RUISKAMER is not your average concert series. Conceived as a stage for fearless listening, it is a space where boundaries dissolve and your ears are trained to hear anew. In the intimate MIRY Concert Hall, VIERNULVIER and MIRY open a room full of experiment, minimalism and radical sound worlds. Acclaimed avant-gardists share the stage with freshly graduated talents from KASK & Conservatorium: a dialogue between generations, traditions and disciplines. RUISKAMER proves that music is not only entertainment, but also research, ritual and play. We spoke with programmer Wouter Vanhaelemeesch to get you hyped for the new season.
Intergenerational exchange
This balance between established names and freshly graduated artists is no coincidence. For programmer Wouter, it is the lifeblood of the series:
The most successful RUISKAMER nights are those where both on stage and in the audience you find a very diverse mix of people. There’s an (older) MIRY audience, more into contemporary classical music, as well as fans of experimental music. Additionally, many KASK & Conservatorium students, who often don’t know the acts but are curious, attend. That mix creates a special atmosphere. Not everyone has to like everything. Sometimes an expectation isn’t met or a wrong note is played, but that tension keeps everyone awake and alert
A common thread of restlessness
The programme moves between minimalism, ritual and radical avant-garde. What ties such diverse approaches together?
The ideal RUISKAMER artist is someone who falls between genres; not purely contemporary classical, not purely underground or experimental. Musicians who know their musical history deeply and then give it their own radical twist. Like Younes Zarhoni, who pours Arabic polyphonic singing into a sound installation; Sarah Davachi with her minimalist organ compositions; or Alvin Curran blending tape manipulations with self-built instruments. They’re often simply wonderful people to work with, but maybe that’s just a happy coincidence
Complicated music for uncomplicated people
The series’ playful tagline works as both a wink and an invitation:
It’s definitely a bit tongue-in-cheek (and a nod to a certain magazine we like to read), but also very sincere. I’m not even sure something like ‘difficult music’ exists. Music might be the most accessible art form there is. During the shows, the listening is concentrated, and I like it that way. But the hangout in between and afterwards is relaxed and informal
MIRY and VIERNULVIER: complementary forces
The collaboration between MIRY and VIERNULVIER is crucial.
First of all, the space is essential — I don’t think Ruiskamer would work as well elsewhere. The hall gently enforces concentration, and it’s probably the best sounding room in the city for electro-acoustic music. On the programming side, MIRY curator Ruben De Geselle comes from contemporary classical, while I come more from the experimental scene. And every evening, the GAME students also play a short set in response to the other acts. So there’s always this playful exchange between different scenes and generations
Ghent in the international experimental landscape
RUISKAMER also reflects on the city itself.
Ghent is small and can feel provincial, but at the same time so much is happening here. In recent years many underground venues disappeared quickly, and rising rents forced young artists to leave. But still, new initiatives pop up; like the concerts Lise is organising throughout the city. Smaller venues like De Koer are also really crucial to keeping the scene alive.
Charlemagne Palestine & Seppe Gebruers / Brìghde Chaimbeul
atonal magic and hypnotic smallpipes
01.10.2025
Charlemagne Palestine and Seppe Gebruers bring four grand pianos into dialogue, each with its own eccentric tuning. Their music shifts between silence and excess, between mystical ritual and playful chaos. Palestine’s theatrical universe of stuffed animals and shamanic energy meets Gebruers’ precise, quarter-tone explorations. Their live release Beyondddddddd The Notessssss sets the tone: elusive, overwhelming, larger than music itself. Together, they produce a sacred and mischievous sound bath.
In contrast stands Brìghde Chaimbeul, a visionary on the Scottish smallpipes. Her trance-inducing drones and liquid melodies stretch the definition of folk into something entirely new. Influences from ambient, electronics and experimental composition flow through her understated virtuosity.
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Masayoshi Fujita / Bertel Schollaert & Hein Devos + GAME
music as renewal
30.10.2025
Inspired by the flight of migratory birds, Japanese vibraphonist and marimba player, Masayoshi Fujita, weaves ambient, minimalism and jazz into textured soundscapes. Contributions from Moor Mother and Fujita’s own father on saxophone add another layer to Migratory, his latest album released on Erased Tapes and born after his return to Japan.
Bertel Schollaert and Hein Devos build a dark, physical sonic architecture.
Saxophones are stretched, twisted and electronically manipulated into immersive sound environments. Blending strict composition with spontaneous exploration, their sound resonates with visceral force.
Support act GAME opens the evening with a glimpse into Ghent’s current experimental scene.
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Lea Bertucci / Chuck Roth + GAME
exploring the limits of sound
26.11.2025
Chuck Roth, a guitarist based in New York, explores unusual tunings and microtonal intervals, manipulating the guitar with electronics, objects, and extended techniques. His debut watergh0st songs (Palilalia) collects pieces from the past five years, moving between quiet, meditative passages and precise, intricate patterns of sound.
Lea Bertucci is a self-taught composer and performer who works with woodwinds, field recordings, and electronics. She experiments with the placement of speakers in the room to investigate how sound interacts with walls, ceilings, and floors. Listeners become aware of small acoustic details — the way one tone lingers, how sounds overlap, or how a recorded element is transformed by the space — making the performance a careful study of sound in context.
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<div class="editorial-banner"> <div class=“editorial-credits”> @viernulvier.gent<br/>More info on the RUISKAMER series</div></div>
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