[sold out] Bram De Looze

Welcome to the 19th edition of Klarafestival! The theme Crossroads - Come Together keenly evokes the convergence of the audience, the artists and their inspiring concerts. A meeting place where the leading lights of international classical music enter into dialogue with challenging creations and young talent. 

The inspiration for this edition comes from festival artist Claron McFadden. As she told us in an interview, “I stand at a crossroads where styles and generations cross, meet, and collide”. This notion forms the core of the programme. We hope you will enjoy Klarafestival as a sanctuary of hope, polyphony and beauty in all its forms. As a place where the familiar takes on new meaning and where new experiences take you by surprise. 

Jan Raes, chairman

Joost Fonteyne, intendant

Chantal Pattyn, manager Klara

This album is built around an eternal challenge and personal aim while creating music: daring to keep the music open enough in the moment itself and stay close and connect to the higher potential it can offer.

The title Spotting Gateways refers to the creation process in the months prior to the recording dates. I spent many days finding musical material, without writing anything down, only listening to what the sound suggested. By recording myself during these sessions, I collected various kinds of musical ‘seeds’. These moments of discovery are incredibly valuable to me. They often appear unexpectedly, like surprises of my subconscious. It has something magical and addictive. 

All these recordings, at home or elsewhere, were the beginning of creating this album. I deliberately wrote down as little as I could, so as not to lose the specific vibe I found due to changes in tempo, dynamics or energy. I was being very sensitive to the specificity of the music. As many musicians know, reading a score while playing makes you play very differently, becoming less sensitive and less aware of the impact that certain ingredients in the music have. 

In general, I don’t change the initial idea a lot; nor do I elaborate upon it through composition. Instead, I use it as a starting point for improvisation. The basic idea functions as a gateway to a specific musical territory that I explore for a while. The form it takes is often spontaneous, and determined by the direction of the recording. This is only possible when the initial idea is strong and clear enough. To me, this felt like the right approach, this search of a special musical space that is only accessible through a specific path. 

Bram De Looze 

Bram De Looze

Bram De Looze is a Belgian jazz pianist who made an international name for himself with both solo work and collaborations with renowned musicians. He played in the jazz ensembles LABtrio (with Anneleen Boehme and Lander Gyselinck), MiXMONK (with Joey Baron and Robin Verheyen) and Vice Versa (with Eric McPherson and Felix Henkelhausen) and in various improvisation ensembles led by Dré A. Hočevar. In his solo albums, De Looze combines musical depth with freedom and experiment, for example by placing historical instruments in a contemporary perspective, using alternative tuning systems or improvising on the basis of limited musical cells.