Caroline Profanter
In a deserted room with the signs of time, a sonic prayer continues to resonate. Composer and sound artist Caroline Profanter has been working on a in-situ sound performance adapted to the acoustic of the chapel of Greylight Projects in Brussels. She studied Computer Music and Electronic Media at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and holds a Master's degree in Acousmatic Composition from the Conservatoire Royal de Mons in Belgium. All photo credits: Laurent Orseau
05 April 2019 |
AG 14
Forced Into Femininity
Sitting at the kitchen table, bended over a big bowl of steaming chamomile herbs, my head hidden underneath a large bath towel, my swollen face moist and glowing, covered with hot drops dripping from the top of my sore nose, feeling soppy and snotty and all, thinking of girl power while reaching for the next tissue, I decide that this moment of physical discomfort and emotional melt down might well be the perfect timing to listen to some energetic existential crisis songs from dramatic dadaist contralto and ferocious trans apocalyptic noise performance artist Jill Lloyd Flanagan aka ‘Forced Into Femininity’. As soon as I turn on the ‘Erase Your Grave’ album I get a kick from deep down inside my belly. The disruptive noise from overheated synthesizers, hectic drumbeats and primal vocal eruptions might have awakened the unborn attentive listener inside my (m)otherworldly womb. Causing a heterogeneous yet homogeneous clash, poking the stubborn grid of individualism, questioning cultural role construction in a gender blender diffused society. Making me wonder, while reaching for the next tissue, is it going to be a boy or a girl or...?
28 February 2019 |
AG 14
James Rushford & Joe Talia
James Rushford and Joe Talia are both in their own right and in numerous constellations (Food Court, Ora Clementi a.o.) renowned electroacoustic composers who create subtle and discomforting sound collages that delve deep into the unconsciousness. Rushford deals with the aesthetics of what he calls the Musical Shadow; Talia comes from a free jazz background as drummer, and for his own compositions he rethinks musique concrète, using analogue gear as reel-to-reel tapes and synthesizers to uncovering a new form of decayed virtuosity. Together they add up the sum of crafts into haunting pieces that unveil a search for the obsessed and the uncanny. Highly recomended are the Food Court and the Ora Clementi releases on Penultimate Press, as well their daunting Manhunter release on Graham Lambkin's Kye Records.
19 June 2018 |
AG 12
Osilasi
Brussel-based duo of harpist Léa Roger (Guili Guili Gulag) and drummer/singer Célia Jankowski (Vitas Guerulaitis). One can refer to a fine blend of post-velvet experimentation, spiritual free jazz, French prog folk and Malinese music, but that would equally distract one’s attention from their wild beauty and imagination.
19 February 2018 |
AG 11
11 Questions for Susan Alcorn
Mostly, people associate the pedal steel with cowboy music. Not here at the KRAAK office, especially because we are big admirers of the Baltimore based Susan Alcorn, pedal steelist pur sang. She grew up playing country & western and alike, but became very soonish interested in free jazz, raga, contemporary classical music and deep listening practices. Alcorn is an open minded, true researcher of sound; the lap steel, with its endless possibilities is — despite its connotations — for her foremost a natural tool to pursue a new universe of sound.
15 November 2017 |
AG 10
VA AA LR
VA AA LR is the trio of Vasco Alves, Adam Asnan and Louis Rice. They are the ultimate re-imagineers and rethinkers of your daily sound environment, using non-conformist techniques and arte povera methods in contemporary music.
28 May 2017 |
AG 9.1
Beatriz Ferreyra
In the first place Beatriz Ferreyra is a true hearted and curious researcher in sound. In the 60ties she started working at the GRM, working together with Pierre Schaeffer, Henri Chiarucci and Guy Reibel. By the 70ties she built her own studio, starting with tape machines and ending with the computer. In 2017 her works are lively, spiritual and beautiful pieces that exemplify how composing should be all about imagining new forms of music. Highly recommended: the reissue of old and new work on Editions Mego’s Recollection GRM series.
15 February 2017 |
AG 9