Vitja Pauwels – Natural Information Society

The Brussels-based guitar virtuoso Vitja Pauwels has grown into an established name on the Belgian music scene in recent years. You may have heard him with artists including Naima Joris, An Pierlé, the Lara Rosseel Quintet and The Bony King of Nowhere. He’s a successful frontman too, recording a widely acclaimed live album with his own formation Early Life Forms and none other than Mark Ribot. Pauwels is also hard at work on a solo career. With Bill Frisell, Ry Cooder and Ribot as his sources of inspiration, he has released two solo albums, featuring a whole array of guitars in the company of effects, electronics and voice. Pauwels’ solos effortlessly open up a highly original and varied world of sound.  

Ecstatic minimalism. That’s what the Natural Information Society provides. The band, based around the composer and multi-instrumentalist Joshua Abrams, captivates audiences with elusive rhythms, rich textures and unusual sound colours. On the harmonium, bass clarinet and drums, with Abrams on the gimbri – a three-stringed lute from Gnawa music – the Natural Information Society weaves influences from jazz, minimalism and traditional music into an unprecedented whole. The abstract paintings of the harmonium player, Lisa Alvarado, create a visual pendant during concerts to the quartet’s meditative, sometimes psychedelic music. But the music never stands still, as The New York Times notes: “it’s patient, layered music that’s always heading somewhere, sometimes spare and sometimes complex and shimmering.”