Honored embodied souls,

We’re still descending from some strange heaven we landed in yesterday after this otherworldly brutalist high mass across from our HQ. Tonight, the sonic celebrations continue again in VK Vaartkapoen. Aaaand – we are delighted to announce the first Oscillation ‘works on paper’ contest (see below)!

Today’s timetable:

18:30 Conversation #1: w/ Shamica Ruddock & Hannan Jones, Valentina Vuksic, Okkyung Lee. Moderated by Natasha Pirard.
20:00 Jacqueline Nova: From heaven, to earth: “Creación de la Tierra was created in 1972 out of vocal material from creation chants of the U’wa ethnic group in Boyacá, Columbia. (…) These indigenous voices are continually transformed, at times past the point of recognisability. With this work, Nova claims the right to coexist as peers and the need to exist without exclusion.” – Ana Maria Romano G.
20:30 Ana María Romano G.: This concert is a ritual that takes the body through intense and fluctuating sonic universes. Each of its presentations offers an opportunity to include new materials, devices, … which emerge between fixed media and improvised treatments.
21:15 Giulia Rae: In an ever-forming and dissolving digital ecosystem, the sound makes the space and the space vibrates. Through multichannel diffusion, the interaction between sound and the architectural space is explored, breaking down the performativity of player and listener.
22:30 Floris Vanhoof: A laser shines through soap bubbles and two diodes listen to the lightwaves that are bend through the ever changing surfaces. Bursting bubbles make dynamic pops and photons diffracted through microscopic movements of liquid soap make glissandi. And, a miniature sitcom to be shown as 16mm film, or as longer expanded cinema performance with modified 16mm projector and live sound.
23:15 Hannan Jones & Shamica Ruddock: Hannan Jones & Shamica Ruddock: Re-Imagining In-Conversation is a research-based sonic venture encompassing speculation, jazz poetics, improvisation and dreaming. The performative exploration of the in-conversation format extends a myriad of identified shared and diverging research interests.

Tonight’s provider of the foyer soundtrack is Q-O2’s favourite uncle Frédéric Van de Velde.
 

𝓕𝓸𝓻𝓰𝓲𝓿𝓮 𝓶𝓮 𝓕𝓪𝓽𝓱𝓮𝓻, 𝓯𝓸𝓻 𝓘 𝓱𝓪𝓿𝓮 𝓼𝓲𝓷𝓷𝓮𝓭

Seven deadly confessions overheard between last night’s sets:

Envy: Watching Liew Niyomkarn perform I unfollowed her on Instagram, so beset was I with envy of her slide guitar skills
Gluttony: With no beers at the counter I gluttoneously indulged in seven appleschorles
Wrath: I’m still furious that I stepped out before Okkyung Lee’s encore and missed the whole thing
Greed: Even after ten layers of subtle overtones in Margarida Garcia’s set, my appetites were not sacieted and I still longed for more
Sloth: The heated floor of the church was so comfortable that I could scarcely raise my body back up after the final show
Lust: I must confess, I hovered around the Underbelly book table during every interval and left my date alone to pack up the chairs after the concert
Pride: My pride was such that I couldn’t admit (even to myself) that I was the one who kicked an empty bottle during Enrico Malatesta’s set

Now say 50 ‘Hail Mary’s’ and see you at tonight’s concerts,

Père Oscillation

www.oscillation-festival.be

!! 𝙾𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 ‘𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔𝚜 𝚘𝚗 𝚙𝚊𝚙𝚎𝚛’ 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚍𝚛𝚊𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚘𝚏 𝚢𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚏𝚊𝚟𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚝𝚎 𝙾𝚜𝚌𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚖𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚗𝚝. 𝚃𝚑𝚎 𝚋𝚎𝚜𝚝 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚔𝚜, 𝚊𝚜 𝚍𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚍 𝚋𝚢 𝚘𝚞𝚛 𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝚓𝚞𝚛𝚢, 𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚋𝚎 𝚙𝚞𝚋𝚕𝚒𝚜𝚑𝚎𝚍 𝚒𝚗 𝚝𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚢𝚎𝚊𝚛’𝚜 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚋𝚞𝚕𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚒𝚗, 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚊𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚍 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝟹 𝚍𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚔 𝚝𝚒𝚌𝚔𝚎𝚝𝚜! 𝚂𝚞𝚋𝚖𝚒𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚌𝚊𝚗 𝚋𝚎 𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚝𝚘 𝚒𝚗𝚏𝚘@𝚚-𝚘𝟸.𝚋𝚎 𝚞𝚗𝚝𝚒𝚕𝚕 𝚂𝚊𝚝𝚞𝚛𝚍𝚊𝚢 𝟾 𝚙𝚖.

