So yes, we survived the onslaught of past weekend, opened up by highly impressive performances by nsi. (note : the set was entirely recorded, except the first 8 minutes - thx Yves! - so let’s hope this ends up on the internet in one form or another…) and the gentile guys from Sheffield, SND. The entire Substance crew was impressed how well the night went, bringing smiles to their faces, even at 6 in the morning, while some of us were crashing, physically. The life of an organiser. There’s nothing romantic about it, so take it or leave it.

As last year, the first musical notes on saturday were brought forward by none-other than our very own resident dj Special K. One might ponder what’s so special about this particular, egnimatic ‘K’ persona. Well, nothing much really… He’s as common, except for his wild hairstyle, as you and me, and he takes his job with ease, and an immense amount of concentration at the same time, whilst not losing touch with his audience for one nano-second. Talented & incredibly gifted, he’s one to look out for in the future!

More near than the far future, K paved the path for Bruno Pronsato, who stood up and delivered what he does best, simple, yet effective dancefloor material with enough diversity to keep the listener/dancing crowd in a state of daze & awe. Job well done, Steven!

As the man who stood up, took the decks, bringing what none of us could ever imagine, even in our wildest imaginations… Those in the know of Marcel Fengler’s Mnml Sggs mix, getting praised reviews all over the net, already had a small peek of what to expect, but Fengler, flying in on time, thanks to swift airlines, and our swift all-round driver Evad, shredded the place to pieces, at one particular moment during the night taking it very literally… No words can express it, to be honest… Quoting Marcel, mailing me the day after : ‘pure dope‘. View for yourself here.

Looking back, two days to cherish. Many thanks, love and gratitude to all artists, volunteers, people who beared with us during months, enduring patience and time… you’re all in our hearts.

What’s in store for the future? You’ll find out, eventually.

Yesterday, and tonight at Resonance 2010, the outstanding vj work by VJ Lennart… Soon recordings online of Resonance 2010 at his youtube channel.

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away… Yes, listening to the Beatles (imagine…) at the Vooruit backstage, setting up stage for day 2, and closing day, of the Resonance Ghent festival, edition 2010. Steven Ford, nom d’artiste Bruno Pronsato has entered the building, and Marcel Fengler has yet to catch a flight, outbound from Stockholm, where he delivered an amazing (so we heard) dj-set yesterday at the Skyddsrummet night. Things look promising! Tickets still available at a Fnac store near you, and many more addresses…

Opening up for them & sharing a common love for Cluster’s Grosses Wasser LP, Tobias Freund & Max Loderbauer (nsi.) delivered an amazing, fully improvised set of tension-full electronics, reminissing the best of German 70’s avant-garde (think minimalist Cluster, Harmonia, Roedelius…) combined with contemporary minimalistic techno. Fully recorded, let’s hope this live-set will see it’s way on the internet in any form…

Followed by SND, who brought the best in abstract cut-ups, largely based on their most recent release ‘Atavism‘ (Raster Noton - 2009), 100 % digital warmth washing over an intrigued audience in waves. It’s funk and 2-step combined, but not as a general audience knows it.

In the meantime, downstairs at the Concerthall, deejays Mate & Fudge of Ghent’s very own After12 collective, took opening hours for an exclusive night of bass-heavy music, that we can hardly call ‘dubstep’ anymore, entitled SUBSTANCE. The dubstep form has incredibly evolved over the course of the last year, constantly shifting, creating new hybrid forms, proven by absolute highlight of the night Slugabed, bringing an inspired Serato set (even with an incredible hangover - get well soon, Craig!), right after Paul Spymania, who luckily took along some ragga 7-inches along with him from home. Good choice, surprising, and most excellent. Designated by BBC Radio 1 bassqueen Mary Anne Hobbs ‘one to keep an eye on’, Untold hit the audience with subtle, compact basslines and clean percussion, his trademark sound, while Paul Rose, a.k.a. Scuba brought the 500+ attendees what they came for, streamlined quality, in the very same line as his just-released Substance mix album, released only a few weeks ago on Ostgut Ton. 4:30 am, and time for 2562. His far-from-typical sound, drenched in atmospherics, with lots of attention for the use of time and space, combined with classic Detroit-ish, influenced techno kept the audience shouting for more… Sadly, 6 am, and time to close the venue down, getting ready for the following day, here and now.

This night’s line-up…

Sat 6.03 ballroom Vooruit
doors 22.00

<house & techno>

22.00 Special K
01.00 Bruno Pronsato LIVE
02.00-05.00 Marcel Fengler

See you there !

