Extricate

EXTRiCATE is a duet of a hand balancing dance performance and a live music & foley performance that offers the audience a soothing universe.

Hand balancing artist Bert Berg explores the boundaries of handstand based on intrinsically driven movements. Composer Suntapes is extrapolating the minimalistic approach in his live compositions. The interaction between both worlds is the base of the new performance “Extricate”.  

Make it dark so we can see the smallest light roar across the sky!

While the audience starts focusing on details, an unravelling participative performance unfolds itself. The piece leans on the artistic harmony between a language created out of a new approach to hand-balancing and minimal musical compositions that invites active listening.

The project rebels in all ‘gentle calmness’ against a society that many perceive as too intense, over-consuming and over-saturated with choices. The harmonious analog universe that this performance creates is our answer to this.

concept & circus performance: Bert Berg

Composition & music performance: Suntapes

Dramaturgy: Margot Jansens

Choreography: Roseta Plasencia

Light design: Casper Van Overschee

Production: Lien Vanbossele

Exterior ear: Aifoon vzw

Coproduction: PERPLX, Circuswerkplaats Dommelhof & CIRKLABO

with financial support: Flemish government, Miramiro & Blinkout

TEASER

Artistic disciplines
Hand balancing dance, live composition, foley & details

Duration
50 min

Audience
Age: 10 - 100
Max. 100 people

Location
Tent, Theatre & Black box

Première
15 december 2024 - 30 CC in Leuven

Contact & booking
Bert Vanden Berghe – info@bertberg.com – +32 478 577 866 – www.bertberg.com 

Planning
Creation phase until November 2024. Try-out Miramiro Ghent November 8th

Regenerative flows

An immersive audiovisual performance that drags an audience to the details of this unique evolving landscape as full frame realistic visual journey with a live soundscape music performance using analogue synths, warm acoustic instruments Chinese Ruan, Thumb piano, Thai pin and also a bass guitar and experimental sound effects.

Looking for an audiovisual performance to slow down an audience? Get in touch!

Duration: 49 minutes

Artistic elements
Live looping soundscape music by Suntapes
Projection of the 6K video created Glenn Verdickt

Audience
Sitting down audience capacity: 50-250
Age: 10+

Location
Theatre, Cinema, Black box, …

Contact & booking
Mail: suntapesmusic@gmail.com
+32 479635589

This performance is based on the 2023 artwork Installation by Sep Verboom (designer of the year 2020). More info:

Artwork Installation by Sep Verboom

In 2023 we started our exploration resulting in an live installation for the Z33 exposition Healing Water.
Inspired by the process of limestone deposition we created a six month hydrochemical simulation where slaked lime (Ca(OH)₂) and atmospheric carbons (CO₂) precipitate into a solid carbon locking landscape of limestone.

This living landscape that grew and evolved in time was a place where silence reigned and time seemed to slow down. As the elements in the limestone exhale, CO2 reacts with slaked lime, gradually forming a solid carbonaceous landscape. Regenerative Flows invites us to slow down, to reflect on the world around us. It is a reminder that beauty and complexity can come from the simplest materials and the most basic processes.

During these months we investigated how it is possible to translate this natural process into a multi layered landscape, to which various designers and artists can then respond, creating a symbolic landscape in addition to a physical one. 

The installation was a starting point for different artistic perspectives to inspire and co-create, adding new poetic layers to the installation. The ultra high resolution video images of the limestone artwork are abstract varying landscapes views that slowly evolve and pull an audience in a unique and unknown universe.  Suntapes added a soothing live music performance to these immersive video .
The auditive universe contains the sounds of the artwork and a relaxing & evolving composition with acoustic instruments, analogue synths and effects.

Credits

Z33: Healing Water exposition 2023
Artwork “Regenerative Flows” : Sep Verboom
Videographer: Glenn Verdickt
Composition & Live music: Suntapes

GoDogWait

𝗚𝗼𝗗𝗼𝗴𝗪𝗮𝗶𝘁 - dance with a wink to Beckett. The first lockdown 2020. ARC - dance company, saw a parallel between the story of Samuel Beckett's 'Waiting for Godot' and the world we found ourselves in at the time: waiting an absurdly long time before we were allowed to do what we love again. Coupled with a sometimes absurd series of measures, which created a sense of living in a surrealistic twilight zone.

And the inspiration followed. ARC wanted to translate Beckett's surrealistic play into dance. But how do you portray mental confusion? The dance company started looking, and came up with the combination 'punk rock meets ballet'. Under the title GoDogWait, a nod to Beckett's piece.

In GoDogWait, classical dance and punk rock go hand in hand. Music and dance meet on the border of the experimental and create a story that captures the essence of Beckett's play. GoDogWait is a collaboration between different disciplines.

