guaranteed.

Feldman’s Three Voices is typically performed with three singers, but it was originally intended for just one vocalist, accompanied by tape. Maris Pajuste offers you this original experience. Ethereal and questioning, dissonant yet clear; Feldman at his best.

Andrea Belfi

Italian-born Andrea Belfi is a drummer, composer, and experimental musician based in Berlin. Over the years Belfi has built a sound world blending the complex timbres of the acoustic with the endless possibilities of the electronic. Belfi has a strong live reputation internationally and his performances are known to be energetic and hypnotic, featuring long-arching immersive soundscapes. He was invited by Thom Yorke to open for his solo show on an international tour in 2019. His last releases Ore and Strata gained Belfi many new fans including tastemakers Mary Anne Hobbs, Gilles Peterson, and Sasha Frere-Jones among others. Over the last few years, he’s been collaborating and touring with artists such as Nils Frahm, Mouse on Mars, Jóhann Jóhannsson, Mike Watt, Circuit des Yeux, David Grubbs. He has been on stage at Philharmonie de Paris, Montreux Jazz Festival, The Greek Theater (Los Angeles), Unsound Festival (Krakow), Barbican Center (London), Issue Project Room (New York), and CTM Festival (Berlin).

Maris Pajuste

Maris Pajuste (1988) is an Estonian vocalist based in Brussels, Belgium, active as a soloist as well as an ensemble singer mainly focusing on contemporary performance.

Her main interests lie in symbiotic co-creations and developing works through a collaborative performer-composer relationship. The voice is a universal instrument of sound that is inherently relatable. Every sound we make can be interesting or beautiful and thus connect the ordinary with the extraordinary. Through a collaborative process, you can mediate these voices which will always result in something unique.

She is the co-founder of a newly born contemporary music collective TUUM.

Support act: GAME (HuiChi Li, Edoardo G. Parente)

HuiChi Li (born 1998) is a percussionist originally from Taiwan. She obtained her bachelor's degree from Taipei National University of the Arts and continued her master's degree at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She is currently a student of contemporary music at KASK & Conservatorium. Within the field of classical percussion, she has a great passion for exploring unconventional repertoire in contemporary music.

Edoardo G. Parente (born 1998) is an Italian percussionist, performer and composer. He graduated in 2021 in Bari and immediately started playing as a soloist, vibraphonist, percussionist and timpanist in various orchestras. His works and compositions focus on the connection between music and movement mixed with electronics and light installations.

Traditional Lithuanian music has always tended to be somewhat esoteric, and Merope does not break with that tradition, quite the contrary. Led by Lithuanian Indrė Jurgelevičiūtė, the group offers a unique take on traditional Baltic music, enriched by the electric guitar and electronics of Belgian Bert Cools. Impossible to pigeonhole, we try anyway, for your convenience: you can expect a mix of Lithuanian (choral) song, laid down on a bed of what we will call here, for lack of a better description, minimal ambient and jazz. The titles of their last two albums – ‘Naktės’ (nights) and ‘Salos’ (islands) – perhaps best chart their musical leanings.

By contrast, Taiwanese multidisciplinary artist Alex Zhang Hungtai focuses entirely on improvisation and its link to the subconscious. Highly esoteric at times — and hardly a trace of (choral) chants — he delves into electronic music. He explores impro, free jazz and composition, mainly with saxophone and drums. Zhang also composes film soundtracks and acts in independent films. Notable is his appearance in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return with the fictional band Trouble. His latest film score for Godland was in competition at the Cannes Film Festival’s Un Certain Regard.

Sosena Gebre Eyesus

The Ethiopian Sosena Gebre Eyesus is one of the few contemporary practitioners of the beganna, also known as “King David’s Harp. One of the world’s oldest stringed instruments, it was used by aristocrats and priests to accompany Ethiopian Orthodox hymns and drive away evil spirits.

The deep, buzzing tones of the beganna, combined with Sosena’s soft, soothing voice creates a particularly soothing atmosphere. Be calm and be there.

Ameel Brecht

Composer and experimental musician Ameel Brecht you may know from the collective Razen, a project that combines early music, spectral compositions and psychedelic improvisations.

He specializes in esoteric tunings and resonances on instruments such as steel mandolin, guitar and violone. After “Polygraph Heartbeat” (Kraak) “8-Infinities” (Disco Transgénero) and “The Locked Room” (blickwinkel), he is now working on a series of tapes on the theme of sleep on the Belgian blickwinkel label, the third tape of which will be released in September 2024. Brecht has composed music for various dance companies, (short) films and documentaries, including the soundtracks for Bas Devos’ films Ghost Tropic and Here.

GAME: Eleonora Serani

The Gent Advanced Master Ensemble GAME consists of the musicians and composers of the MANAMA Contemporary Music program. They share a desire for dialogue, creation, interdisciplinarity and curiosity about the latest developments in contemporary music. Inspired by the poetry of Rupi Kaur, Eleonora Serani will bring her own composition to life, combining the delicate sounds of the harp, electronic elements, and the power of spoken word. This performance promises to transport the audience to a space where sound, text, and emotion converge in an intimate dialogue.

William Basinski – legendary American musician and composer by trade – has been pushing the creative boundaries of his classical training with experimental media for more than 30 years. He uses obsolete technology and analog tape loops to weave enchanting and melancholic soundscapes.  His favorite subjects: the fleetingness of life, memory and the mystery of time.

His magnum opus – the epic 4-disc masterpiece ‘The Disintegration Loops’ – was showered with praise internationally. Pitchfork ranked it among the top albums of the year in 2004 and praised its 2012 reissue with a rare perfect score of 10. 

Basinski also created a furor with installations and films in collaboration with artist-filmmaker James Elaine, created the music for the opera ‘The Life and Death of Marina Abramovic’ and is currently touring the world with his latest work ‘On Time Out of Time’ under his belt. 

Lukas De Clerck is a musician and sound artist living in Brussels. He is passionate about the Aulos, an ancient Greco-Roman double reed pipe that fell into disuse roughly a millennium ago.

After several years of in-depth research into making Aulos reeds and playing replicas of ancient instruments, he now shares his self-taught work on a stage. Out of a desire to rid the instrument of its enigmatic past, De Clerck created a new, contemporary Aulos: The Telescopic Aulos of Atlas….

The creation of the Telescopic Aulos was made possible through the support of Flanders, State of the Arts and co-producers STUK, Sonic Acts and the Bijloke.