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one day fest
Bjorn Comhaire
one day fest
We always love to give, as we have done several times over the years, a carte blanche to guitarist Rodrigo Fuentealba Palavicino, leader of the iconic band Fifty Foot Combo. For this edition of redlightblue, with that El Negocito / South American touch, we suggested Rodrigo to invite Gwen Cresens, Belgian bandoneonist and accordion player. Cresens is active on all genres from classical music to jazz, world music, musette and tango, and will prove to be a great sparring partner for a wonderous musical dialogue.
Rodrigo Fuentealba Palavicino, child of left-wing militants who fled the regime of dictator Pinochet in Chile in 1975, was raised in peaceful Sint-Niklaas from the age of two. He felt a great attraction to music in his teens, first discovering the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix, but eventually drawn into the entire musical galaxy, from Bach over Slayer and Ray Barretto to John Coltrane and Django Reinhardt. As an eighteen-year-old, into music as he was, he moves to Ghent and studies at the Jazz Studio in Antwerp. Side jobing as a student in the Vooruit during those days, he soaks up countless concerts of jazz and improvised music, as well as dance and theater performances.
After musical endeavors with Gabriel Rios and Novastar, bands such as Arsenal and Motek followed, but he still wanted more, as a professional musician and was looking for something unique. A concert by New Yorker Jonathan Kane, with drums, bass and five guitars, made such an impakt that he decided to form Manngold, a band with two drummers, two guitars and a bass. The line was in his head: dynamics, volume, improvisations, things that don't fit in rock. His love for improvisation and hunger for adventure in music has only increased by the years.
After musical endeavors with Gabriel Rios and Novastar, bands such as Arsenal and Motek followed, but he still wanted more, as a professional musician and was looking for something unique. A concert by New Yorker Jonathan Kane, with drums, bass and five guitars, made such an impakt that he decided to form Manngold, a band with two drummers, two guitars and a bass. The line was in his head: dynamics, volume, improvisations, things that don't fit in rock. His love for improvisation and hunger for adventure in music has only increased by the years.
Accordion is an instrument with great recognisability, multiple faces and many secrets. It is a German idea, based on a 3000 year old Chinese sound concept, elaborated by an Austrian, concretized in Paris, industrialized in Italy and later commercialized in America. Accordion soon spread and settled in 1001 cultures, in classical music, jazz, Argentinian tango, Brazilian Choro, exciting Balkan music and even well-known songs in pop music.
Gwen Cresens likes to break through genre boundaries, with a healthy sense of contradiction and humor. He regularly indulges into the rich Brazilian repertoire or reinterprates gems from French film music, but he will always have that soft spot for Astor Piazzolla, grand master of the tango...
Gwen Cresens likes to break through genre boundaries, with a healthy sense of contradiction and humor. He regularly indulges into the rich Brazilian repertoire or reinterprates gems from French film music, but he will always have that soft spot for Astor Piazzolla, grand master of the tango...
one day fest
Ziga Koritnik
one day fest
Dan Mohr
In April of 2022, Paul Lytton (drums), Ken Vandermark (reeds), and Nate Wooley (trumpet), three key figures of the international experimental music scene, came together for a unique series of concerts in the United States. Vandermark and Wooley have been working as a duo for the last seven years, touring in both the States and in Europe, and have released three critically acclaimed albums together. Both have performed and recorded with Lytton many times, and the three of them issued an album of trio material as part of the double CD, The Nows, in 2012. Paul Lytton’s history connected to improvised music is legendary, and this collaboration with Vandermark and Wooley, two of the most significant cutting-edge musicians of their generations, is sure to be exceptional and one of a kind.
Nate Wooley’s solo playing has often been cited as being a part of an international revolution in improvised trumpet, and has gathered international acclaim. Time Out New York has called him “an iconoclastic trumpeter”, and Dave Douglas has said, “Nate Wooley is one of the most interesting and unusual trumpet players living today, and that is without hyperbole”. His collaborative work as a composer has been celebrated by critics and has received grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts and the Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation.
Paul Lytton, a central figure in the British free improvisation movement of the 1960s and 70s which included Derek Bailey, Evan Parker, and Paul Rutherford, was instrumental in reshaping the way drums and percussion were viewed in free music. He is one of a handful of percussionists from that time whose work allowed the drum kit to become even more free from the timekeeping constraints of jazz up to that point; the instrument becoming less a set of drums and more a series of membranes on which to create an atmosphere. His earliest experiments in homemade instruments and electronics with Evan Parker have spurred generations on to look outside systems with names such as "jazz" and "improv" and to explore new modes of communication in the moment.
Ken Vandermark has been a fixture on the Chicago music scene since the 1990s, and has earned wide critical praise for his playing and his multilayered compositions, which typically balance intricate orchestration with passionate improvisation. He has led or been a member of many groups, has collaborated with a large number of acclaimed musicians from around the world, was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship in 1999, works as a co-curator of the Option Series at Experimental Sound Studio in Chicago, and directs the musician cooperative, Catalytic Sound. He plays tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet, and baritone saxophone.
one day fest
Redlightblue fest has another whopper in store for you. This second international trio of the day consists of more key improve members: John Butcher (GB), Florian Stoffner (CH) and Chris Corsano (USA). Their project began in 2022 for a residency and is now touring Europe.This second international trio at redlightblue fest is another whopper consisting of John Butcher (GB), Florian Stoffner (CH) and Chris Corsano (USA). This project began in 2022 for a residency and is touring Europe.
With open ears, responsive spontaneity and a sensitive instinct, the three accomplices create an art between chamber music and sound painting that breathes between concentration and fraying.
