Win tickets to contemporary music concerts in Brussels performed by Ictus

Brussels contemporary music ensemble Ictus is performing in two upcoming productions at the opening festival 164VAN VOLXEM of a newly-renovated contemporary performing space in Forest.

Running from 30 January to 22 February, it includes two prestigious works with the Ictus ensemble, a collective of creative musicians dedicated to experimental music.

First up is Hoketus (pictured above) by Louis Andriessen and choreography by José Paulo dos Santos, Lav Crnčević and Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker. Staged from 30 January to 1 February, the original version of this 1976 musical work served as inspiration for De Keersmaeker and Belgian electronic composer Thierry de Mey. The ticket giveaway is for the concert version without dance on 31 January.

The new version retains the American minimalist sense of gradual, rudimentary processes. Two separate instrumental groups - on the left and right sides of the stage - fire chords at each other at full speed, like ping pong balls. The two groups do not play a single note simultaneously, allowing the listener's brain to reconstruct rhythmic patterns.

The production features advanced master students from the GAME Ensemble (School of Arts Ghent) and musicians from Friuli Venezia Giulia.

Ictus then performs the concert Maximalist! (pictured) by Thierry de Mey and Peter Vermeersch on 14 and 15 February, as part of a double bill with the work Parallels by Tristan Perich. Maximalist! is a concert that harks back to the origins of the ensemble during a particularly febrile period for contemporary music and dance when the composers created the music for Rosas danst Rosas, De Keersmaeker’s seminal 1983 choreography.

Shortly afterwards, they founded the sextet 'Maximalist!, which gave rise to the creation of the Ictus ensemble in 1994, the result of a determinedly ‘Flemish Wave’ in music and dance.

For this new version, Carlos Sampaolesi leads a contemporary reinterpretation that is inspired by De Keersmaeker's working notes for Rosas. It is performed by an ensemble of musicians that represent the current face of Ictus: three generations of musician-researchers who continue to push the boundaries of new music.

The evening closes with Parallels, a dazzling piece for tuned triangles, hi-hats and 1-bit speakers that negotiates between material simplicity and cognitive complexity.

Hoketus
30 January to 1 February
Avenue Van Volxem 164
Forest

Maximalist! + Parallels
14 & 15 February
Avenue Van Volxem 164
Forest

Photos: main image) Ictus ©Christophe Urbain

Win! A pair of tickets to one of the performances. Simply fill in your details below. We'll email you on Sunday (18 January) if you've won.