28/08/2026 – 15:00
Trix
The Summer Bummer Festival — Sound in Motion’s annual two-day deep dive into adventurous music at Trix — is proudly heading towards its 11th edition. Together with the young curators of Oei!, boundaries are pushed and genres defied.
On this page you will find all the info on the programme of day 1.
All info on Day 2: go here!
For visitors from outside of Antwerp and Belgium who need a hotel, go to the webpage of B&B Hotel Antwerp Centrum and get a 10% discount using this discount/promotion code: SUMMERBUMMER26.
The hotel is walking distance of the central train station and right across tram/subway stop Opera. Tram 10 direction Wijnegem will bring you to Trix in just 10 minutes. get of at the 3rd stop Hof Ter Lo.
INTEGRAL: JULIEN DESPREZ – CLAIRE GAPENNE – CHRISTINE ABELNOUR – LUKAS KOENIG (FR/LB/AT)
Guitar players with a few effect pedals too many. It can easily become boring. Hiding a lack of ideas. Julien Desprez is different. The guy has more pedals than anyone, but he puts them to good use. He dances around on his pedalboard like Fred Astaire trying to pay homage to the harsh noise of Merzbow. Desprez invented a totally new language with it, comparable to no other guitarist, though what his buddy Farida Amadou does on bass guitar, may come close. Desprez makes his pedal-chain sing. And when he starts singing along with it, he creates a magic that vaguely reminds us of what Robert Wyatt’s most out-there tunes do: breaking any set of tuning-rules, but breaking more hearts while at it…
Enough about solo-Desprez. For Summer Bummer, he’ll be backed by Integral, a band that throws some extra improv and interaction into that already perfect equation, making things even more exciting and fluid: Claire Gapenne (electronics, voice) has a past in the French industrial noise band Headwar, but nowadays runs the solo project Terrine, which has released tens of records over the last decade. Her duo with Desprez is aptly and funnily named Julien Claire. French reed player of Lebanese origin Christine Abdelnour played with a myriad of musicians, among who Andy Moor, Magda Mayas, Eric Chenaux, Sven-Åke Johannson, Chris Corsano and Joachim Nordwall. Austrian drummer and percussionist Lukas Koenig embraces noise, circuit breaking and extensive use of effect-pedals in his practice, making him the perfect fit for Integral. Together with Mette Rasmussen, Mariam Rezaei and Gabrielle Mitelli, he’s ripping it with The Sleep Of Reason Produces Monsters, and he’s worked with players like David Murray and Jamaladeen Tacuma, but also with outsider hip hop-phenomenon Sensational and compatriot synth head Dorian Concept.
DAUGHTERDAUGHTER: CAMILA NEBBIA – AMALIE DAHL – SUN-MI HONG – ELISABETH COUDOUX (AR/DK/DE/KR)
Four players who have each earned their dues in different parts of the scene, be it jazz or experimentalism, now find each other in DaughterDaughter, a brand new quartet. DaughterDaughter compose collectively, working with melodies and structured forms, leaving ample room for abstraction, improvisation and each performer’s individual voice.
Danish (but living in Oslo) saxophonist Amalie Dahl is perhaps best known to the Summer Bummer audience, having blessed the festival with the presence of the extended version of her quintet Dafnie in 2025. Apart from Dafnie, she’s a part of Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s (Exit) Knarr, Treen and Dahl/Dalen/Søvik. Camila Nebbia is a saxophonist and visual artist born in Buenos Aires, but living in Berlin. On her solo record ‘una ofrenda a la ausencia’ (2023), she adds spoken word to her – often short – sax pieces. The record was described by NYC Jazz Record as an “innately human and personal album, surprising listeners with a passionate approach to jazz”. She played with the likes of Marilyn Crispell, Andrew Lisle, Chris Corsano, John Edwards and Hamid Drake.
Korean drummer Sun-Mi Hong has re-rooted herself deep in the Amsterdam jazz scene. Her playing shifts between very free and more composed jazz. Her Sun-Mi Hong Quintet played North Sea Jazz, where Hong was also awarded the Paul Acket Award in 2025. Last year she played the Sound in Motion Interlinie tour with Old Adam On Turtle Island (with John Dikeman, Marta Warelis and Aaron Lumley). She plays in trios with John Edwards and Camilla Nebbia, and with Ada Rave and Kaja Draksler. German cellist Elisabeth Coudoux operates on the fringes of free improvisation, experimental music, new contemporary and jazz. She runs her own project Emißatett, is part of different ensembles and works with dancers, visual artists, poets and performers. She’s a member of IMPAKT, a Cologne collective for free improvisation.
