Live Sessions 0-20 / Live Sessions 20-40 / Live Sessions 40-60
Icarus Live Sessions #21: Ninjato
(17/02/2013)
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Ninjato Joren Hemeryck, (°1983) was mainly interested in IDM, jungle and breakcore. He had several projects ( Gesmoyer, Störungstelle) before he came under the influence of Aphex Twin, Amon Tobin, Venetian Snares. He started with a new alter ego, Ninjato and got interested by bands as Flying Lotus, Eskmo and hip hop music. Joren started to mix all his influences in a eclectic style-without losing his feeling for harmonic melodies. In 2012 he released a first EP, Chronicles of The Six Samurai and in 2013 he played in AB with UZ.
Icarus Live Sessions #22: Dirk Serries: Microphonics
(24/03/2013)
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Since his first releases in the early 80s, uncompromising Belgian artist Dirk Serries has garnered respect from and invitations to collaborate with recognised musicians like Steven Wilson, Steve Von Till, Justin Broadrick, Cult Of Luna and Alan Sparhawk of Low. Over the past thirty years, he has toured extensively through Europe and the USA and performed at some of experimental music's major venues and concert spaces.
After bringing his projects vidnaObmana (1984-2005) and Fear Falls Burning (2005-2012) to a satisfying conclusion, Serries no longer considers it necessary to hide behind alter egos.
Confident enough to operate under his own name, he is continuing his ongoing search for uncharted territory while keeping in mind the essence which made him want to work with sound in the first place. Fascinated by the power of purity, he has built a reputation for building a personal galaxy of harmony and dissonance through dense caleidoscopes of slowly unfolding motives. His upcoming second microphonics-album is a further refinement of this approach. Eschewing stereotypical genre exercises, Serries refuses to be labeled as a guitarist, weilding his instrument in a way which never denies its original tonal colours while bringing out the unique intimacy of his music.
Icarus Live Sessions #23: Dans Dans (12/05/2013)
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Dans Dans brings together the talents of three musicians of the highest order: Bert Dockx on guitar (also lead singer and driving force behind Flying Horseman) Fred Lyenn on bass (better known as Lyenn, songsmith and guitarist) And Steven Cassiers on drums (also with Dez Mona, and others).
From garage jazz, psychedelic blues and ecstatic noir soundtracks to spacey rock-'n-roll: the labels that get thrown at Dans Dans give a pretty good indication of the extent of their eclectic style. Both their first album and their live shows are not only inspired by the likes of Sun Ra, Nick Drake, Sonny Rollins and Ennio Morricone, but involve taking these masters on fearless improvisational adventures.
Even the most stubborn of jazz purists wouldn't dare accuse them of pointless jams. While they take on indelible, timeless themes, Dans Dans never fails to rise to the challenge of making them their own, with rolling drums, driving bass and elastic guitar lines. But it's above all live, dancing on the razor's edge, that the band reveals its true nature; a restless gang of music junkies constantly on the hunt for musical innovation.
Icarus Live Sessions #24: Urpf Lanze (12/05/2013)
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The person behind Urpf Lanze is Belgian visual artist Wouter Vanhaelemeesch (B), who is mainly known for his large-scale ink drawings that offer a hermetic blend of weirdo characters, medieval iconography and surrealist decors. His artwork started gaining attention a few years ago when renowned avant-garde lutenist Jozef Van Wissem (NL) started using Vanhaelemeesch's work to decorate several sleeves of his recorded output, including his collaborations with filmmaker Jim Jarmusch (US), noise legends Smegma (US), free folkband United Bible Studies (IE) and fingerpicker James Blackshaw (UK).
Urpf Lanze is the moniker of his rather unorthodox solo guitar project, under which he has been playing for several years now. With an acoustic guitar that lays flat on his lap, tuned to unwieldy scales, he brutalises the instrument in an oddly musical way. As if this wasn't enough he lays down some vocal work that goes from ventriloquist-like whines and mumbles to deep and guttural grunts. The result is a rather unhinged and demented music.
Icarus Live Sessions #25: Red Stars Over Tokyo (10/11/2013)
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Since 2008, Red Stars Over Tokyo has been releasing records on his own Hot Hair imprint. With a past playing in Punk bands, his sound nowadays has a deliberate lo-fi approach. His tracks have a free-flowing feel, sounding improvised without shunning precision and emotional poise.
End of March 2013 will see the release of a 12inch featuring one original Red Stars Over Tokyo track and a remix by the acclaimed Magazine collective from Cologne. End of April, a second 12inch will follow featuring remixes only, done by Machinefabriek and Vindicatrix. Later this year we will also release a Red Stars Over Tokyo full album.
No arty theories, just a fast ride through any decent record collection crossing Kosmic pulses, electronica, wave, ambient,…
After spending the early 90ties on a 100% diet of Hardcore and touring Europe playing bass w/ Nations On Fire or roading he burned out in 1995. He moved from Kortrijk to Leuven, tried some other band, failed and didn't do any music for over 10 years, just went 100% into record collecting (electronica, postpunk, noise, blackmetal,…). In 2007 some friend talked persuaded him so he bought some cheap gear and started recording in the evening when his kids were asleep. Whenever there's enought music and cash he puts it out on vinyl (the only real music format).