Best,

RG Team

Far from a facile, standard dj-tool, one in a couple of hundreds, Berlin-based producer Bruno Pronsato’s second full length album ‘Why Can’t We Be Like Us‘ (Hello Repeat, 2008) grabbed me by the ears, and didn’t let go ever since that dusky drive in the car a while ago…

As Half Hawaii, with studiopartner Pantytec, and as a solo artist Pronsato absolutely defies categorization. Of course, there are certain elements in his work which see resemblance with fellow dance-producers such as Ricardo Villalobos, Luciano or DandyJack, not unexpectedly or surprisingly all having released on the Perlon label, which focuses in general on percussive elements , and non-standard use of samples & used source material quite often…, but with Pronsato it isn’t all about the ‘dance’. Clocking off at a impressive 38 minutes, Pronsato’s latest work “The Make Up, The Break Up“, released on his newborn label TheSongSays is easily to be named exceptional, never sinking in, constantly evolving. Call it progtechno if you like. Here’s what the good folks at ResidentAdvisor have to say about it in a well-deserved 5-star review.

More Pronsato, live at The Bunker, NYC, 24th of June 2009 : listen & download

Walking down the street, whistling, you might find yourself in case of violation… The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP in short, a performance rights body that licenses copyrighted works for non-dramatic public performances) believes it’s not entirely OK for little campers to sing “Happy Birthday” and/or “Row, Row, Row” around the campfire for free… Now add personal use of mobile communication means to that..

Frankly, a clear reminder of certain recent actions of ASCAP’s Belgian counterpart SABAM, who’ve led the media headlines recently with an outlandish claim towards private daycare centres, eventually resulting in more of the same. Rules and regulations, in all of its absurdity.

Luckily, less of the same landing on my lap recently, via a professionally torn-out newspaper article, courtesy of the steady hands of one of my Resonance collegues (thx Jan). Joining cities as Bologna, Sevilla and Glasgow on a select list, Ghent has been recognised by UNESCO as ‘City Of Music‘. Here’s what was officially published on the 11th of June: “The city of Ghent was foremost acknowledged for its reputation as a well-established centre for music with a rich tradition and inclusive approach to culture. The city possesses a complete infrastructure of creative and performing activities, with an impressive number of concert halls, education facilities and research centres. There is a solid support given to a variety of music genres, through a wide range of festivals and organisations. In addition, training and research activities are considered of core importance to the city with diverse education possibilities for local young artists, enabling them to develop their interest and career in the music field…”

Taking in the last sentence, i had to think of a set of tracks that have been sent my way shortly. Simon Halsberghe, going through blog- & Soundcloud-life as Simon Hold (one half of dj duo Pitch & Hold, one of my biggest surprises at last year’s Ten Days Off festival, playing a unmistakable, undeniable brilliant track such as this when least expected…) has been making a widening variety of electronic music in the past few years, ending up recently in 3 compositions that fairly impressed me, and would not feel out of place in a dark, cavernous environment, say 8 A.M. in the morning… Listen for yourself here.

“Keep it going, guys…”

One doesn’t necessarily need any more encouragement, especially coming from this grand man, to snap out of immensly busy workingweeks - yeah, the concept paying my rent, bills and plenty more useful & enjoyable things, luckily - and kick in the door that was unopened for far too long, once more brought to my already-existing attention by the gentle folks of OneDotOnly, at the usual sundaynoon full-halt-coffee-and-bubbles stop, that something, even the slightest thing, had to be done…  To make a long story short : hello! and glad to be back.. No, seriously.

That was the past & present, here’s a narrow view for the future. Next wednesday - that’s in two days time, yes.. - sees the first ‘official’ (*cough*), brand new Resonance 2010 meeting. Can’t say much for now, since, well… there’s not much to say really… Names in our heads, ideas rolling out of our broadshaped minds and noted, talked and discussed about. You’ll hear about it here first.

Set-up last month at the Brussels-based Time To Express studio by couleur-très-locale Peter Van Hoesen & Yves De Mey, TimeCast (notice the gentle voice at start.. Susanne..?) sees a variety of artists and friends related to T2x being invited to contribute a special DJ set, focusing on a particular aspect of electronic music.

Last month Yves De Mey (Eavesdropper / Sendai) took opening honours and brought a wide-range, wonderful selection of 17 tracks “straight from the daily life..”, while in this month of May producer, writer, blogger & what-not Philip Sherburne delivers a 95-minutes long mix “teasing out lines that I heard crisscrossing through different tracks—certain rhythms, tones and moods that seemed to be passed from one record to the next… playing music that wouldn’t normally find a home in a club context…“. Upcoming you’ll find talents such as Sensu, Adriaan Vankeerbergen (Nyckelpiga), Peter Van Hoesen and Franco Cangelli amongst many others doing exactly what they do best : variety & quality leading to a sense of intrigue and general aural pleasure.

