ChampdAction

LAbO is a large-scale biennial interdisciplinary participation project around new music and is for students at academies of music, dance and art. For an entire week, sixty students from various artistic disciplines are immersed in contemporary music and state-of-the-art sound, with a strong focus on the use of new media and electronics. The series of workshops, intensive coaching sessions, open rehearsals, individual instrument and composition sessions, and dance workshops is rounded off with a public, closing round of performances. The German composer and instrument-builder Volker Staub works together with percussionist Fedor Teunisse around ecology and technology, using home-made instruments fashioned from nature. The British composer, improviser and clarinettist Matt Wright, jazz saxophone virtuoso Evan Parker and bassist and composer Ann Eysermans look to create a greater rapprochement between students of classical music and jazz. The young German composer Johannes Kreidler, partnered by electronics specialist Roel Das, focuses on the use of electronics in a socially engaged narrative. The Flemish composer Wim Henderickx joins forces with the Dutch specialist in music technology, Jorrit Taminga, and choreographers Marc Vanrunxt and Daniel Linehan take care of the link with dance. The link with the pictorial arts is provided by the Sint Lucas University College in Antwerp.