Editorial issue n° 11
Dear reader,
Recently I stumbled upon an interesting article, published in the mid-60s. Reading old essays about art is something of a habit of mine. It helps filtering out the noise that is inherent to the excess supply of information in our times. Some of that noise pertains to figuring out what the role should be of the KRAAK festival. If you attended last years’ editions, you know that the festival is associatively conceived as an assertion on the state of music, proposing a wild and highly intuitive cross section of who might be who and what could be what in off-stream music (notice the conditional character of last phrase).
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Apulati Bien
is the moniker of Baptiste Outreglot, which is a youngster who is part of the infamous Outreglot collective. He creates a warped out designer-drugged world with fragments of neo-juke, splatter beats and arrythmic sampling. Apulati Bien pushes the electronic realms of equally RP Boo and Hiele further into an radical terrain that is visceral, brutal and danceable. Post-Millennial madness from the true hearted international basement scene. 7 questions for him, so that you would know more of his thoughts behind the music.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
David Edren
David Edren is the real name of the man behind the long-running and synth project DSR Lines, and his disguise to explore theme-based (non-modular) sound synthesis. Last year he released the piece Electronic Gamelan Music (Social Harmony, 2017) in which he redefines the exotica style using midi-controlled patterns. The soothing and slowly transmutating compositions channel mind burning micro-experiences, and are one of the best current experiments in new age.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Ka Baird
Ka Baird is one of the founding members of the long-running avant-psych project Spires That in the Sunset Rise, a band the late Jack Rose described as “female Sun City Girls”. Currently Spires consists of the duo Ka Baird and Taralie Peterson.
A few years ago Ka relocated to NYC and set off in numerous directions other than Spires. Her current solo work, which she will present at the KRAAK festival, ventures in piano improvisation, extended vocal techniques, physical movement and electronic manipulation of the flute.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Capelo
Capelo is Michel Nyarwaya and Eve Decampo, fellow Jettois and young graduates of the ERG art school. Having first made a splash with their highly crushable debut on the highly crushable Lexi Disques label, they quickly dug a little niche for themselves in the synth pop mini-verse currently taking hold of Brussels.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
SEF III
SEF III are a trio: Max Eilbacher, Alex Moskos and Duncan Moore, of Horselords, AIDS Wolf and Needle Gun reputation. They playfully combine the fine arts of absurdist text-sound composition, electro-acoustic collage and sound synthesis into a field where performance, fluxus inspired poetry and confusing electronic sound experimentation court each other. Highly recommended: their tape on the ever amazing Ehse Records.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
JUNG AN TAGEN
Jung an Tagen is one of the monikers of Stefan Juster. He is a Vienna-based post-millennial, hardcore arpeggiator and loose avant-gardist of all things new techno. With his latest record Das Fest der Reichen (edition Mego, 2016), the man proved that there is a direct link between hardcore gabba music and the sound experiments of the Darmstadt studios. In his universe, abstract electronic music is something you can absolutely dance to, and techno can be a banger in terms of hermetic experiment. Jürgen De Blonde, proto-millenial and endearing, Ghent-based electronic musician asked his fellow vanguard a few questions.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Lemones
is born in the bedlam of the highly dynamic underground of Brussel. A (so-called) crap wave explosion that impersonates the best of no wave and dada performance — although they are too unique to reduce them to one or two art movements. Lemones practice the absurd as a highly form of art, rock ’n’ roll becomes a readymade in which self build instruments, chaotic songs and brutal energy are channeled towards a next level; be not mistaken, there is serious poetry in play!
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Peter Burr
Peter Burr is an artist from Brooklyn specializing in animation and installation. A master of computer animation, with a gift for creating images and environments that hover on the boundary between abstraction and figuration, Burr has in recent years devoted himself to exploring the concept of an endlessly mutating labyrinth. Existing as stand-alone pieces, much of his work is also in the process of expanding into a video game, and both music, in collaboration with Lucky Dragons and Jlin.