OV37
 “Disorder, Transmission, Love in Silence”
Goro Kakei >< Carole Vanderlinden

All exhibition views and details are now online HERE.

Please take note that:
from Thursday May 9th to Saturday May 11th (included)
OV Project will only be open by appointment.
Text + 32 484 966 647 or +32 486 434 344 to schedule.

Dear reading entity,

It’s time for our first outing: after two grandiose nights at VK we’re moving two blocks away tonight, to the exceptional Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Molenbeek church.

Today’s timetable:
 

20:00 Liew Niyomkarn: Through various tunings and the creation of resonances, Niyomkarm explores harmonics and tones using zither, building tension and repeat tones that weave into one another to create a new way of listening.
20:45 Enrico Malatesta: ‘Deriva di un Sonno Incert’o combines Malatesta’s personal research on percussion instruments with the dense and complex topic of the role of time/duration in performance practice, sound production and modes of listening. This new series of performances are inspired by the use and re-discovery of an ancient device for indicating the passage of time: the candle-clock.
22:15 Margarida Garcia: ‘Four Negatives’ is a piece created by weaving different lines of repetitions into each other, adding one line after another. Each musical phrase, around 6 minutes long, is played back unaffected, joining the existing lines.
22:45 Okkyung Lee: Cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between artistic disciplines and contingencies. Since 2000 she has worked in disparate contexts as a solo artist and collaborator with creators in a wide range of disciplines. A native of South Korea, Lee has taken a broad array of inspirations—including noise, improvisation, jazz, western classical, and the traditional and popular music of her homeland—and used them to forge a highly distinctive approach.
 

𝓠𝓾𝓲𝔃: 𝓦𝓱𝓲𝓬𝓱 𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓲𝓼𝓽 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝔂𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓭𝓪𝔂’𝓼 𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓮-𝓾𝓹 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾?

You’ve seen all the performances. You’ve listened to all the records. And now you’re probably wondering which artist from yesterday’s Oscillation line-up you’re most like. Luckily, you can find out in 4 easy questions!

1. How do your friends describe your clothing style?

a) Clashing colours and bold textures
b) Deep colours, a mix of natural and unnatural dyes
c) All black, ready for anything

2. What would you be most likely to order in a bar?

a) Something in an ornate glass
b) Something very layered, with a complex flavour
c) Something you’ve never tried before

3. What is the first thing you do when you arrive in a new city while travelling?

a) Unpack your bags
b) Learn about local customs
c) Get to the highest point in the city

4. What is your favourite first date activity?

a) A complex discussion about what you have in common and where you diverge
b) Order 5 ‘surprise’ shots
c) All night walking together through the empty streets

Find out below the photos which artist you’re most like!

Take us to church,

The Oscillation Quiz Division

www.oscillation-festival.be

Dear reading entity,

It’s time for our first outing: after two grandiose nights at VK we’re moving two blocks away tonight, to the exceptional Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Molenbeek church.

Today’s timetable:
 

20:00 Liew Niyomkarn: Through various tunings and the creation of resonances, Niyomkarm explores harmonics and tones using zither, building tension and repeat tones that weave into one another to create a new way of listening.
20:45 Enrico Malatesta: ‘Deriva di un Sonno Incert’o combines Malatesta’s personal research on percussion instruments with the dense and complex topic of the role of time/duration in performance practice, sound production and modes of listening. This new series of performances are inspired by the use and re-discovery of an ancient device for indicating the passage of time: the candle-clock.
22:15 Margarida Garcia: ‘Four Negatives’ is a piece created by weaving different lines of repetitions into each other, adding one line after another. Each musical phrase, around 6 minutes long, is played back unaffected, joining the existing lines.
22:45 Okkyung Lee: Cellist, composer, and improviser who moves freely between artistic disciplines and contingencies. Since 2000 she has worked in disparate contexts as a solo artist and collaborator with creators in a wide range of disciplines. A native of South Korea, Lee has taken a broad array of inspirations—including noise, improvisation, jazz, western classical, and the traditional and popular music of her homeland—and used them to forge a highly distinctive approach.
 