Icarus Live Sessions #26: Tirzah Quartet (22/12/2013)
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Tirzah-Quartet is a new dynamic ensemble from Belgium that celebrates John Zorn's beautiful soundtrack-music, arranged for a chamber ensemble of Violin, Harp, Cello and Guitar/Bass and played by classicaly-trained musicians : Eva, Herlinde, Karen and Jan.
Encouraged by the composer, Tirzah developed a heart-warming concert-program that combines Zorn's music with narration and the screening of a short animation-movie. This makes our concerts a memorable experience !
When Zorn received the 'Magister' title of Ghent University in 2011, Tirzah was invited to play at the Ceremony.
Tirzah played to great acclaim at Gent-Jazz : Zorn at 60 !
Recently, the group has been working on some brand-new original compositions to be premiered in 2014.
Icarus Live Sessions #27: Floris Vanhoof (19/01/2014)
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Filmmaker and musician Floris Vanhoof (Belgium, 1982) approaches the celluloid of his films and the electronic components of his instruments closely. Electronic circuits are vivified inspired by the liveliness of what happened around structural film and West Coast Free- and Tape music. With an arrangement of electronic gear and film- or slide projectors he searches for the essence and potential of multi media performance. Every concert becomes a hybrid form of projected images, an electronic patchwork and field recorded sounds.
Icarus Live Sessions #28: Slumberland (16/02/2014)
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SLUMBERLAND aka Jochem Baelus is a Belgian musician (Echo Beatty) and filmmaker who has experience working with bands, films and theatre productions. From early on in his musical career he wanted to leave behind the classic arsenal of instruments when making his music and
went on a quest for a sound that had its own identity. These extraordinary abstract sounds are harboured by familiar, everyday objects, which become the foundation for his music. He reassigns these objects' functions and turns sewing machines, hairdryers, fans...to
mechanical drum machines, strings and more undefined do-it-yourself sound installations. His music results into drone - based, deconstructed songs driven by industrial, tribal-ish beats.
Icarus Live Session #29: Oubys: 18/05/14
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Oubys (Wannes Kolf) is the brain network alternator from Belgium, producing sounds that physically affect your synapses. His music, merging synth sequences with rhythmical patterns, explores the melody of the subconsciousness.
Subsequently shifting from atmosphere, contrast and sources, the signals produce a stream of events from a parallel world that invites as much as it challenges.
Sense of time and timing continuously bulge, expanding the listeners horizon, driven by an unknown dark energetic halo.
What energy that it might be, Oubys's progressive pulsations and ultra sub bass manifestations create the utmost frequency level of your resonating body.
He will present his new album in our 29th live session, followed by a guest mix by Michael of Testtoon Records.
Icarus Live Session #30: Linus: 08/06/14
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Linus, a duo of two composers and improvisers, brings the listener into a bubble. The intense sound of tenor saxophone and acoustic baritone guitar produces melodies that take you on a journey of simplicity, purity and longing.
In this project, Ruben performs together with Thomas Jillings. Thomas Jillings is a young reed player and improviser. He is the leader of An Expedition into the Mind of Sgt. Fuzzy, a band that combines influences from jazz, rock, ambient, electronic and noise music and which features some of Antwerp's and Holland's most promising musicians (Bert Dockx, Gerri Jäger, Nathan Wouters, Ruben Machtelinckx)
Eyvind Kang said the following about Linus: "Could a sound turn inward and face itself? When I really listen to this music, I feel like I'm staring into the sky. How do they do it? The boundless aspect implies a dreaming state, yet at the peripheries of the reflective finger picking which blossoms in the most beautiful modulations, and the speculative breath which converges and diverges with the tempo, constantly tightening and loosening its grip, there is a longing again, like the feeling that you may lose touch with something or someone you love and you must see them one more time."
Icarus Live Session #31: Synth Jacob: 14/09/14
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Synth Jacob is the solo project of a young local chameleon, Jacob Vermeulen, a very promising pianist/singer with a strong live reputation who worked already with several guest performers. Expect everything between silent experimental mood music till funky uptempo rhythms.
Icarus Live Session #32: Chantal Acda: 26/10/14
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Chantal Acda (b. 1978) has worked under the Sleepingdog moniker since 2006, making three affectionately received albums; 'Naked In A Clean Bed' (2006), Polar Life (2008) and, most recently, ‘With Our Heads in the Clouds and Our Hearts in the Fields’ (2010), in which she worked closely with Adam Wiltzie (Stars of the Lid, A Winged Victory For The Sullen). At the same time, she was a constant on-stage presence with Isbells and is one-half of True Bypass, her duo with Craig Ward.
