Thomas Smetryns his compositions are the result of a search towards a personal, experimental music practice which is always rooted in a historical and social (un)consciousness. Many of his pieces are based on other musicians work (Claudio Monteverdi in the “Terza Prattica†project, Mississippi John Hurt in the piano piece “Hurtâ€, The ottoman musician Ali Ufki in his newest ensemble piece “Extremely slowed down 17th century Turkish Melody with Variationsâ€) Also in his activities as a DJ (only 78 rpms) he tries to deal with the musical past in a contemporary context.
Being an active musician, he mostly joins the ensemble playing his music. By getting to know the other musicians he tries to create a kind of music which suits them well. Thomas Smetryns not only tries to bear the musicians their technical abilities in mind but he also sees an ensemble as a mini society where everybody has his function and where everybody can be dependant, independent or somewhere in between. Alternative ways of notating (relative notation, graphic notations…) often occur to realize his intentions.
Many of these interests he shares with the American composers Jonathon Kirk and Brent Wetters, in 2001 they were studying with Godfried Willem Raes in Ghent, with whom he founded "Ensemble Medusa". “Ensemble Medusa†is a collective of musicians/ composers which combines playing their own music with improvising. Although they live far away from each other they still occasionally play concerts.
His compositions are written and played by, among others, Spectra Ensemble, M&M Ensemble, pianist Daan VandeWalle, trumpet player Jason Painter Price, Dutch percussion player Wim Konink, pianist Heleen Van Haegenborgh and percussion trio Triatu
In 2006 The KlaraFestival of Flanders asked him to create the “Swingjugend Project†and in 2007 Hermes Ensemble asked him to be the "young composer in residence". During this residency, he worked together with Kaffe Matthews and video artist Kurt Ralske .
