Events

Birgit Ulher woont als freelance muzikant, geluidskunstenaar en componist in Hamburg. Na haar studie beeldende kunst ontwikkelde ze haar eigen speeltechnieken en voorbereidingen met trompet, radio, luidsprekers en voorwerpen. Haar werk omvat akoestische en elektro-akoestische projecten, solo-optredens, concert- en geluidsinstallaties, video's, conceptstukken en concerten op het gebied van geïmproviseerde/experimentele muziek. Ze heeft talloze beurzen ontvangen en reist internationaal met haar concertactiviteiten.

Jaap Blonk is vocalist, componist, dichter en beeldend kunstenaar. Hij studeerde wiskunde en musicologie. Begin jaren ’80 ontdekte hij de kracht en flexibiliteit van zijn stem en begon hij aan een langdurig onderzoek naar de fonetiek en de mogelijkheden van de menselijke stem. Hij heeft zich ontwikkeld tot een specialist in het creëren en uitvoeren van klankpoëzie en is een unieke vocale improvisator, ondersteund door een krachtige en ongeremde podium. In de loop der jaren heeft hij met live-elektronica een vergelijkbare flexibiliteit ontwikkeld als met zijn stem.

Intussen verschenen op 30 cd's met zijn eigen label Kontrans en ook een dozijn boeken met zijn beeldende werk zijn in verschillende landen gepubliceerd.

Joëlle Léandre, born in Aix-en-Provence in 1951, is a French contrabassist, composer and improviser.
In 1976, she was awarded the « Creative Associate of Arts », a one year grant to work in Buffalo, New York, with Morton Feldman. Joëlle Léandre is a laureat of the Villa Médicis “Hors les Murs” program which provided an opportunity to live and work in New York for a year (1981). She was also a recipient of the DAAD Scholarship (Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst - 1990) an artist-in-residence program and the Villa Kujoyama Scholarship (Kyoto, Japan 1998). In 2002, 2004 and 2006, Joëlle Léandre was a visiting professor of composition and improvisation and the Darius Milhaud Chair at Mills College in Oakland, California. Léandre’s work spans the globe. Her creative and performance activities, both solo and ensemble, have led her to the most prestigious European, American and Asian scenes. She has worked with Merce Cuningham, Morton Feldman, John Cage, and Giacinto Scelsi, Philippe Fenelon, Philippe Hersant, Steve Lacy, José Luis Campana, Betsy Jolas and Aldo Clementi. At ease with contemporary music ensembles, she has performed with L’Itineraire, L’Ensemble Intercontemporain and 2E2M in Paris. She has also collaborated with the greatest names in jazz and improvisation such as Derek Bailey, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis, Evan Parker, Irene Schweizer, William Parker, Barre Phillips, Pascal Contet, Hamid Drake, Steve Lacy, Lauren Newton, Peter Kowald, Urs Leimgruber, Mat Maneri, Roy Campbell, Fred Frith, John Zorn, Mark Naussef, Marilyn Crispell, India Cooke. About forty composers have composed for the bass, and several scores have been dedicated to her. In contemporary dance, she has been approached by choreographers and dancers such as Yano, Dominique Boivin, Mathilde Monnier, Elsa Wolliaston and Josef Nadj.
Joëlle Léandre has recorded more than 180 albums.
Her book, A Voix basse, is a collection of interviews with Franck Médioni (MF, 2008). This book was translated into English at Kadima (Israel). She was named “Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite“  and most recently “Chevalier de l’ordre des Art et des Lettres” (France). In June 2023, Joëlle Léandre has been honoured in New York City with one of the highest award for arts : the Lifetime Achievement Award.

This is not a Holiday European tour

Follow up: A second conversation between 2 giants. 2 oude vrienden zoeken mekaar na jaren terug op ten huize Parazzar, en vuurwerk zal het zijn. Een intieme set van grote virtuositeit. Joe McPhee wordt dezelfde dag 85! Vier je mee?

After a tour in the United States in April of 2022, festival appearances in Belgrade and Stockholm later that year, and performances in Belgium during the autumn of 2023, Paul Lytton (drums), Ken Vandermark (reeds), and Nate Wooley (trumpet), three key figures of the international experimental and improvised music scenes, will come together for a unique series of concerts in England, France, Belgium, and the Netherlands during September of 2024.  Vandermark and Wooley have been working as a duo for almost a decade, touring in both the States and in Europe, and have released three critically acclaimed albums together.  Both have performed and recorded with Lytton many times, and the three of them issued an album of trio material as part of the double CD, The Nows, in 2012.  The trio’s upcoming tour in Europe will be an extremely rare chance to hear Paul Lytton perform.  His history connected to improvised music is legendary, and this collaboration with Vandermark and Wooley, two of the most significant cutting-edge musicians of their generations, will exceptional.

Paul Lytton, a central figure in the British free improvisation movement of the 1960s and 70s which included Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, and Paul Rutherford, was instrumental in reshaping the way drums and percussion were viewed in free music. He is one of a handful of percussionists from that time whose work allowed the drum kit to become even more free from the timekeeping constraints of jazz up to that point; the instrument becoming less a set of drums and more a series of membranes on which to create an atmosphere. His earliest experiments in homemade instruments and electronics with Evan Parker have spurred generations on to look outside systems with names such as "jazz" and "improv" and to explore new modes of communication in the moment.

Ken Vandermark is an avant-garde composer, improviser, saxophonist/clarinetist, curator, writer; and was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in music 1999.  He moved to Chicago from Boston in 1989 and has worked continuously from the early 1990s onward, both as a performer and organizer in North America, Europe, Latin America, Japan, and Ethiopia, recording in a large array of contexts, with many internationally renowned musicians. 

Nate Wooley’s solo playing has often been cited as being a part of an international revolution in improvised trumpet and has gathered international acclaim.  Time Out New York has called him “an iconoclastic trumpeter”, and Dave Douglas has said, “Nate Wooley is one of the most interesting and unusual trumpet players living today, and that is without hyperbole”.  His collaborative work as a composer has been celebrated by critics and has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Welcome back Ken en Nate!

Legendarisch concert met 118 aanwezigen!