With open ears, responsive spontaneity and a sensitive instinct, the three accomplices create an art between chamber music and sound painting that breathes between concentration and fraying.
John Butcher is well known as a saxophonist who attempts to engage with the uniqueness of time and place. His music ranges through improvisation, his own compositions, multitracked pieces and explorations with feedback and unusual acoustics. Since the early 80s he has collaborated with hundreds of musicians – including Derek Bailey, Rhodri Davies, Andy Moor (EX), Phil Minton, Christian Marclay, Eddie Prevost, John Stevens’ SME, Gino Robair, Polwechsel, Mark Sanders, John Tilbury, and Okkyung Lee.
“English saxophonist John Butcher may be among the world’s most influential musicians, operating at the cutting-edge of improvisatory practice since the ‘80s. Whenever an acoustic musician starts to sound like a bank of oscillators, a tropical forest, a brook or an insect factory, Butcher’s influence is likely nearby.” – New York City Jazz Record.
“English saxophonist John Butcher may be among the world’s most influential musicians, operating at the cutting-edge of improvisatory practice since the ‘80s. Whenever an acoustic musician starts to sound like a bank of oscillators, a tropical forest, a brook or an insect factory, Butcher’s influence is likely nearby.” – New York City Jazz Record.
Chris Corsano is an upstate NY-based drummer active at the intersections of collective improvisation, free jazz, avant-rock, and noise music since the late 1990's. His long-standing, high-energy partnership with saxophonist Paul Flaherty began in those years, and combined modern free-jazz's ecstatic collectivist spirit with the urgency and intensity of hardcore punk, keeping room for (semi-)tongue-in-cheek humor ()"The Hated Music").
A move to the UK in 2005 led Corsano to develop his solo music, a dynamic, spontaneously-composed amalgam of extended techniques for drum set and non-percussive instruments of his own making: e.g. bowed violin strings stretched across drum heads, modified reed instruments, and stockpiles of resonant metal. He spent 2007 and '08 as the drummer on Björk's Volta world tour, all the while weaving in shows and recordings on his days off with the likes of Evan Parker, Virginia Genta, C. Spencer Yeh, and Jandek.
Moving back to the U.S. in 2009, Corsano returned focus to his own projects, including a duo with Michael Flower, Vampire Belt (with Bill Nace), Rangda (with Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny) and furthered his solo work using contact microphones and synthesizers. In 2017, he received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artist Award.
Corsano's dedication to collective improvisation has led to collaborations with many kindred spirits and his appearance on over 150 records and 1000 live performances. He's worked with, among others: Paul Dunmall, Joe McPhee, Okkyung Lee, Mette Rasmussen, John Edwards, Sylvie Courvoisier, Nate Wooley, Jim O'Rourke & Akira Sakata, Merzbow, Nels Cline, Heather Leigh, Ghédalia Tazartès, Ken Vandermark... just to name a few.
"...seriously one of the most exciting drummers on the planet." -Adam Richards, indieworkshop.com
A move to the UK in 2005 led Corsano to develop his solo music, a dynamic, spontaneously-composed amalgam of extended techniques for drum set and non-percussive instruments of his own making: e.g. bowed violin strings stretched across drum heads, modified reed instruments, and stockpiles of resonant metal. He spent 2007 and '08 as the drummer on Björk's Volta world tour, all the while weaving in shows and recordings on his days off with the likes of Evan Parker, Virginia Genta, C. Spencer Yeh, and Jandek.
Moving back to the U.S. in 2009, Corsano returned focus to his own projects, including a duo with Michael Flower, Vampire Belt (with Bill Nace), Rangda (with Richard Bishop and Ben Chasny) and furthered his solo work using contact microphones and synthesizers. In 2017, he received the Foundation for Contemporary Arts Grants to Artist Award.
Corsano's dedication to collective improvisation has led to collaborations with many kindred spirits and his appearance on over 150 records and 1000 live performances. He's worked with, among others: Paul Dunmall, Joe McPhee, Okkyung Lee, Mette Rasmussen, John Edwards, Sylvie Courvoisier, Nate Wooley, Jim O'Rourke & Akira Sakata, Merzbow, Nels Cline, Heather Leigh, Ghédalia Tazartès, Ken Vandermark... just to name a few.
"...seriously one of the most exciting drummers on the planet." -Adam Richards, indieworkshop.com
Florian Stoffner's life and work situates in Zürich, Switzerland, but his performances are all around Europa, solo or with different groups like Anna & Stoffner, Mein Freund der Baum, Elgar, Zimmerlin/Stoffner/Meier Trio. Florian was one of the last musicians that had the luck having a working relationship with iconic percussionist/drummer Paul Lovens (in fact at the same time as Seppe Gebruers and Hugo Antunes did).
He has collaborated and played with Christian Weber, Marius Peyer, Ellery Eskelin, Hilaria Kramer, Dewey Redman, Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, Samuel Rohrer, Bruno Amstad, Luca Ramella, Martin Schütz, Paul Lovens, Christoph Erb, Nils Petter-Molvaer, Johannes Enders, Arthur Blythe, Flo Götte, Joy Frempong, Rudi Mahall, Evan Parker, Kidd Jordan, Donald Miller and so many more.
He has collaborated and played with Christian Weber, Marius Peyer, Ellery Eskelin, Hilaria Kramer, Dewey Redman, Michael Brecker, Joe Lovano, Samuel Rohrer, Bruno Amstad, Luca Ramella, Martin Schütz, Paul Lovens, Christoph Erb, Nils Petter-Molvaer, Johannes Enders, Arthur Blythe, Flo Götte, Joy Frempong, Rudi Mahall, Evan Parker, Kidd Jordan, Donald Miller and so many more.