𝓠𝓾𝓲𝔃: 𝓦𝓱𝓲𝓬𝓱 𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓲𝓼𝓽 𝓯𝓻𝓸𝓶 𝔂𝓮𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓭𝓪𝔂’𝓼 𝓵𝓲𝓷𝓮-𝓾𝓹 𝓪𝓻𝓮 𝔂𝓸𝓾?

You’ve seen all the performances. You’ve listened to all the records. And now you’re probably wondering which artist from yesterday’s Oscillation line-up you’re most like. Luckily, you can find out in 4 easy questions!

1. How do your friends describe your clothing style?

a) Clashing colours and bold textures
b) Deep colours, a mix of natural and unnatural dyes
c) All black, ready for anything

2. What would you be most likely to order in a bar?

a) Something in an ornate glass
b) Something very layered, with a complex flavour
c) Something you’ve never tried before

3. What is the first thing you do when you arrive in a new city while travelling?

a) Unpack your bags
b) Learn about local customs
c) Get to the highest point in the city

4. What is your favourite first date activity?

a) A complex discussion about what you have in common and where you diverge
b) Order 5 ‘surprise’ shots
c) All night walking together through the empty streets

Find out below the photos which artist you’re most like!

Take us to church,

The Oscillation Quiz Division

www.oscillation-festival.be

Beloved material vessels,

Aaaand so that’s what it felt like, right? The excitement of an opening night: neatly timed schedules that became obsolete faster than wanted, devising clever systems to give people wristbands, the warmest hangouts with our beloved Oscillation crowd between and after performances, … Addictive it was, and still is.

All these feelings, accompanied by Laura Mello’s whimsical media mingling of sound poetry and synth pulses, Michiko Ogawa & Lucy Railton’s hypnotic circular timbre explorations, and Evicshen’s spectacular DIY noise shenanigans. We felt immersed right away.

Esteemed corporeal forms,

Our sonic feast will be opened tonight at VK Vaartkapoen in Molenbeek. Ok, it is the sixth edition of the festival, but its number is apparently not inversely proportional to the amount of excitement we feel at its onset. Unlike last year, day tickets will still be available at the doors (except for the discourse program, which is sold out), as well as dinner, which will be provided by VK the days we’re at their place. And as for the pre-, inter-, and post-performance hangouts that Oscillation fans have come to love, this year they’ll be sound-tracked by some of Q-O2’s extended family: starting tomorrow with the Brussels-based artist Soumaya Phéline (Club Détour / Psst Mlle).

Tonight’s timetable:

20:00 – Laura Mello – Composing For Many Media Including Me: Composing For Many Media Including Me is a self-referential performance series composed through the media of sound, video, experimental electronics and the performer herself. In each new performance, composition is approached via the tension between the fixed and the improvisational. The culturally-determined power relations in the construction of the performer’s body, as well as the potential and limits of the technical media used, are performatively questioned in interaction with each other.

21:00 – Michiko Ogawa & Lucy Railton – Fragments of Reincarnation: Fragments of Reincarnation began as a timbral exploration of the combined tuning systems of our instruments: the shō (Pythagorean tuning with a frequency of A=440 Hz fundamental, including fluctuation with inhalation and exhalation), cello (flexible, of course) and Hammond organ (equal temperament, broken). The structure of the piece is loosely based on the round shape of the shō and the 11 gagaku chords of ‘aitake’, moving through progressions that overlap and smudge, unfold in variations and demolish in cycles. The title Fragments of Reincarnation draws from these thoughts and how each voice emerges and disappears in the shimmer of the dusty old hammond organ.

22:15 – Evicshen: Evicshen is the nom de guerre of sound artist, experimental music performer, and inventor, Victoria Shen. Shen’s sound practice is concerned with the spatiality/physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Her music features analogue modular synthesisers, vinyl/resin records, and self-built electronics. Shen’s music eschews conventions of harmony and rhythm in favour of extreme textures and gestural tones.