DaughterDaughter might just be that surprise that turns into a revelation.
EROSÃO SEPTET: MARIÁ PORTUGAL – ANGELIKA NIESCIER – LOTTE ANKER – CARL LUDWIG HUEBSCH – MORITZ WESP – MATTHIAS MUELLER – REZA ASKARI ( BR/DE/DK)
EROSÃO Septet take the Brazilian song tradition as a starting point, but from there, they feed Mariá Portugal’s songs back into free improvisation.
When Covid-19 took us all by surprise, Brazilian drummer Mariá Portugal (Fire!, Fire! Orchestra, Monster, with Joe McPhee, Susanna Gartmayer and John Edwards) happened to be spending a year in Germany, where she was the Moers Festival’s 13th Improviser in Residence. Lucky for us, she could spend her lockdown sitting on a pile of material she recorded the previous year, when she was still living in Brazil and recorded a series of improv sessions with musicians from the thriving São Paulo improvisation scene. The starting point of the original improvisations had been Portugal’s songs, rooted deeply in the Brazilian songsmith-tradition, going from Dorival Caymmi to Caetano Veloso, but also hinting on contemporary peers like Negro Leo and Maria Beraldo.
During lockdown, Portugal indulged in endlessly editing those improv sessions. The music that came out is something totally unique, like if Atom TM would have released his mad genius production techniques on lost recordings of a female Arto Lindsay.
On stage, Portugal will hand over the songs into the skillful hands of the fine selection of European free players that make up EROSÃO Septet – saxophonists Angelika Niescier and Lotte Anker, tuba player Carl Ludwig Hübsch (recently guesting with The Ex and Friends, alongside Phil Minton), trombonists Moritz Wesp and Matthias Müller and bassist Reza Askari. The songs will be released back into the wild biotope that is free improvisation.
JOHN MCCOWEN (US)
John McCowen is an American (contrabass) clarinettist living in Iceland. His quest is one to develop a polyphonic language on an instrument that has historically always been regarded as being monophonic. Out of this urge, McCowen has come up with a musical vocabulary that reminds one of electronic feedback, but remains essentially acoustic. His endless rehearsal-sessions have resulted in a mastery of this self-invented set of techniques, and the results are mind blowing. McCowen often gets the question, “Where is the laptop?” The answer is always the same: “There is no laptop.
McCowen has worked and studied with Roscoe Mitchell (Art Ensemble of Chicago) and performed a duo of bass saxophone and contrabass clarinet with Mitchell as well. Apart from his extensive work with Mitchell, McCowen played with artists like Wei Zhongle, Arto Lindsay, Marja Ahti, Mark Fell, Skúli Sverrisson, Theresa Wong and Zach Rowden (Tongue Depressor). He has released albums on labels like International Anthem and Astral Spirits, and has new work coming up on Hallow Ground and Black Truffle.
DAS B: MAZEN KERBAJ – MAGDA MAYAS – TONY BUCK – MIKE MAJKOWSKI (LB/DE/AU)
In our world, Das B ticks all the boxes for ‘supergroup’. Formed in Berlin in 2015, out of four members who each have carved out their own distinct styles, that they happily adapt and put to use to the bigger goal of micro-improvisation that is the core of Das B. The result is hauntingly beautiful music, as first displayed on ‘Canopy’ from 2019, and followed up by last year’s ‘Love’, on which they lovingly but thoroughly deconstruct John Coltrane’s ‘A Love Supreme’. Don’t expect a live rendition of that album, though the spirit of Trane may be among us when this all-star ensemble hits the stage.
Tony Buck is an Australian drummer and percussionist, living in Berlin since the late nineties. Buck is a founding member of hard-hitting Australian outfit The Necks. He also made ‘Knoxville’, a trio album with Fennesz and David Daniell and played and recorded with John Zorn, Tom Cora, Phil Minton, Evan Parker, Damon Locks, Lee Ranaldo, The Ex, Hailu Mergia, Magda Mayas, Peril (with Otomo Yoshihide and Kato Hideki) and Zeitkratzer. German pianist Magda Mayas has been redefining the sonic possibilities of the piano over the past 25 years. She tackles the piano from both the exterior and the interior, using amplification, preparations and additional objects. Recently, she started working with the clavinet. Collaborators include Christine Abdelnour, Tony Buck, John Butcher, Joëlle Léandre, Andy Moor, Nate Wooley, Phill Niblock, David Sylvian, Ikue Mori and Okkyung Lee.
