The SUREAU trio is playing free spontaneous improvisations based on mutual listening, musical invention and sound exploration. This collective music is shaped with our own very individual sounds research since years of practice and reflection with the help of our imagination. Extended techniques and tangent interactive thinking.
Percussionnist Kris Vanderstraeten has built his own drum kit himself with selected small drums (chinese or not, homemade or found objects), a snare and his own 15 cm width bass drum. He is also an appreciated poster and cd cover artist ( see Sureau and Mercelis Concert) and performs with Timo Van Luyck /Af Ursin, in solo. Recent duo with percussionnist Eric Thielemans.
Bass player Jean Demey played the first Free Music Wim Festivals in the early seventies (Antwerpen and Ghent) with Peter Kowald's brother in law, the dutch sax legend Kris Wanders (check Globe Unity 1st Lp & Fred Van Hove Requiem on Saba). Now he concentrates on sculpting with the wild string 'n wood natural sound of his double bass. He has performed hundreds of concerts with a.o Arabesque & lutist Hasan Erraji, kora master N'Faly Kouyaté, raï singers Cheb Mimoun and Cheb Khaled. Current group is Shikari on darbukka and clarinet with sitarist Jakke Moens. Performed with Alfred 23 Harth, Kees Hazevoet, Noah Howard, Beaver Harris, A Goudbeeck, Jiji Duerinckx, Tony Bevan and Inaudible.....See users.telenet.be/Jean.Demey.
Singer Jean - Michel Van Schouwburg counts among the few male improv singers of the scene having explored many facets of the human voice : overtones, mouth sounds, throat singing, yodels and a very low larynx singing, invented languages, chant diphonique, countertenor register, falsetto, etc... works in Inaudible collective since the mid-eighties. Duos with guitarists John Russell & Pascal Marzan, percussionnist Javier Carmona and pianist Marjolaine Charbin. Groups with Adelheid Sieuw, Jean Demey, Jan Huib Nas, John Russell, Gianni Mimmo , Angelo Contini etc....
The SUREAU trio is born on 12th august 07 during Scheld'Apen/ Radio Centraal "Bevrijdt de Muziek". Jean Demey was booked as a duo and his colleague didn't show up. So JMVS proposed him to join their duo with Kris Vanderstraeten. The trio concert was successful, so they decided to continue. They went into the Odeon 120 Studio in Brussels the 23th october 2007 and we recorded the Sureau suite in one take and the following tracks during a three hours session (+100 minutes of music). The recording engineer, Michaël W.Huon did a very nice work. Kris Vanderstraeten is responsible of the five SUREAU artworks.We played the noisy Hard Gaan / De Belgïe in Hasselt (with Timo/Af Ursin on prepared dblbass) and the Bar Archiduc, a Brussels tiny club, opening for Schlippenbach/ Parker / Lovens for a crowd of 150.
Both Kris Vanderstraeten and Jean-Michel Van Schouwburg are playing together since 1985 on and off. Their first duo voice / percussion was recorded on a cassette in 1997. J-MVS started vocals around 96-97. Jean Demey & JMVS met musically in the Inaudible workshops. They are featured on the cd Mercelis Concert (Inaudible 006), a joint effort with guitar player John Russell, a stalwart of the free improvisation international scene. Kris did the Mercelis Concert's artwork (see My Pictures). This cd contains Jean Demey 's solo dble bass performance and duos of Russell & JMVS. Russell, Demey and Van Schouwburg are playing in Garden Gift with flutist Adelheid Sieuw. Garden Gift did a much applauded concert during Hurta Cordel 2008 Madrid. J-M performed also with trombone master Paul Hubweber, percussionnist Javier Carmona, and recently Kris and J-M performed with Phil Minton and Ute Wassermann (Sons Libérés 07 Brussels)..... Other musical partners in the Belgian free scene are Jacques Foschia, Guy Strale, Adelheid Sieuw, Jan Huib Nas, Mike Goyvaerts, Jean Coulon, Jiji Duerinckx, Marco Loprieno, Pat Riské, José Bedeur, Peter Jacquemyn, André Goudbeeck, Joachim Devillé, Jacques Fauville, Thomas Olbrechts Nicole Legros, Margarida Guia, Ismaël Colombani, Pat Wichers, Giles Thomas, Marjolaine Charbin, Frans van Isacker, Benjamin Bertrand and many others....
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