SMACK

BL!NDMAN [drums] is putting together a contemporary programme especially for the three-day festival SMACK in Kruibeke:

Silence Must Be by Thierry De Mey is a work for solo conductor.

Ward De Ketelaere composes a new piece for drums, ‘objets trouvés’ and nailviolinplates. Nailviolinplates are new instruments created by Gideon Van Canneyt, also one of the quartet’s percussionists. This piece, a contemporary version of the Renaissance motet in which strange sounds echo with rhythmic interruptions will have its world premiere here.

You will hear 2 movements from das Wohltemperierte Klavier by Johann Sebastian Bach: Prelude & Fuga IV.

Painting With Breath by David Downes (New Zealand) is a visual spectacle in which the musicians use “6 long bamboo stakes, 3 bullroarer and a bell”.

In Slow Birthday, Louis Andriessen aims to slow down this wild world with a canon in unison.

With 16 lights, the percussionists play a rhythmic game in Nocturne by Màtyàs Wettl.

Wim Henderickx pays attention to theatrical and spatial aspects in Dance of the Gods. Expect grooves and experimental moments of sound here.

The programme concludes with After Bach: Flux by Brad Mehldau: a composition in which this world-famous jazz pianist’s take on Bach.