Solid.

For now, goodnight. Soon, more.

Winter has (officially) passed, spring has come, and all things come to a good end. Or beginning. Depends what one’s view on things is. First of all, an enormous ‘thank you’ to all people involved in the succesfull ResonanceGhent 2009 festival, including all artists, collegues, supporters & volunteers. You know who you are, our gratitude is eternal..

An overview of imaginary & video-footage ::

SpinEarth.TV  - video report by Justin Toland

ResidentAdvisor - day 1

ResidentAdvisor - day 2 (set 1) / day 2 (set 2)

Flickr.com - courtesy of H-N-S

Youtube.com - “Resonance at Limonada” by Francois Van Liefferinghe

Youtube.com - Mokira live (in 5 parts)

Youtube.com - Deepchord presents Echospace live

NightCode.be - Review by Dave Volkaerts

If there’s any visual material you’re willing to send us, please don’t refrain and contact us via info(at)resonanceghent.be

So, what’s next. Not much to tell at the moment, besides some ideas we’re developing as i type. Our goal is to offer some minor-scale - whether in coöp with other like-minded promotors/organisations or not - events during the year until the clock strikes twelve again, and a larger, multiple-day festival is presented once again over the course of the new year.

Also note the two-weekly residency at Bar Limonada where dj’s such as Special K (we hope to upload his intriguing opening dj-set of Day 2 sometime soon with his permission)  & 0106 play out the best in contemporary electronic music..

More news soon.

Looking back at 2008 we notice that this was a year of constant development in random arts, resulting in a creativity, exciting as innovative, which we’ll - hopefully, and rather undoubtly - see further evolving past the borderline of 2008 to 2009. On a personal level, ResonanceGhent saw it’s birth, for many people a welcome new gush of fresh air in the Belgian music-scene; meeting lots and lots of people local and abroad that will stick close to my heart and mind for a long long time, in their amicability and pleasure to work, talk and hang out with; welcoming joyful, new life to this world, and so much more…

Let’s make 2009 another year to remember. To everyone close to our hearts : a very happy new year (ten days late, i know, but i’ve never been the most punctual in the family) to all of you.

Only 47 days until ‘action!‘, an urgency to update this blog rather soon was bugging me the last couple of weeks, but not before one last lazy, sunny sunday in the company of friends, coffee, and Joaquin Phoenix, self-proclaimed, self-conscious star on the fall in James Gray’s tender ‘Two Lovers‘.. now in a theatre near you!

Late February, early March sees the second edition of the ResonanceGhent Festival 2009. Here’s what to expect..

Friday 27th of February ::: Ballroom Artscentre Vooruit

Machinefabriek live
(Lampse / Dekorder)
Yves De Mey / Eavesdropper live :: album presentation ‘Lichtung‘
(Line)
Alva Noto live :: ‘UNITXT‘ audio-visual performance
(Raster Noton)

+ Live Coding workshop at Espace Ladda, curated by Bram De Jong

Saturday 28th of February ::: Ballroom Artscentre Vooruit - in coöperation with Meakusma

Move D & Benjamin Brunn live
(Smallville / Bine Music)
Claro Intelecto & Andy Stott live
(Modern Love)
Peter Van Hoesen live
(Time To Express)
+ Live Coding workshop at Espace Ladda, curated by Bram De Jong

Sunday 1st of March ::: Bar Limonada, Ghent

Mokira / Andreas Tilliander live :: album presentation ‘Persona‘
(Type / Repeatle)
Deepchord presents Echospace live :: first-ever Belgian concert of the rightful heirs of the Basic Channel legacy
(EchospaceDetroit / Modern Love)

That’s it for now. More news and all info very soon!

Literarelly snowed under, avoiding random snowball assaults (thanks fans…), one is confined to the place where i lay my snow-soaked umbrella, grab a cup of coffee, lit a cigarette and delve into the sofa listening to some albums, randomly selected, that struck a major chord lately…

Ezekiel Honig - Surfaces Of A Broken Marching Band (Anticipate Recordings)

info / mp3

Fennesz - Black Sea  (Touch Records)

info / mp3

Koen Holtkamp - Field Rituals (Type Records)

info / mp3

Kate Bush - Hounds Of Love (EMI Music)

info / mp3

Tin Man - Wasteland (Global A Records)

info / mp3

… in the fields of the good Lord himself ? It’s one of many ways to look at the term ‘creationism’, but let’s not talk anything near religion here. There’s a time and place for everything, even on Last.fm…

Saturday the 22nd of November sees a dream come true for the ever-increasing, unignorable many young dj’s & electronic music producers, who’ve been replacing their guitar- & drumkit by Technics SL1200’s and/or Native Instruments software, in the form of a large-scale event entitled : PLAY & PRODUCE.  Taking place at every conceivable, existing space in Artscentre Vooruit, there’s just too much (in the most positive sense) going on, and you’d wish the technology would exist to split yourself in half, being able to catch up with as much as possible.

