AB & BEURSSCHOUWBURG present Æthenor @ BEURSSCHOUWBURG

The cultural houses AB and Beursschouwburg get together with a strong handshake. The motto: achievement of a good musical neighbourship. Co-production of the Æthenor concert is the first feat of what, in the coming season, will eventually result in a multiple-dayer between the two houses. The Æthenor concert is a logical choice. Both houses exhibit a great deal of respect for the work of Stephen O' Malley. So it happened that O'Malley has appeared many times in the AB with bands like Sunn O))) and also KTL (with Peter Reberg) and O' Malley's graphic work was previously exhibited in the AB. The Beursschouwburg's link with this musical einzelgänger from Seattle was established by a fascination for the idiosyncratic and unusual theatre work of Parisian Gisèle Vienne, for whom O’Malley has regularly composed unique soundscapes.

Sunn O))) - frontman Stephen O'Malley, Vincent de Roguin (Shora) and Daniel O'Sullivan (Guapo) are the original post-modern incarnation of Æthenor. Together they exhale shadowy abstract music that strongly leans toward a sort of cosmic alchemy of sounds. In the concerts, they take the listener along on a mysteriously dark trip, one moment it's as calm as a flat sea at dusk, the next it's almost deafening, as if a volcano has suddenly erupted. The unearthly mood of their musical improvisations has something 'unheimlich', strikes, startles, disconcerts and is sometimes scary. Æthenor is a band with a strong identity that knows how to channel the bombastic explorations of its members into a brilliant auditive sensation of drones, subtle percussion and a furious sea of dark sounds.

Tickets: 10/12 euro. Obtainable via: www.beursschouwburg.be or per telephone via 02/550.03.50

Aethenor excerpt from Live at Roadburn