Marcia Bassett + Ignatz

Oorstof and Grambacht are proud to present NYC-based Marcia Bassett and the Belgian underground mainstay Ignatz, both performing solo and as a duo for the very first time.

Marcia Bassett is a musician and artist known for her innovative and unconventional approach to music. Active in the realms of sound collage, improvisation and immersive audio-visual environments, Bassett’s work delves into the cultural world and immediate surroundings, encountering various phenomena that have the potential to be transformative within ourselves and our environment. Her artistic vision is to create a heady sonic interplay of otherworldly narratives that blend elements of trance and critique.

As the founder of Yew Recordings, Heavy Conversation and Heavy Blossom and working with smaller independent labels, Bassett has maintained a DIY approach to music publishing. Some of her recent solo recordings include the critically acclaimed “Midnight Xpander LP,” which was recorded at Elektronmusikstudion EMS in Stockholm. She also recently released “Undulating Arkasboning” cassette on Artsy Records in 2022 and a Digi-EP titled “Altering The Form” on the Belgian label KRUT.

Bassett frequently collaborates with other artists and musicians on live improvised performances, installations, and multimedia projects. For her show in Mechelen, she will be joined Ignatz, the alter-ego of Belgian guitarist and composer Bram Devens. For almost two decades, Ignatz has been creating his very own style of improvisation-inspired Euro blues. Using little more than an acoustic guitar and few effects, he constructs sparse, emotive songs born of the human condition, wrapped in effects, corroded by tape, driven forth by improvisation and spontaneity.

Ignatz’s songs stem from a familiar stripped folk framework, with Devens’ delivery recalling the louche primitivism of Velvet Underground or Henry Flynt – but these songs sound inverted, cast adrift, their cool touch belying a stymied heat beneath the surface. Where Devens’ fretwork is adorned, it is executed with a refined coarseness. Autonomous loops entwine each other. Songs brush past percussion, bass notes, or a scant keyboard motif. A voice recedes from the heart of the song into a dislocated, cracked drawl.

+ expo by Djuna Keen ‘new world / old ruins’ (13Oct -> 22Oct)

i.c.w. Grambacht