LINE UP DÔME
DRIES GEUSENS - FRANKIE TRAANDRUPPEL
SATURDAY 26th (Doors: 12u00)
VITJA PAUWELS - JONAS MEERSMANS
BEAR BONES LAY LOW
Shortly after leaving Venezuela to settle in Belgium, Ernesto González started creating psychedelic electronic sound under the BBLL moniker and has since been performing and releasing music around Europe and abroad. Dissonant abstractions, high-energy rhythmical workouts, bizarre melodic reveries and minimalist/maximalist drone practices all form part of the musical language that BBLL has developed for well over a decade, inviting to both solemn listening and ecstatic dancing, in a mental space where the archaic meets the futuristic, where the earthly meets the cosmic.
His concerts have attracted many music fans from different horizons, allowing performances in varied contexts ranging from strictly experimental music festivals such as Échos in the valleys of Le Saix in France, to open-minded night-clubs such as Salon des Amateurs in Düsseldorf or Contact Club in Tokyo and everything in between. In 2019, BBLL was selected to be part of the EU’s SHAPE platform which gave the project the opportunity to participate in festivals such as UH in Budapest (HU), Insomnia in Tromso (NO) and GAMMA in Saint Petersburg (RU).
As an active musician in Belgium’s experimental underground, González has been part of numerous free music outfits including the late Silvester Anfang/Sylvester Anfang II and is currently active with the electronic duos Tav Exotic and Carcass Identity, amongst several other projects. In recent years, he has made close ties with other European artists has formed groups outside of Belgium such as A.N.I together with Don’t DJ (DE) and High Wolf/BZMC (FR). With releases on different labels such as Kraak, Ekster, Lullabies for Insomniacs, BAKK and the Rush Hour affiliated No Label series to name a few, BBLL’s output has never been bound to a specific label or agency, allowing the project to roam freely around today’s musical landscape.
DR. SPACE
Dr Space aka Scott Heller, is the leader and synth player in the Scandinavian space rock super group, Øresund Space Collective. He started his musical career back in 1999 jamming with Mantric Muse and this lead to him managing and playing in the legendary, Danish stoner-psych-space rock band Gas Giant. Since that time, he has mainly run ØSC but has also been active in many musical collaborations as well as been a full member for Black Moon Circle from Trondheim Norway since 2013. In 2017, Doctors of Space, duo with Martin Weaver (Wicked Lady, Dark fame) was created and continues today. In addition, Dr Space has released records with Carlton Melton, 3rd Ear Experience, Albino Rhino, and JOY and appeared as special guest live with a large number of bands including White Hills, Yuri Gagarin, Agusa, Dragontears, Papir, Madmess, Yawning Man, Bismut, Elder, Earthling Society, Nik Turner¨s Space Ritual, Automaton, Glitter Wizard, Syreregn, First band from Outer Space and more..
He started releasing solo synthesizer music in the form of a series of records called Dr Space´s Alien Planet Trip, which involved putting down synth tracks and inviting various guitar or bass players to play on top. Then Dr Space would mix and finish them off. 6 Volumes have been published on various labels since 2017. Vol 7 is near completion. In 2020, his first solo synthesizer record, Nykawana was released and since then 4 additional solo albums have been released. A new record is finished for 2023 and his first ever appearance at a music festival as a solo artist (Down the Hill, Belgium) will be this summer. Currently Dr Space is based in Portugal and runs his own recording studio on the mountain side in Portugal and continues to perform with ØSC, Black Moon Circle, Doctors of Space and guesting with artists.
VITJA PAUWELS
Keep an eye on young Brussels guitarist Vitja Pauwels. This Bombataz frontman plays with bands such as Naima Joris, Cram Ration, Warm Bad, Lara Rosseel, Woolvs or Mobilhome. But at the same time, he is carving out an impressive solo career for himself. After his first album Day at Half Speed from 2019, On his second solo album Drift By / Sink In (W.E.R.F. records) he uses pedal steel, drum computers and even sings. It will be an exciting concert full of contrast.
