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Impériale Ritournelle
Listen to the extended version of "Impériale Ritournelle" and the other tracks on the album "New Impressions" on Spotify, Amazon Music, Apple Music, Tidal, Deezer and many more …
New Impressions
By turns playful and intimate, evocative and tormented, but constantly surprising, this heteroclite album brings together older pieces which have been revisited, and new inspirations.
Listen to the single "Bansuri" and the 14 other pieces of the album on your favorite streaming platform listed on the CONTACT ME page or by clicking on the INFO button below.
For the 20th anniversary of the show The Théâtre des Riches-Claires will celebrate by inviting this much-beloved play back on its stage.
Lighting design and music compositions for the show Notre-Dame de Paris, created by Eric De Staercke and directed by Jacques Viala, performed at the Abbey of Villers-la-Ville throughout July 2020
Release of Serge Bodart's album for the label amsarecordings in December 2019
Stage direction of the Pour Kwapa company's "Ben Quoi?," written by and starring Isabelle Baivier and Séverine Bernard, in December 2019
Stagecraft
I work on the visual image to emphasize its content or, conversely, to develop a second degree of reading. A work has harmony if the balance between subject, emotion, visual image and music is respected. I work with bands to help them arrange and interpret their songs and to stage their concerts. A concert must be a show; a performance. I also work with dance-theatre companies; always with the aim of enhancing emotions created by music through the balanced use of visual images, lighting and the stage presence of artists.
Influences
is based on classical and traditional music. Other influences were grafted on this foundation: Peter Gabriel (Passion), Prince, Miles Davis (Elevator to the Gallows), Afrocelts, Michaël Brook et Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Björk, Massive Attack, Kusturica et Bregovic, Fellini and Nino Rota, the movies of Werner Herzog and Popol Vuh, Eisenstein and Prokofiev, Pierre et le Loup, West Side Story, Theodorakis and more.
Musical universe
I attach great importance to the relationship between sound, silence and tension. I use the warmth of folk music and the rhythmic roughness of Western music, incorporating sound effects, working on the idea of soundscapes and keeping in mind the concept of a white frame to express a black background.
Having completed my classical training in piano and harmony, I started to compose stage music for the Brussels Circus School in 1988. At the same time, I followed an in-depth training in stage techniques, provided by Marco Gudansky for sound and Michel De Bock for lighting, and assisted them during the concerts of several great musicians, such as Adamo, Zap Mama, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Beverly Jo Scott…
In 1994, I joined Eric De Staercke and Sandrine Hooge at the Théâtre Loyal du Trac (the name is a pun on that of a leading Belgian theatre, the Théâtre Royal du Parc). Together, we staged many plays such as Thérèse et Simon, Noces de Vent, Les Chiwawas, Le Terrier, and La Faute à Qui?
In 2000 I found myself in the speaking role of The Pianist in "Est-ce qu’on ne pourrait pas s’aimer un peu?" (Could we not love each other a bit?), a comedy of dark humour directed by Jaco Van Dormael, which has been on tour for the past 20 years. This was followed by "Pour en finir une bonne fois pour toutes avec la Condition Humaine" (To finish once and for all with the human condition), where again I acted the part of The Pianist.
Bolstered by these experiences, I accepted to switch to the other side of the stage and work as a director. I directed "Café Frappé" (a dance-theatre performance by the Tap Show Company), "OIL emotional rock" (a French-speaking Belgian rock group), "Jules de Sart sort du silence" (Jules de Sart comes out of his silence); a literary jazz performance, produced by Travers Emotions) and "Ben Quoi?" (theater show for children) produced by the company Pour Kwapa, starring Séverine Bernard and Isabelle Baivier)...
Throughout these years, I both assumed the art management of the Théâtre Loyal du Trac, and composed soundtracks, performed music, created light and sound design, co-wrote and directed for numerous companies: L’Ecole Supérieure des Arts du Cirque, Goma Dos asbl (Emmanuel Fardeau), Théâtre du Copeau (Maurice Van Den Broeck), Théâtre du Papyrus (Bernard Chemin), Tap Show Company (Joëlle Ribant), Compagnie Catastrophe (Catherine Magis), Compagnie Avant-Scène (Hamid Targui), Centre Culturel des Riches-Claires (Jacques Viala), Lazzy Production (Christian Dalimier), Travers Emotions (Jules Imberechts), Alter Ego asbl (Christian Labeau), Compagnie Ah Mon Amour (Geneviève Voisin), Théâtre Loyal du Trac (Eric De Staercke), Tour des Mots (Ria Carbonez), Compagnie Pour Kwapa (Isabelle Baivier) ...
Created in 2019, Amsa Recordings is a label which aims to bring together different genres and disciplines in the world of music, theatre, circus and dance. Amsa Recordings edits, produces and diffuses shows, music and soundscapes.
"Cross-pollination of genres, cultures, eras and perspective is where the most exciting music usually happens" (about Rick Rubin)
"They clearly didn't fit but they were so good that they transcended not fitting" (Rick Rubin about a heavy metal Armenian folk band)
"In music it's important to stretch and Prince can certainly stretch!" (Miles Davis - Autobiography)
"Don't ask me if I am a politically engaged musician ... writing music is already being politically engaged" (Brian Eno, interview for Sound on Sound magazine)
