KOMA Elektronik is a brand new company started by Wouter Jaspers and Christian Zollner, producing analog audio effect pedals. During this year’s Incubate festival, they will be presenting their products for the first time to the public!

They will bring two new pedals with them; the BD101, a Gate / Delay and the FT201, a State Variable Filter / 10 step sequencer as well as a modular synth and other instruments.

Everyone can try their products from 13:00 ’till 16:00 at V39 this Saturday. To give you a taste of what to expect, they have made this cool trailer:

The last couple of years I, Wouter Jaspers, have been travelling a lot to bring my music to the people. By doing that I ended up seeing a lot of shows by other people and bands. Some of them leave no impression at all, while others blew me away. The next couple of weeks I will highlight some of my personal favorites of three years on the road; new gems for you to discover!

Today: Projexorism

Projexorcism

Somewhere deep in North Carolina you’ll find the small city called Hickory. Home to around 40.000 people, a NASCAR racing track, a couple of bars and thats about it. Hickory has been named the 10th best place to live and raise a family in the United States and when you are there you know why: it’s quiet and nothing really happens. But the strange thing about Hickory is; always when i’m there it turns out to be one of the places with the sickest shows of the tour and the town where i see the most interesting shows of other performers. I played there twice in a livingroom called the Killing Floor and both times local heroes Projexorism were playing as well. And they rocked.

Projexorism is a collective around Ed It. He owns a shitload of Bell & Howell 16mm projectors and during shows he runs them all at the same time, telling a story by mixing the 16mm films live on screen by moving the projectors, turning them on and off and using the audio of the films. He also films the outcome on the screen, puts it through a blender of effects and blasts it back in your face. All of this is accompanied by a live soundtrack of synths and effectequipment, creating an psychedelic experience which is unique and special to be a part of as a member of the audience: a true analog multimedia experience. It’s a simple idea, but it works really well, mostly because the guys know what they are doing: it’s their passion and a way to make fun shit happen in a place where nothing happens: literally straight from the underground. For all the US visitors of this blog: soon in your city, check it out! I am a fan, hopefully soon in Europe!

Nitsch is not a butcher, he’s an artist.

Pics are borrowed from Whatspace.

Hermann Nitsch, a man who inspires many artists in my genre of arts, the world of experimental music, is visiting Tilburg and you can’t miss it: the coverage in the media is bigger than ever, but where is it about? Pigs? Meat? Animal rights? Come on! I will not get into that whole debate, i prefer to see myself as someone who thinks without borders instead of of someone who’s shouting things which we all know are bullocks (a.o. Smolders/Graus).

Instead I would like to talk about arts, like I said, over the last years of touring I saw many artists perform who are inspired by him, not only by his music, but mostly by the esthetic side of his aktionen: getting back to controlled violence, intimidate the audience, open their minds for emotions which they don’t even know they have, best examples are Smell and Quim, Monopolka, Costes and in a way also Lucas Abela, who uses the auto-mutulation aspect Nitsch uses as well.

During the interview, held yesterday at theatre De NWE Vorst in Tilburg, Nitsch explained globally how he got to where he is now, both in life and work. He talked about his idea behind the gesamptkunstwerk, the influences both Joseph Beuys and Jackson Pollock have/had on his paintings and about how you can use actors as true, honest (and not acting) individuals during a performance. The links he made to psychology (a.o. Freud’s taboo on incest) and the Catholic Mass as a ritual, were not really a surprise. Personally I would have loved to hear him talk more about his view on Sadism and the book Venus im Pelz by Leopold von Sacher-Masoch, which has obvious links to his work, but like a lot of people, I was too afraid to ask.

Nowadays Nitsch is an old man, drinking goes slower, talking goes slower and after an hour you felt he had enough of it, but maybe it was also the setting. The questions by Henk Oosterling, a Rotterdam philosopher, were not bad, but sometimes they were a bit to vague or distracting to my taste, just cut the crap and say what you want to say. Also the translation was a difficult thing, it got the speed out of the interview, which was a pity: we could have heard more interesting information, but it’s also understandable; my german is good enough to understand Nitsch in his own language, but i can imagine that’s not the case for everybody.

All the small notes aside it was a nice evening, as a experimental musician I would have loved to hear more about his musical work, his organ performances, his Geräuschmusik, but after the commotion in the media the performance part of his work needed more attention. And now it got the serious attention it needed, let’s please get back to what its really about: Art, with a capital A.

–
Wouter Jaspers
Vatican Analog

May 13th:

Id M Theft Able + Audrey Chen (US) (cello + vocal + freaky influences)
support: Franz Fjödor (NL) (drone deluxe)
+ dj stompifier

Will give a free concert in Vatican Analog’s Wouter Jaspers’ living room.
Start: 20:30 / End: 23:59

Id M Theft Able and Audrey Chen experiment with cello, effects and vocals. Franz Fjödor will introduce his new instrument to the Netherlands: The magnamorfoon. In one word: ‘Gezellig!’
So for great music, free beer, and an occasional foot massage you should mail Wouter at wouterjaspersATgmailDOTcom to let him know you want to be there Wednesday 13 May.

This is the trailer of a cool documentary about the noise scene in our favorite American city, Portland, Oregon. Since some guy named Khris Soden is going to do a Tilburg Tour of Portland, and a Portland Tour of Tilburg, our cities became the best friends. Besides Khris, both Tilburg and Portland seem to have something other in common, namely, a blooming noise scene. Hell, the guy with the funny hat even looks like Franz Fjodor!

tomorrow Franz Fjodor will release his new cd. It’s gonna be a nice party at 013. We can give away 2 tickets. Wanna come? We can give away 2 tickets. All you have to answer is which event Wouter Jaspers is curating at ZXZW 2008. Send your answer to contest  (at) zxzw d0t nl

Bram Stadhouders will play at ZXZW 2008. He created this videoclip for a new Wouter Jaspers track.

Adam Green is the Wouter Jaspers of Moldy Peaches. Here you see him drunk at a German tv show.