DRIES GEUSENS
Dries Geusens makes electronic music with modular synthesizers. His style varies between ambient, lo-fi beats and minimal techno. During his student years in Brussels, he became intrigued by Aphex's IDM Twin, Venetian Snares and Squarepusher, but he just likes to let himself be in his music inspired by the traditional work of Steve Reich, Suzanne Ciani or, among others Terry Riley. He is uninhibitedly guided by his instrument and thoughtful musically concept, in which controlled random elements, dynamic rhythms and evolving harmonic structures are woven together into one organic whole.
FRANKIE TRAANDRUPPEL (Solo)
The alter ego of Lee Swinnen (and also the frontman of Double Veterans and Tubelight) - brings poppy lo-fi music with influences ranging from The Velvet Underground to Captain Beefheart. Catchy songs, seasoned with punk and folk influences.
Koonda Holaa
A one man band -sometimes accompanied by many a California Mojave Desert rat that fattens up his diet of sun half of the year in Toulouse France. His current sound has been branded “mystic -noir americana” or simply psychedelic country / western but it may well be world music from a world that does not yet exists. And actually this is just another phase in his long musical career.
He once traveled the dusty trails with his own (now defunct) band Pseudo Pseudo and paid his dues working with the Residents, Exene Cervenka of the X, Lydia Lunch, Steve Mackay and Mike Watt - the sax and bass man behind IGGY POP & the Stooges, Uz Jsme Doma, Marshall Allen of SUN RA ARKESTRA , Otto Von Schirach, Slymenstra of GWAR and countless other projects that goes back to the mid 80' -
Koonda Holaa sound is like a dark - heavy flow at the end of the month - orchestrated with a looper and crowned with whose comedy redeems the darkness of its own messenger.
Jonas Meersmans
Jonas Meersmans is an Antwerp based guitarplayer who blends acoustic fingerpicking with eclectic loops into instrumental compositions. He released two solo albums for guitar, violin and french horn. These were well received by the Belgian press and played on National radiostation Klara. He made the soundtrack for the awardwinning film ‘Broeders’ by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah and wrote music for several theater plays. In 2020 his music appeared on a compilation album of the American Tompkins Square label. He is currently working on his new album.
VENEDIKTOS TEMPELBOOM
Ghent-based wanderer Benoit Monsieurs has been exploring the many routes paved by the primitive folk guitarists of legend and is now carving out his own path as Venediktos Tempelboom. After last year’s transcendentally pastoral Het Ruist EP on KRUT comes a first outing on KRAAK, Het Vuil Volkske, where his 12-string guitar ruminations find another mystical avenue in tape form.
SLOW BEAR
I am SLOW BEAR. I am a one-man-band who makes alternative music. I like the sound of tape recorders, rivers, typewriters, trains, fire, cheap guitars, night and dawn, footsteps, and my own heartbeat is my favorite drummer. Though I often play on my own, my goal is smilar to that of a band: to bring across the energies that tremble in me, to ride the lightning!
JEF MERTENS
Geel-based Jef Mertens has been researching, documenting and subtly exploring the experimental music scene in Belgium and beyond for the better part of two decades. As a filmmaker, he’s dug deep in the realm of Flemish primitive fringe (Dronevolk) and chronicled the makings of giants like Sonic Youth and Borbetomagus. After running the now-defunct free tape label Dadaist Tapes, Mertens comes with a release of his own: NO MATHEMATICS, the first record collab between KRAAK and Feeding Tube.
FLOATING BODIES
Freek Cruysberghs a.k.a. "Floating Bodies" is exploring ambient sound worlds shaped by BioData from plants & fungi, field recordings, synths and other “instruments”
Inspired by the connections and symbioses in life, this journey will continue without limitations to "genre" or expectations. The moment will just be.
ETHERIK & AMBI-J
Long time synth builder and player Johan Overloop and multi-instrumentalist Erik Heyns have been playing together in Wheel of Smoke since 2016. For Down The Hill they
will be teaming up to bring you a set of wonderous soundscaping ambience as a duo.
Expect krauty-electronics combined with lush ambient guitar carpets taking you on a trip into the cosmos.