On her latest record, Acda worked with Peter Broderick, cellist Gyda Valtysdottir (múm). Shahzad Ismaily stumbled into this picture by chance, but when Chantal and he found themselves in the same room they formed an instant rapport.
Nils Frahm, who played all over the record, also took on the role of producer.
In this live session she played with Gaetan Vandewoude (Isbells), Christophe Vandewoude (Marble Sounds), Jo Jacobs (De Held)
Icarus Live Session #33:Orphan Swords: 16/11/14
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Hailing from Brussels, Orphan Swords is the project of experimental sound artist and owner of the Idiosyncratics label Räumm and producer Maze. Their critically acclaimed debut-EP Dantalion is a crescendo of noise and technobeats.
Icarus Live Session #34: Mathieu Serruys: 21/12/14
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On Germaine Dulac is the debut LP by Belgian musician Mathieu Serruys. B.A.A.D.M. commissioned Serruys to revisit Germaine Dulac, female pioneer of the early experimental film. Loosely inspired by moods, scenes and sceneries of La Coquille et le Clergyman (1928), Serruys creates a sound spectrum that reflects the bewildered states of mind that mark her avant-garde masterpiece. Atmospheres range from fierce monumentality to delicate emotions, evoked by eroded textures and brittle two-tone melodies. Maltreatments of broken tape recorders, instable sound constructions and instant technical seizures mirror the shaken universe of distorted cinema. On Germaine Dulac is the result of a surprising confrontation between disciplines and collocutors separated in time and space.
Icarus Live Session #35: Hellvete: 25-01-2015
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Hellvete is the solo moniker of Glen Steenkiste. Previously active in Silvester Anfang, and in the band’s second incarnation Sylvester Anfang II, and also one of the founders of the Funeral Folk label.
Hellvete draws influences from early Minimalism and old folk music and with the use of harmonium, bowed banjo, electric tampura and analog synth he creates probing intense sounds that try to undo notions of time and place.
Steenkiste’s music is like taking an endless shower of sunbeams, warm, comforting and mind-altering. Music that makes time stand still and focuses on shifting details and textures, but massive in sound and presence.
Icarus Live Session #36: Monnik 29-03-2015
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Monnik (Monk) is a very apt moniker for this Belgian based experimental one-man band. Monnik wants to explore the boundaries of spiritual isolation, making his musical drones almost ascetic meditations. Layer upon layer of sounds and textures try to evoke an almost shamanistic - if not religious - atmosphere, in order to captivate the audience in an introspective hold.
Icarus Live Session #37: Illuminine
26-04-2015
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In the silence of the night, Kevin Imbrechts awoke as Illuminine. In his bedroom, accompanied by a guitar and a handful of style effects pedals. For years, the Leuven
native had secretly been tinkering with soundscapes and more elaborate guitar tracks, but now, ‘Illuminine’, his ‘#1’ debut is ready to face daylight for the first time.Illuminine breathes Iceland, and the self-titled album could be related to Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds or A Winged Victory For The Sullen. But Imbrechts was not necessarily influenced by them. “Through the years, I’ve mainly been influenced by Buckhethead. ’Electric Tears’ was my very first experience with slow, instrumental guitar music.” We had them live as a quartet in our live studio.
Christophe Vandewoude (Piano)
Beatrijs De Klerck (Violin)
Mathijs Bertel (samples / Violin)
Kevin Imbrechs (Guitar)
Icarus Live Session #38: Sofar
21-06-2015
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Our 38th live session welcomes Sofar, a Ghent based band, formerly known as Little Elmo. They will release their new album in Autumn on our own Icarus Records (in colab with Vynilla Vinyl). Quote Gianni Marzo (Isbells en Marble sound, Astronaute etc): 'Sofar combines the soft, dark moment of daydreaming with introverted, recalcitrant guitars. You hear the low key threat of The National with a romantic touch of Belle & Sebastian'
Icarus Live Session #39: Nicolas Kunysz
20-09-2015
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Co founder of Lady Boy Records and founder of Lowercase Nights, member of Pyrodulia, Nicolas Kunysz is a Belgian artist based in Reykjavik, Iceland since 2009.
His music could be defined as warm ambient drone.
He combines lo and hi fi techniques to create his soundscapes, accidental recordings and glitches participate to the multi layering process of making his tracks.
Nostalgia plays a big part in his compositions, textures generated by both instruments and field recordings build up a sensitive sound architecture that keeps on building up and collapsing.
Icarus Live Session #40: Bruno Bavota
15-11-2015
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Our 40th Live Session is by Bruno Bavota a Neapolitan pianist and composer. His intimate and warm piano recordings expresses a lyrical romanticism, a familiar sound caressing and surrounding the audience. Bavota cherishes the harmonies he creates and his gentle touch forms a peculiar sound recognizable at the very first notes.
His attraction to music came “only” at the age of twenty. Music decided to save his life, covering him with an enormous, warm hug from which the echoes of the deepest emotions of his soul are constantly exposed. Few years later he discovered the piano, whose strings naturally replaced those of his heart, spreading his love song across the world.