Forever’s gonna start tonight,

The Oscillation Department

Dear fans and non-fans of the Oscillation bulletin,

This is a bulletin dedicated to the dilution of our high mass density list of artists’ names with which we have been inundating you since early February. To reduce the concentration a bit, we therefore list below some of the in-house favourites and acts we think make this edition extra special. Tickets are still available for all days!

30/04: Victoria Shen aka Evicshen is a sound artist, experimental music performer, and inventor. Evicshen’s sound practice is concerned with the spatiality/physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Previously seen in her performances: nails that serve as pickup needles, a sonic hair comb, and crowdsurfing with a complete gear table.

1/05: In the afternoon of May 1st, we host a discourse program in our very own HQ. Excitement is already growing for the talks, not least that of famed anthropologist Tim Ingold whose 2015 classic ‘The Life of Lines’ has set many an aspiring sound artist on adventurous new paths. 

2/05: On Thursday, we’re heading to the Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Molenbeek church, a location still underrated for concerts in our opinion. There awaits a well-balanced program, featuring all-time Q-O2 favourites such as Liew Niyomkarn, Enrico Malatesta, Margarida Garcia, and Okkyung Lee.

3/05: A rare chance to hear the work of Jacqueline Nova (1935–1975), performed by Ana María Romano G. Nova is a pioneering figure of electroacoustic music in Colombia, and one of Latin America’s most important avant-garde and experimental musicians of the 20th century. Coming of age in a repressive era in Colombia, Nova, the first woman to graduate in music composition from the Colombian National Conservatory, had a multifaceted career as composer, director, radio host, and cultural organizer.

4/05: One of our favourite – unfairly underrepresented in Brussels – genres’ most exciting acts closes the VK on Saturday: Chicago born and raised footwork artist Jana Rush. Be prepated for an intense emotional rollercoaster of disfigured samples, quivering electronics and vagrant percussion.

5/05: As if the stunning venue that B********** A***S is is not enough, we have the honour of welcoming Tetsuya Umeda there. For Oscillation, Umeda will make a cylindrical sound sculpture from ordinary objects like tins, nets, stove, and rice. The sculpture’s unexpected sounds and simple processes are influenced by the idea of “Narikama”, an ancient Japanese ritual performed for 500 years.

On form and in shape,

The Oscillation Büro

OV37
 “Disorder, Transmission, Love in Silence”
Goro Kakei >< Carole Vanderlinden

With ‘Disorder, Transmission, Love in Silence’, Olivier Vrankenne once again unites two oeuvres rooted in different disciplines and artistic languages and, in doing so, creates unexpected interactions and connections. This juxtaposition sparks a poetic dialogue between the Belgian artist Carole Vanderlinden (1973) and the Japanese artist Goro Kakei (1930–2021). 

Carole Vanderlinden is a painter whose painting and drawing practice is enriched by 30 years of experience. Her great interest in, and knowledge of, art history encompasses various disciplines. Rather than alluding to these directly, she interprets and recombines them, allowing her own artistic language to be imbued with their impressions and considerations. With paintings that exhibit an effortless resistance to any single style or theme, she evades all categorisation. Despite this, her work remains immediately recognisable as her own. 

Carole Vanderlinden’s works in the exhibition are powerful and layered. Whether the palette is vibrant or more restrained, all her works embody a certain freshness – the occasional rough edge notwithstanding. The picture plane, sometimes approached as a collage, is robustly worked. Of essential importance is the material quality of it, with its complex layering and resulting texture. Whereas in older works the traces visible along the edges of the canvas can often give a glimpse of the artist’s process, these are kept hidden in the works on display here. The artist provides these works with a frame, which is not only functional but also constitutes an integral part of the picture plane.

Goro Kakei, a renowned Japanese sculptor of the post-war period, was born in Shizuoka City on the coast of Japan and died in Tokyo. Starting in the 1950s onwards, he produced a large number of sculptures, oil paintings, drawings, etchings and lithographs, utilising a wide range of materials and techniques.

Goro Kakei’s free-spiritedness is manifest in the selection for this exhibition, which consists of smaller sculptures and works on paper made between 1989 and 2020. His love for human beings and nature are at the heart of these works, with the most prominent theme being the body. Kakei explored this subject, and variations on it, throughout his career, either by creating classical forms from a mass or by seeking subtle human expression in raw material. 

