Seppe Gebruers

Did You Know?

• Gebruers started classical piano at age 8 and soon became interested in jazz, studying with Jef Neve.
• At age 12 he played in Belgium and abroad with his piano trio (Jakob Warmenbol and Nathan Wouters).
• He studied both jazz (with Erik Vermeulen) and classical piano (with Levente Kende) at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp.

Later life and career

Gebruers fronted the big band Ifa y Xango, which took home the 2011 Jong Jazztalent Gent prize and hit the stage at Gent Jazz the following year. Their style, marked by a cheeky, almost childlike bluntness, became the calling card for both the group and its leader. The debut album 'Abraham' landed on New York City Jazz Record's list of top debut releases for 2013. For the follow-up, 'twice left handed \\ shavings' (2015), Gebruers dove into electronics, handling synthesizers and live sound manipulation. Around that time, he teamed up with his mentor Erik Vermeulen for a piano duo, issuing 'Antiduo' in 2013. Critics described his playing there as mean, defiant, and free from conventional rules, creating a wild entity that ignored musical taboos. That duo later expanded into a quartet with drummers Marek Patrman and Eric Thielemans, yielding 'Rorschach' in 2019. In 2013, Gebruers' outfit Bambi Pang Pang, featuring Viktor Perdieus on sax and Laurens Smet on bass, shared a bill at Jazz Middelheim with veteran drummer Andrew Cyrille, a meeting that sparked the album 'Drop your plans' (2015). That same year, he helped launch Troika, a collective he now directs artistically; the group treats improvisation as a tool for making music rather than a genre label. Gebruers also works in a duo with artist and composer Charlemagne Palestine, performing on four pianos each tuned differently. In 2018, he performed a Palestine composition on the carillon at Antwerp's Cathedral of Our Lady. Additional collaborators include Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, Robin Verheyen, and Nate Wooley.

Microtonality

Gebruers' major project is the exploration of microtonality, for which he plays and improvises with two pianos tuned a quarter-tone apart. In 2019 he started a research project at the Royal Conservatory of Ghent titled 'Unexplored possibilities of contemporary improvisation and the influence of microtonality in the creation process'. He has commented that tuning the pianos a quartertone apart allows him to play with the collective artificial habit of equal temperament, dividing the octave into twenty-four equal intervals and multiplying harmonic possibilities. With two pianos tuned a quarter tone apart he recorded 'The Room: Time & Space' (2018) in a trio with drummer Paul Lovens and bassist Hugo Anthunes. In his solo project 'Playing with standards' (album release January 2023), he plays with famous songs including jazz standards, and also forms a 'Playing with standards' trio with Paul Lytton and Nils Vermeulen.

A plea for polyphony

Gebruers critiques the professionalisation of the arts, particularly the music industry, for prioritising commercial and ideological agendas over authentic, transformative experiences in music. He questions the current relationship between artist, audience, and cultural institutions, suggesting these dynamics compromise musical creativity. He observes that music is often created as a made-to-order product tailored to a curator's vision or commercial success, placing musicians in a precarious position. He laments the loss of 'tasting' in music—a dynamic, experiential engagement—and advocates for 'aesthetic empathy,' where both musician and listener engage in shared discovery. While acknowledging the importance of diversity, he critiques its superficial implementation, arguing that when diversity is exhibited too emphatically, profound diversity is often lacking, and that performative gestures can undermine genuine inclusion.

Esthetics

Gebruers has said his music is not that much 'beautiful' but is personal. He has thought about communication between musician and audience, and what goes wrong; the best scenario would be an audience that 'undergoes' the music like a dream or nightmare, but it often fails because of the social aspect and celebrity. He notes that beauty is recognisability, and in Western society everyone is prone to the will to understand rather than to undergo something. He loves hearing the lack of control of a musician crossing limits and losing track of time and space, and he loses control over his facial expressions. He tries to be in command of both control and the lack of it, returning to his comfort zone when needed; when playing collectedly he sits straight like a classical pianist. Adding quarter tones gives a greater diversity of emotional charge in harmony and melody, and he says pianists often think in black and white but now start thinking in between. He states music should not be understood but experienced, and that wringing or tension is also an experience and emotion. His research is successful if people take more time to start experiencing music again.