Covid-19 blew huge holes in the fall calendars of pretty much every cultural venue, including AB. Because the need for creation and the refinement of those creations remains great amongst artists, AB will be offering extra workspace this fall. So, AB will be taking a number of Artists In Residence under its wing!
Echo Collective – a classically schooled ensemble that originated within AB – kicks it all off. Their debut – a commissioned work whereby AB requested that Radiohead’s ‘Amnesiac’ (from ‘01) be made to sound like a classical masterpiece – was performed in 2018. During their AIR, they are industriously working on the world première of ‘The See Within’, their first album of own compositions, for which they are working with visual artist Florian Guibert.
Brussels duo Maze & Lindholm is also working hard behind closed doors, on the presentation of their album ‘A River Flowing Home to the Sea’. With their ethereal ambient soundscapes, they immerse the listener in a ‘meditative silence’. The duo will reside in AB for a week in October and are working on a unique audio-visual concert with images from video-artist Tatsuya Fujimoto. With their respective projects – Orphan Swords and Otto Lindholm – they’ve already played in AB on a handful of occasions since ’16.
The follow-on project with the finalists of the music competition Sound Track will also be included in our year-end calendar. Namely, Coline & Toitoine will be our guests for short periods in AB, to work on their stage presence. We read somewhere: ‘Dit duo heeft de potentie om Angèle naar de kroon te steken.’
French-Greek singer-songwriter/composer/visual artist Scarlett O’ Hanna will have the opportunity to record her entire new album during her residency. It will see the light of day in the spring of 2021. Wilco’s Nels Cline wrote of her: ‘I continue to be struck by her originality as a singer-songwriter, as well by her obvious dedication to her music, to touring, recording, and creating beautiful videos of some of her songs.’
With the Brussels/Rotterdam duo Hi Hawaii, we dive into an ambitious project that goes by the name Hi Hawaii & The Extensions. AB supports the making-of this project productionally by adding 3 extra wind instruments (including Niels Van Heertum) and 3 extra strings (including Echo Collective’s Margaret Hermant). The album presentation will follow in 2021.
Basically: Musical love is in the A.I.R.!
