29/08/2026 – 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 2.
All info on Day 1: 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.
Click Timing to download
RODRIGO AMADO – JOËLLE LÉANDRE – GERALD CLEAVER (PT/FR/US)
Joëlle Léandre, Rodrigo Amado and Gerald Cleaver present a new power trio.
French bass player Joëlle Léandre started her musical journey in the 1970s, playing in New Music ensembles such as Ensemble InterContemporain, led by Pierre Boulez, and freelancing in orchestras conducted by the likes of Leonard Bernstein and Lorin Maazel. She commissioned repertoire for bass by composers like Giacinto Scelsi, Aldo Clementi and Fred Frith. When she moved to the United States on a scholarship in 1976, Léandre worked with John Cage and Morton Feldman. Later, she played with improv-royalty like William Parker, Anthony Braxton, Derek Bailey and Evan Parker. Portuguese saxophonist Rodrigo Amado is a Summer Bummer regular. Last year, he played a mesmerizing duo set with David Maranha, and his 2018 passage on the festival with his quartet The Attic has been immortalized on an album called ‘Summer Bummer’. Other quartets include This Is Our Language and Humanization 4tet. Perhaps his most prestigious quartet: The Bridge, with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Gerry Hemingway and none other than Alexander von Schlippenbach.
When Léandre and Amado met on a festival in Novara, Italy, Léandre half-jokingly expressed the desire to play free jazz, and Amado knew what to do. Not another quartet, but a power trio. Enter New York-based drummer Gerald Cleaver, who has played with heavyweights such as Matthew Shipp, Roscoe Mitchell and William Parker, but doesn’t shy away from working with electronic textures now and then. The exclusive premiere is yours to experience. Hold on to your chairs for this one.
MOPCUT: AUDREY CHEN – JULIEN DESPREZ – LUKAS KOENIG (TW/US/FR/AT)
Due to unforeseen circumstances, the tour of Tashi Dorji and Audrey Chen has been canceled. The duo will be replaced by the blistering trio MOPCUT, featuring Audrey Chen, Julien Desprez, and Lukas Koenig.
MOPCUT is a trio of three players who have each written their own unique musical vocabulary, but when playing together, their mutual grammar lines up into a shared sound that has more to do with the glitch-infested and gridless futuristic sounds of IDM overlords Autechre than it has with jazz-rooted free improvisation. On their 2025 record ‘RYOK’, they are joined by such guests as industrial hip-hop duo Dälek, Philly poet and activist Moor Mother and turntablist-extraordinaire Mariam Rezaei: that about says it.
Chinese/Taiwanese-American musician Audrey Chen started off as a cellist, but over the years, the emphasis in her work shifted towards her voice and electronics. Her ultra-expressive vocalisation has rightly drawn comparisons with the sound poetry of Henry Chopin. Chen has several collaborations running, among which a duo with Phil Minton, BEAM SPLITTER with trombonist Henrik Munkeby Nørstebrø, and duos with electronic musician Kaffe Matthews and Tashi Dorji. Austrian drummer Lukas Koenig and French guitarist Julien Desprez are playing at Summer Bummer with Integral, an entirely different beast. Just as Chen does, they drench their instruments deeply in a basin of electronics, resulting in sounds that, blindfolded, can hardly be traced back to their origins.
MARTA WARELIS – MARIÁ PORTUGAL (PL/BR)
Piano-drum-duo’s are a rare thing. Even more scarce are duo’s where both players operate on the same level… Cecil and Max come to mind first, then Cecil and Tony. Misha and Han. Fred and Roger. Irène Schweizer played with a whole run of drummers… We almost forgot Paal and Schlipp.
Marta and Mariá are the freshest duo on the block. Marta Warelis and Mariá Portugal haven’t played many shows as a duo yet, but looking at both players’ individual output, this combo can’t go wrong. Reviews are raving about piano preparations, a drum kit adorned with small percussion objects, Portugal adding song-elements with her voice, and “unrestrained outbursts of energy”.
Pianist Marta Warelis moved from Poland to the Netherlands in 2010 to study at the Groninger Prince Claus Conservatory, and quickly became a mainstay in the Amsterdam improv-scene. She draws inspiration from classical music, the various schools of free improvisation and sounds from around the globe, like Angolan dance music and cumbia. She played and recorded with Wilbert de Joode, Ab Baars, Andy Moor, Frank Rosaly, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten, Ada Rave, Ken Vandermark, Dave Douglas and with groups like Kaja Draksler’s matter 100, Ruidoscuro, OAonTI, (Exit) Knarr, … After studying classical composition in São Paulo, Mariá Portugal turned to free improvisation, focusing on the intersection with Brazilian song traditions. This resulted in her acclaimed album ‘EROSÃO’ (2021) and the formation of EROSÃO Septet and EROSÃO PERCUSSION TRIO. She plays with Fire!, Fire! Orchestra, MONSTER (with Joe McPhee, Susanna Gartmayer and John Edwards) and more…
Portugal curates the TOMA CHOCOLATE! concert series in Berlin, and composes for dance, theatre and film. Her soundtrack for the movie ‘1976’, directed by her partner Manuela Martelli, won the 2025 Chilean Film Academy Prize for Best Soundtrack.
KAREN NG – JONATHAN HORNE – AARON LUMLEY – NASIM L-P NAVARRO (CA/US/ES)
Touring with Ingebrigt Håker Flaten and Marta Warelis last year, Canadian reed player Karen Ng and American guitarist Jonathan Horne resonated so well musically that they decided to start a quartet together. They found the right fit in the Amsterdam-based rhythm-tandem of Aaron Lumley and Nasim López-Palacios-Navarro.