Workshops, feedback sessions, lectures, panel discussions, master classes, the works. And we’ve had a hand in all of this too - cue : shameless self-promotion. Resonance Ghent was asked to host a few showcases by daring & innovative musicians who keep looking towards the horizon, and beyond, regarding composing and performing electronic music.

First off we have the duo of Kristof Lauwers & Laura Maes, bringing a premiere of a composition for electronics, instruments & objects. Lauwers & Maes got wide acclaim in 2004 for their audiovisual performance ‘Kitch ‘N Glitch‘, where recorded sounds from the surroundings of  Maes’ kitchen were re-defined and transposed into a electro-acoustic composition. As Frans De Waard (of Staalplaat/Kapotte Muziek fame) commented on the Kitch ‘N Glitch album, released on Maes’ sadly-defunct Cling Film Records : “One of the most interesting phenomena for me is the way Maes and Lauwers move with their sound from sheer electronic to acoustic and back again. From raw material to its manipulation or vice versa…”

Followed by Brussels-based soundcrafter Eavesdropper, who teams up with Simon Lenski (of Die Anarchistische Abend Unterhaltung fame). Yves De Mey & Simon Lenski first teamed up during a Meg Stuart performance for Time Festival 2007 in Ghent, and have since never lost track of each other. Using cello, guitar & electronics they create an immense, ever-evolving wall of sound, sometimes frightening, sometimes blissful. Not to be missed.

Talented Swedish producer Andreas Tilliander (a man of many aliases such as Komp, Rechord, Mokira to name a few…) honours us once again with his presence in Ghent. Having released groundbreaking albums on labels as diverse as Mille Plateaux, Type Records, Ideal Recordings, Raster Noton & CubicFabric, he’s a man who works on the boundaries of electronic music, and seemingly creates new, exciting genres by a snap of the fingers, leaving fellow producers miles and miles behind. There’s a word for that : visionary.

As stated above, there’s more than this on this particular day. Please do browse the Play & Produce site for plenty more goodness such as a Native Instruments workshop by Brian Smith (who’s being assisted by Tilliander himself), a analogue vs. digital discussion, …

Eavesdropper & Simon Lenski - Live footage (Ancienne Belgique - Brussels)

Andreas Tilliander - Studio footage (Repeatle Homestudio - Stockholm Sweden)

“Wow, so this is the future…” Calvin & Hobbes ponder when they end up in an arbouretum in their self-built cardboard-box time-machine in Bill Watterson’s classic and highly humorous comic… Unlike in the comic book universe, it seems harder and harder to pinpoint where electronic music, in all of it’s diversity, is heading to…

For instance, in the highly popular genre that is dubstep nowadays, which was stated to be the latest trend and in a matter of time would lose all of it’s character, something peculiar happened along the way. After it broke free from it’s roots in London, it has taken on the world and thrusted a whole new range of young, new producers into the spotlight like Martyn, 2562, Pinch, Peverelist, Appleblim, Shackleton and many more. These producers shift, morph and adapt to their environment, combining it with other genres such as techno, dub & reggea.

In a recent interview 29-year old, Bristol-based producer Robert Ellis, aka Pinch, who deservingly got global acclaim for his ‘Underwater Dancehall‘ album (released last year on his label Tectonic Recordings), states that the Basic Channel catalogue played a huge influence on him. Instead of imitating the cavernous trademark Basic Channel sound, he rather saw it as an inspiration, and created his own musical identity. Another fine example of adaptation is Appleblim’s recent effort for Tempa’s Dubstep Allstars mix-series. On volume 6 he offers the listener a more rigorous and experimental approach on dubstep, drawing a wide range of producers offering versions of the genre that are more palatable to outside influences. Again, the early Berlin sound, including Basic Channel, has a major influence.