For the KRAAK festival 2018 he will present a series of films and a exclusive AV performance in collaboration with the Shelter Press head honcho and visual artist/musician Felicia Atkinson.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Liz Durette
The 2018 edition of the KRAAK Festival reconnects with the vibrant and inspiring Baltimore music scene by inviting Liz Durette, whose improvisations on the Fender Rhodes have rocked their office — and surely plenty of other environments — over the past year.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Peter Zummo
The open vision of trombonist and composer Peter Zummo led him through many fields. There were stints in the rock bands The Necessaries and The Flying Hearts as well as in The Lounge Lizards, collaborations with choreographer Trisha Brown and performances with David Behrman and Elodie Lauten. Though I learned to know about Peter Zummo first most through his work with Arthur Russell; which can be heard on albums such as Calling Out Of Context and Another Thought, but also on Dinosaur L’s classic Kiss Me Again 12”.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Paradon't
Paradon’t is a German duo that hails partly from the Black Forest, partly from Southern Germany. The duo — Don’t DJ (part of The Durian Brothers) and Paraklang, both renowned solo musicians — met each other through love: Volker (Paraklang) was the boyfriend of Florian's (Don’t DJ) sister, so when Florian visited his parents (who lived in the same city), Volker's studio became the natural hangout for the night-time. They developed a new form of techno music, for which they infused graceful formal experiment with trance elements and polyrhythms.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Red Brut
Marijn Verbiesen is one of the forces that keeps the Rotterdam underground together, participating in numerous projects (Sweat Tongue, JSCA) and as organizer of the infamous Herman concert series. But foremost, she is a highly talented musician that makes her debut on KRAAK with a stunning vinyl, containing tape collages that are highly personal. The future of musique concrète is amongst us; it is called Red Brut.
20 February 2018 |
AG 11
Sandra Boss
Electronic composer and sound artist Sandra Boss reveals the sonic details of obsolete instruments and material through abstract compositions, sound installations and performances. Her work is structuralist in its core, researching the key elements of music — pure sounds, noise and crackle. She proposes an alternative for the post-romantic narrative, applying a dehumanized view on music as a pure, autonomous organism that appears in different, ever changing forms — either as exciting boredom, abstract sculptural phenomena or an emotionally and physically engaging body.
19 February 2018 |
AG 11
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
Zarabatana
It’s hard not to mention Zarabatana and free jazz in one sentence. But this Portuguese trio of drums, upright bass and trumpet hi-jack the heritage of Art Ensemble of Chicago from the institution, and bring it back to where it belongs: in a urban complex of fast moving bodies, wild exotic night life and tranquilized woods. Quick, some heavy loaded questions with Bernardo Álvares, the bass player of the trio.
19 February 2018 |
AG 11
Transport
There still are big chunks of unknown territory left to unveil in the KRAUT rock genre. The fine lads of Transport bravely dedicate their lives to the exploration of those undiscovered realms. The collective is a free-wheeling monster dealing in Motorik Beats, psychedelic guitars and afro-beat bass grooves. Who can refuse a superbly crafted cocktail of Neu! and Can, spiced up with some Ralf & Florian and flavours of the best that current mind boggling music has to offer?
Transport was featured in The Avant-Guardian nr. 9.1; for this edition we asked them to shed some light on their inspirations, and to send us a nice list of their favourite records.
19 February 2018 |
AG 11
Still House Plants
Still House Plants consists of three players: Finlay, Jess and David. One day they met at the art school of Glasgow, where they studied at the Fine Arts department. They started playing in flats that where used as galleries and somehow ended up at 20 years Ultra Eczema a couple of months ago. I was confused at first, hearing them. I wondered if they where really good, or really bad. And when that happens you always have to stay and listen. But the show in Antwerp left an instant mark.
19 February 2018 |
AG 11
LEILA BORDREUIL
is a French, New York-based cellist who improvises her way into unknown territory in the so-called dusty genre of improv and new music. She handles the cello as an abstract resonant body to challenge conventional cello practice. She is one of the rare musicians to master sensitive micro-textural composition just as well as vital and wild improvised noise. Collaborations are numerous and all-telling: Nate Wooley, C. Spencer Yeh, Toshimaru Nakamura, Susan Alcorn, Chris Corsano, Bill Nace and many more.
19 February 2018 |
AG 11