As musicians we were inspired by the story. Dancers are guided by the music. Live, that gives intensity, sparks, and waiting while something does happen. We called this genre of music: DANCE PUNK. Combining electronic dance music with synthesizers, with a punk tempo on drums and distorted bass guitar sound:

☆Dancers: Aki Nishio, Agnieszka Agi Romek, Jean-Louis Decock, Maciej Piotr Beczek.

☆Live Music: Tomas VANDERPLAETSE & Sven De POTTER, Jente NEELS & Michiel VanDeWinkel

Première: 29.10.2022

Piano artifacts

This audiovisual art installation is the first in a series of installations built around detuned and degraded piano’s. Although this piano is not playable in a traditional way, it still has an amazing sonic character that is reinforced by artificial interventions. The piano is prepared to produce sustained tones and rhythmic convolutions by itself and when touching the piano. The soundscape that emerges from the piano represents a state of suspended animation. What will happen to this piano? Will it be refurbished? Will it be destroyed? Or will it be ignored forever?

CREDITS

Concept, piano preparation, sound, image & installation: Suntapes

Year: 2021

Video shot at exposition “Buiten spoor” in Chinastraat Gent.

Solo piano set @Atelier Jules August

A pure acoustic neo-classical set on the grand piano

After many months of no shows, it was a real pleasure to play an acoustic set with a lot of unreleased Suntapes piano compositions. These new neo-classical piano tracks will be released somewhere in 2022, after I released all the ambient electronic and piano music I recorded the last year.

The set list also included my favorite neo-classical piano pieces by Ryuichi Sakamoto, Philip Glass, Yann Tiersen and Jóhann Jóhannsson.

The 2 sessions took place in the stunning atelier of photographer Jules August.

Check out the Spotify playlist Latenight Piano that starts of with the setlist of the show (my unreleased work will be added later)

Immersea

A unique immersive artwork experience

This immersive experience is an audiovisual artwork impression of the sea. Colorful painted artwork elements are projected on the floor as you walk through the space. Analogue sound vibes slowly evolve in a mesmerizing minimal composition. As you create a visual and sonic symphony with the movement of your feet you are urged into a psychedelic dreamworld. And so you are immersed in this unique sea!

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To give an impression of the #immersea experience we had a dancer move around in the space:

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CALENDAR

FRAGMENTS of land and other scapes: 30/10/2021 - 07/11/2021

LUCA Ghent: 08/06/2021 - 17/06/2021

KAPOW Ghent: 24/04/2021 - 25/04/2021

Get in touch if you’re interested to host this installation.

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CREDITS

Artwork: Deogracias Kihalu
Animation & interactive magic: Kasper Jordaens
Music & sounddesign: Suntapes
Concept: Tomas Vanderplaetse, Kasper Jordaens, Deogracias Kihalu

End of an era: organic audiovisual flow

An organic abstract audiovisual story by videographer Wim Piqueur and Suntapes. This was recorded as a live stream performance in March 2021 where live visuals and live music are interacting in a subtle manner. For this session we carefully selected abstract images and sounds to create a minimalist ambient flow. The result is tranquil, haunting at times and always with an immersive soul.

PLAY

Bechstein studio session

This studio session evolves around the warm character of my 1881 Bechstein grand piano. The piano is prepared with felt under the strings to create an even warmer and closer sound. The placing of the ribbon microphones is so that you can hear all sounds coming from the piano, including squeaks and the rubbing of the felt. Just like I hear it when I’m playing the piano. Big thanks to Jesse De Roo who recorded and mixed this session.

To start, I manipulate different sound sources inside the piano to extract dark filmic soundscapes. After that, I perform some new neoclassic compositions to let you dream away.

Director Jakob Rosseel created the visual atmosphere in my studio and captured the session on film. The result is a melancholic plunge inside the Bechstein with me. Since we can’t do real shows at the moment, we thought this augmented visual experience brings something you couldn’t experience in a real concert. I actually created the compositions around the idea of how to film it.

With support of the flemish government. This show was originally streamed on the Suntapes Facebook page. Now it’s available on Youtube.

Soundtrack Bestia del clima

Ecoprins is an organization that tells moving stories about ecology worldwide. For their documentary “Bestia del Clima” the team spent several months in Central America to capture stories of people affected by climate change. The film follows 3 people as they struggle in their own way.

Suntapes was commissioned to compose music for the documentary. The sounds and music were chosen to reinforce the tension and hopelessness of the protagonists in their search for a better future.

Watch the trailer of the documentary:

Bestia del clima was in avant premiere on Dec 7th 2019 and is shown on several festivals. Read the article in Mo.