Canadian Karen Ng is an improvising saxophonist, multi-instrumentalist and promoter. Apart from her improvisation practice, she also performed and recorded with acts like Do Make Say Think, The Weather Station and more… Jonathan Farrell Horne divides his time between the US, Europe and South America, putting his guitar skills to work with The Young Mothers, Ingebrigt Håker Flaten’s (Exit) Knarr, Thor and Friends and the heavy-hitting drone rock ensemble Water Damage, to name just a fraction of his activities. Bass player Aaron Lumley hails from North Bay, Canada, but is currently based in Amsterdam. He’s part of Old Adam On Turtle Island, together with John Dikeman, Sun-Mi Hong and Marta Warelis. Furthermore, Lumley played and recorded with Jasper Stadhouders, Frank Rosaly and Ada Rave, among others. Spanish drummer Nasim López-Palacios Navarro is currently living in Amsterdam. He has a duo with reed player Pau Torres Serra, and together with Marta Warelis, he forms the explosive synth-drum duo Dust Bunny. He also played with Luis Lopes, Ada Rave and Aaron Lumley.
HANNE DE BACKER – YVES DE MEY (BE)
Hanne De Backer and Yves De Mey present a duo set with self-developed software that brings new possibilities for interaction between acoustic and electronic instruments.
If Summer Bummer were a competition, Belgian saxophonist Hanne De Backer would bring home the gold medal. She appeared on the festival in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023. Over the years, she released four records (and two movies) with her ensemble g a b b r o, was a member of Paal Nilssen-Love’s Large Unit, and played in many other combinations (with Terrie Ex, Hamid Drake, Marta Warelis, Ken Vandermark…). Now she returns to Summer Bummer to do something very special. Yves De Mey’s roots run back as deep as 1990’s electronics. As Eavesdropper, he produced raw drum&bass, but he soon strayed off to more abstract music, from the dubby techno of Sendai (with Peter Van Hoesen) to the highly experimental electronics of his solo releases. Together with cellist Gino Coomans and drummer Louis Evrard, he built a sound world that was a brooding blend of acoustic and electronic sounds, which they first publicly performed as Grid Ravage at Summer Bummer 2019 and released their acclaimed debut album on Dropa Disc in 2022.
De Mey now raises the stakes: especially for this duo, and in close experimental collaboration with De Backer, he developed software that makes it possible for the two to take electro-acoustic improvisation to another level. The software allows De Mey to interact in real time with De Backer’s sax sounds, resulting in a tight and dynamic improv session. The machines will not be taking over, though: it will be Yves and Hanne who do the musicking. Organic music for present-day society.
LAURENȚIU COȚAC – DIANA MIRON (RO)
Laurențiu Coțac and Diana Miron bring a duo performance that is something else. They may work with acoustic instruments like double bass, violin, the human voice and add field recordings to that, and their play may contain serene passages in between ecstatic sound storms, but at all times the air between the two performers is dripping with heavy intensity.
The work of Romanian bass player, composer and sound designer Laurențiu Coțac touches on noise, punk, free improv and contemporary classical music. He combines his bass sounds – both double bass and electrical bass – with field recordings, which he manipulates in a very unusual fashion: stopping recordings amidst a fragment, without being indebted to the cut-up-tradition. His artistic approach takes equal parts of composition and free improvisation; he’s inspired by the breadth of a symphonic ensemble and aims at a sculptural sound, exploratory in terms of spatiality and texture.
Coțac is a member of Hyperion Ensemble, led by Ana-Maria Avram and Iancu Dumitrescu. Romanian vocalist, violinist and composer Diana Miron has a background in classical and contemporary music and in free jazz. She seeks to free herself from stylistic boundaries through sound exploration, improvisation, video art and sound objects. Her works respond directly to and connect with the environment, emphasising the clarity of the present moment. Inspired by the unlimited potential of sonic matter, by new perspectives, conventions, and virtual environments, she rejects mass-culture narratives in a way that directly engages the viewer/listener. Like Coțac, Miron is a member of Hyperion Ensemble.
ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACH – PAAL NILSSEN-LOVE (DE/NO)
Alexander von Schlippenbach and Paal Nilssen-Love are both world-class instrumentalists. One could wonder why this duo didn’t start off years ago, but it took the passing of a mutual friend for the two to find each other.
Alexander von Schlippenbach is one of the groundbreaking pianists of European improvisation. He took off on his adventurous path when he met Manfred Schoof in 1958 at the Kölner Hochschule. In 1966, Schlippenbach founded Globe Unity Orchestra, consisting of Schoof’s quintet (on drums: future can member Jaki Liebezeit!) plus The Peter Brötzmann Trio, a lineup that over the decades would welcome temporary members, such as Anthony Braxton, Steve Lacy and Evan Parker. Schlippenbach’s other main outfit, his trio with Evan Parker and Paul Lovens (later: Paul Lytton), started off in 1970. Since the 1990’s, drummer-percussionist Paal Nilssen-Love has been hitting it hard. From 2000 on, he was a member of The Thing, the ultimate Scandinavian power trio. Since 2013, he leads Large Unit, a compact big band displaying young talent from Scandinavia, often pulling inspiration from trips to Ethiopia and Brazil. The latest addition to his list of bands is Circus, where the South African singer Juliana Venter adds voice to Nilssen-Love’s instrumental-based sound world. Nilssen-Love was and is also involved in long-running duos with Ken Vandermark, Peter Brötzmann, John Butcher and Joe McPhee.
When Schlippenbach and Nilssen-Love celebrated the life of Peter Brötzmann at Café OTO two years ago (in a quartet with Evan Parker and John Edwards), the seed for the duo was planted. A cd of the first concert by the duo will be presented at Summer Bummer.
COMPOSITE MASHWORKS: 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 second day of the Festival a Composite Mashworks show can happen at any time throughout the day, joined or not by guests or maybe you even…
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…
