Abrupt Festival
True to tradition, and in partnership with Arty Farty Brussels, we welcome the most exciting names in electronic and alternative music during Abrupt Festival. When Kali Malone released the organ album The Sacrificial Code in 2019, no one could have predicted that it would grow into an internationally acclaimed plea for slowness, focus and introspection. We have chosen the Cathedral of St. Michael and St. Gudula as a space to contemplate her contemporary ‘early music’. Francisco López is also looking back across several centuries, drawing inspiration from the dark art of Francisco de Goya. Also joining the party are Niels Orens, HIIIT x Maloca, dBridge, Pino Palladino & Blake Mills and Madison Willing.
Bozar Bassment
Electronic music overloaded with grime, infused with techno or smeared with noise? In the perfect venue, below street level? The new series Bozar Bassment introduces a double bill every month, with live A/V in our underground Terarken Hall. On the bill is Victor De Roo, supporting the multimedia Amnesia Scanner. The IVM trio shares an interest in free improvisation, sparse ambient fantasies and brutalist club mutations. The American Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith is more at home in her own kooky world full of synthesizers. Or if you like your music a little more raw: Axontorr present their ‘research project’, including 3D-printed instruments, and the improv duo Yellow Swans rise up out of Portland’s experimental underground.
Ambient
Whether you prefer to close your eyes and slip into a dream world or concentrate deeply on the music, ambient is for everyone looking for a unique listening experience. 8 November promises to be another concert evening to cherish, because the world-famous producer Nicolas Jaar will be presenting Intiha, which he created with the Pakistani singer Ali Sethi. Poems from centuries gone by add depth to Jaar’s storytelling electronics. Ambient meets global. A transmusical embrace. The same could be said of the Spanish multi-instrumentalist Suso Sáiz, who has invited the Brussels-based Echo Collective to put together a solid soundscape.
Le Motel back from Vietnam
As if all this weren’t enough, Le Motel will be presenting its project Odd Numbers live for the first time on 1 November, with Vietnamese percussionists and vocalists. The Brussels DJ and producer went travelling in Vietnam in 2023, making field recordings as he went. Back in Brussels, he added Korean poetry to what would ultimately become a collective album. One you want to listen to collectively as well.