If there is something Carole Vanderlinden’s oeuvre unmistakeably shares with that of Goro Kakei, it is that same free-spiritedness. It is present in the attitude with which Vanderlinden approaches and creates her works, as well as in the freedom she grants the viewer to interpret her work. She sets no limits or predetermined guidelines – neither for herself during the creative process, nor for the viewer interpreting her work. The titles Vanderlinden gives her works are sometimes affectingly pure and honest, and at other times completely unexpected. In this way, she challenges the viewer to look again from a new perspective. 

Carole Vanderlinden’s flirtation with the boundaries between abstraction and the figurative is another expression of her freedom, and navigating the two is a game at which she is adept. Although largely focused on figurative art, Goro Kakei likewise sees abstraction as a genre with conventions that beg to be playfully bent. Whereas Kakei often does so directly, such that the work is made instantly readable to the viewer, Carole inhabits this twilight zone in a much more subtle way. 

Despite the absolute differences between these two artists – such as in their visual language, their approach to the material, their backgrounds, lifestyles and working processes – we still see many similarities in the spirit and joy their work exudes. These qualities seem to be rooted in a significant commonality: both artists have complete trust in an intuitive approach and follow through on it. Their practices and their processes of searching break though the limits of cultural language in an attempt to transcend it. The works of Goro Kakei and Carole Vanderlinden exude a freedom and a purity that have the ability to move the viewer; they carry something fragile within them while also having a playfulness that frequently elicits a smile or a moment of reverie.

– Liesje Vandenbroeke, April 2024

Dear material bodies,

You are now reading the very first sentence of our yearly series of bulletins for the Oscillation ::: Materia Forma festival, our in-house gazette that grows more intense as the festival progresses. In one week, our six-day-long sonic buffet starts, musing form, format and performance. We’re happy to report that tickets are still available for every day, but don’t wait too long (we’re thinking of last year’s broken hearts at the ticket counter). And following annual tradition, the festival will once again take place at different venues than last year: our base of operations is the VK Vaartkapoen (in their new/old place at Rue Saint-Joseph 14 in Molenbeek), with outings to the Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Molenbeek church and B********** A***S.

For those who haven’t already: time to dive into our program and find out what this year’s artists are up to: Ahnjili ZhuParris, Laura Mello, Michiko Ogawa & Lucy Railton, Evicshen, Bojana Cvejić, Gabriel Paiuk, Tim Ingold, Rim Irscheid, Leonie Persyn, Lee Patterson & Pak Yan Lau, Ailbhe Nic Oireachtaigh, Nina Garcia/Mariachi, Liew Niyomkarn, Enrico Malatesta, Margarida Garcia, Okkyung Lee, Natasha Pirard, Jacqueline Nova, Ana María Romano G., Giulia Rae, Floris Vanhoof, Shamica Ruddock & Hannan Jones, Franziska Windisch, Valentina Vuksic, Ji Youn Kang, Sandar Tun Tun, Jana Rush, Emilie Škrijelj & Tom Malmendier, Nika Son, Tetsuya Umeda, Jonáš Gruska. We’ll be featuring some of them in the next days, in order to guide you through this plethora of names.

Discourse program

In the afternoon of Wednesday, May 1, we will host a discourse program at Q-O2’s, bringing together five talks providing different perspectives of the topic of the festival, with contributions concerning immersion, technology, cultural conventions, and transindividuality. The afternoon will finish with a round table with all the speakers. It is free upon registration.

14:30 Doors
15:00 Bojana Cvejić – On Sensing and Moving Transindividually
15:30 Gabriel Paiuk –  Listening Technicities
16:15 Giulia Rae – “Immersive” in the Context of sound and Listening
16:45 Rim Irscheid – Embracing Uncertainty and Failure in Experimental Music and Curatorial Activism
17:30 Tim Ingold – The Fountain
18:00 Round Table

Workshops

There are still some available spots for these workshops:

28.04, Ahnjili ZhuParris: Voice Cloning
03.05, Valentina Vuksic: On Doing Sonics Through the Computational
04.05, Jonáš Gruska: Walk in the Sonian Forest
04.05, Tetsuya Umeda: Narikama

On form and in shape,

The Oscillation Syndicate