Friday 15 November 2019, 7.30pm
Three-day residency from incomparible band, The Ex, who after 40 years, more than 25 albums and around 1800 performances still work independently, without record companies, managers or roadies.
• TERRIE HESSELS - guitar
• ARNOLD DE BOER - vocals, guitar
• ANDY MOOR - guitar
• KATHERINA BORNEFELD - drums, vocals
The adventurous, innovative Dutch band The Ex exists 40 years this year and is still going strong. New projects, new songs and new adventures.
The Ex have defied categorisation ever since they started playing in 1979. Born out of the punk explosion, when anything and everything was possible, the band have still managed to retain both curiosity and passion for their music. Using guitars, bass, drums and voice as their starting point, The Ex have continued to musically explore undiscovered areas right up to the present day.
Already the early 1980s saw collaborations with jazz musicians and an Iraqi-Kurdish band. In the 90s the group found a myriad of partners from varied musical and non-musical backgrounds like Kamagurka, Tom Cora, Sonic Youth, Han Bennink, Jan Mulder and Shellac. In 2002 The Ex set up a lively musical exchange with Ethiopia, organised many projects over there and invited several Ethiopian musicians to Europe. Most striking was the collboration with the legendary saxophonist Getatchew Mekuria, which eventually led to two CD recordings and more than a hundred concerts.
The band also started organising the ‘Ex Festivals’, where they invited their favourite musicians. A mix of jazz improvisers, musicians from all over the world and local treasures they came across on tour. The last few years saw collaborations with Brass Unbound (Wolter Wierbos, Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark and Roy Paci), Circus Debre Berhan and Fendika, both from Ethiopia, and many, many more.
After all these years, more than 28 albums and around 2000 concerts the band continues to work as they did in when they began, completely independent of record companies, managers or roadies. Because of this ‘do it yourself’ work ethic The Ex is still a great example for other forward-thinking bands and musicians.
“Staying a bird, staying independent, free if you will, for three decades, that takes skill and something else, something more like heart.” – Music journalist John Corbett on The Ex.
(°1986) is an Antwerp based saxophone player and theaterperformer. After graduating from the famous Herman Teirlinck Institute in Antwerp as an actress in 2010, she discovered the barytone saxophone and found herself really pulled towards the instrument.
Hanne wants to exploit the impact of music and performance without being limited by boundaries or styles. In 2017 she released her debut LP “Gabbro” together with longtime collaborator Marc De Maeseneer. They played there release-concert in the Oorstof-series of Sound in Motion and went on tour through Finland, Lettland, Poland, Germany and Belgium.
(1974, Comodoro Rivadavia), is an Argentinian saxophonist, improviser and composer. Ada is a researcher of a personal approach to her instrument based in employing a wide variety of techniques that goes beyond the conventional ways and on her personal narrative in real time composition.
She had performing in several venues and festivals all over the world. She is based in Amsterdam to continue expanding her personal work and passion for the free improvisation.
Zewditu Yohannes is an Azmari-singer from Ethiopia. Azmari are travelling singers who celebrate the freedom of words. Zewditu is one of the strongest in that tradition that The Ex has encountered on their many journeys through Ethiopia: poetic and refined, but also straightforward and with an incredibly powerful voice, which is featured on Ethiopiques compilations #2 and #18. The Ex is happy to invite Zewditu Yohannes to the Ex Festival in Cafe Oto, where she will be accompanied by masinko player Mamush.