Lebanese comics author, visual artist, trumpetist and instrument builder Mazen Kerbaj is considered one of the initiators of the Lebanese improv and experimental scene, being co-founder in 2005 of Al Maslakh, the first experimental label in the region. His trumpet experiments reach far, using a multitude of props, and sometimes playing an entire set without using the mouthpiece of his instrument – laying out a sound world that’s entirely averse to clichés. He’s a member of “A” Trio, with Sharif Sehnaoui and Raed Yassin, and his further collaborations include Karkhana, Alan Bishop, Joe McPhee, Mike Cooper, Evan Parker, Pauline Oliveros, Michael Zerang, The Ex and Nate Wooley. Australian double bass player Mike Majkowski has dived deep into innovating new possibilities for his instrument of choice, both in the purely acoustic and the electro-acoustic realm. He’s recorded over fifteen albums of solo music and worked with an impressive list of musicians, including Marshall Allen, Oren Ambarchi, Peter Brötzmann, Will Guthrie, Hailu Mergia, Evan Parker, Alexander von Schlippenbach and Paul Lovens.
KABAS SUN DOG: NILS VERMEULEN – LOUIS EVRARD – THIJS TROCH – JAN DAELMAN – KAREN NG – JONATHAN HORNE (BE/CA/US)
In the ten years since their debut ‘Abel’, the Ghent-based collective Kabas – for this occasion Nils Vermeulen (double bass, el. bass, banjo), Thijs Troch (acc. guitar, electronics, banjo, piano), Jan Daelman (flutes, percussion, Moog) and Louis Evrard (percussion, el. guitar) – have been building steadfastly on an oeuvre, with a clear vision behind it. The work they do with their organisation Troika, injecting the Ghent scene with regular high-quality, small-scale concerts, is nothing less than an extension of that vision.
2025 brought their fourth album, ‘Sun Dog’, possibly their best one yet. With a sound pallet that is quite woodsy – flutes, acoustic guitar, banjo – they take off on minimalist meditative excursions, with echoes of faraway yet undefined places, which might moments later end up in an ecstatic climax. For Summer Bummer 2026, the band presents itself in an extended version, hauling aboard Canadian saxophonist Karen Ng (Do Make Say Think, The Weather Station) and American guitarist Jonathan Horne (Young Mothers, (Exit) Knarr, Water Damage) , two of the most versatile players in the field.
COMPOSITE MASHWORK: CATH ROBERTS – TULLIS RENNIE (UK)
Composite Mashworks presents Temporary Art Habitat, an improvised, immersive and interactive micro art space that will take over an area at TRIX. Cath Roberts and Tullis Rennie will construct the habitat alongside festival visitors, using sound, colour, cardboard and strings in a two-day cross-artform improvisation. Their lo-fi audiovisual mashwork will combine electronic and acoustic soundmaking to create a place for listening, playing, and habitat-building together. Listen to the sounds of the habitat, join the temporary art orchestra by making sounds, or add to their cardboard constructions. On this first day of the Festival Composite Mashworks will perform a duo set in their evolving Temporary Art Habitat… On Saturday guests or you can join them throughout the day.
Composite Mashworks is the Hastings-based artist duo of Tullis Rennie and Cath Roberts. They work with acoustic and electronic instruments, objects and activated structures to create temporary habitats for improvisation, in dialogue with people and spaces. Cath Roberts (they/them) is a musician and artist who combines acoustic and electronic improvised music, experimental composition, and DIY publishing practices. They work on saxophone and live electronics in many collaborations with other artists and run the band Sloth Racket. Since 2024, Cath runs the small press Ink-Paper-Sound, dedicated to experimental publications about, and as tools for, improvised performance work. Roberts played Summer Bummer twice: in 2019 in a trio with Dirk Serries and Tullis Rennie, in 2023 in a duo with Dee Byrne. Tullis Rennie (he/him) is a composer, improvising trombonist, electronic musician, and field recordist. His work foregrounds collaboration and co-production, encompassing sound installation, multi-channel audio works, video, mixed media and live performance. Tullis is a founder member of Barcelona-based A/V collective Insectotròpics, who fuse painting, video projection, electronic music and stage performance. Tullis played at Summer Bummer 2019 in a trio with Dirk Serries and Cath Roberts.
PRESENTATION: GUY PETERS
+ RECORD FAIR – SNACKS & BITES – TEMPORARY ART HABITAT – SILK SCREEN PRINTING…