Due to adopting genres such as techno, and blending in inspiration & influences, prospects are hugely exciting. One of the recent highlights in this new take on the dubstep genre is Shackleton’s signature-percussive remix for Ricardo Villalobos’ Minimoonstar (released on Perlon’s ‘Vasco EP’),  retaining his own style, yet moving deeper into Berlin techno territory, his current city of residence. Another worthy mention goes out to Berlin resident Shed, who by releasing his first full-album ‘Shedding The Past‘ has delivered one of thé highlight cross-genre albums of 2008. Released on Ostgut Ton, label of the already-legendary Berlin club Berghain (you have to experience it to believe it…), it has an elegant style of it’s own, presenting the listener with something (post)modern & physical, not leaving clear oldschool rave influences aside - which is then again typical for the Ostgut Ton label, and the Berghain club in general. Also check out these soon-to be released remixes for Scuba (aka Paul Rose, owner of Hotflush Recordings, and as many others these days Berlin resident) by the likes of Marcel Dettmann, Substance, Surgeon, Martyn & Vex’d. As Ricardo Villalobos stated himself in a recent feature in the WIRE magazine : “the crossover makes sense : at its most intricate, dubstep plays with many of the same elements as (minimal) techno… texture, polyrhythm, a profound respect for the full spectrum afforded by sound recording at its most refined…“

Friday 7th of November : 2562 - Cactus Club Brugge - with Benga & others (info)

Thursday 20th of November : Pinch - Balzaal Vooruit Gent - with Mala (Digital Mystikz) & others (info)

Saturday 13th of December : Shed - Recyclart Brussels - with T++, Aardvarck, Will O’Brien & others (info)

What else to do on a cold sundaynight at start of fall, besides dealing with a splitting headache and thus cancelling eager plans getting served one of the most delicious Flemish dishes known to humankind, being meatballs in tomato sauce ‘a la Phil’, than browsing the net.

And then i stumbled across this : The Streaming Festival. An audio-visual festival like any other you might think… but not this one. The idea implies you don’t even need to leave your house, but rather stay in your living-room or where-ever your computer may reside. Taking place on the internet, films are broadcasted full-screen on streaming servers in high-quality resolution. Selected in several film programs, anyone with an internet connection can plug in into any festival stream from any location, at any given time and can switch back and forth easily watching carefully selected contemporary art & film.

The 3rd edition of The Streaming Festival starts October the 23rd.

All info : The Streaming Festival

Life’s full of surprises … including the guy doing the infamous Jump dance at 3am on a cleared dancefloor at my dad’s wedding, but let’s go not further into that at this moment. Let’s talk about techno, contemporary techno to be exact.

Here’s one of the nicest flyers (in design as line-up itself) i’ve seen in a long long while..

Nyckelpiga.o1

If you’ve ever witnessed Ben Klock spinning at the already-legendary Berghain club (Friedrichshain area, Berlin) at 9am in the morning, you know what to expect : some of the best contemporary music for head and feet, stacked and layered, transcedenting anything uninspired, monotomous and just plain bleak..

Add the dub-infused techno by Brussels-based Peter Van Hoesen, Meakusma resident Mck & Adriaan Vankeerbergen (who we’ve never ever heard of before to be honest… but he likes Ben Klock, so we like him) to that, and this could and probably will be the start of of something beautiful..

Already keep an eye out for Nyckelpiga, part 2, with guests ‘N.N. & S.K.‘. For you to find out…

Nyckelpiga (BLOG)

Peter Van Hoesen

Mck

Adriaan Van Keerbergen

Ever so amazed by a certain artist, you see his name suddenly popping up, you stop doing whatever you’re doing at that moment..? Well, in our case, Mexican composer Fernando Corona aka Murcof just perfectly fits that particular description.

Murcof, a one-time member of the Tijuana-based collective Nortec, specializes in sparse, highly structured, sample-based electronic music with a tight liaison towards contemporary classical music. In 2002 he struck the musicworld with awe when he released his debut album ‘Martes‘ (The Leaf Label) on which he seemingly in an effortless manner and with an incredible elegance combined sampled works by the likes of Giya Kancheli, Wolfgang Rhim & Schönberg with detailed, minimalist electronics. On his later albums including ‘Remembranza‘ (2005) and especially ‘Cosmos‘ (2007) one notices a strange sense of return to calm when Corona gradually choses to leave the rhythmic element of his music aside and starts focussing on a ‘general’ sound that’s richly textured, detailed and that defines Murcof as one of the greatest sound artist of this time..

This week sees the news of two new upcoming Murcof projects. ‘The Versaille Sessions’ was a commission done for the 2007 edition of the annual Les Grandes Eaux Nocturnes festival that took place at the Versailles Castle. The work on this new album is entirely derived from a recording session with musicians specialized in baroque music and instruments. Following this ‘Océano’ will be released as Corona’s ‘official 5th studio album’.

Murcof - The Death Of A Forest (Divshare)

Murcof - Rostro (MP3)

Murcof - Rostro (Youtube)

Murcof Myspace