Music
2025
Abel Ghekiere
Mirage of a singer-songwriter sounds small, unreal, and a bit hallucinatory
In this recording, Abel Ghekiere secretly records the conversations of his friends or lets his recorder fall into a jar of mayonnaise. Live, the Flemish artist must contort himself in other strange ways to achieve the same electro-acoustic spontaneity. He structures his music like a (day)dream. The elements may seem familiar – banjo, clarinet, singer-songwriter, rocking chair, homebody – but the overall picture feels somewhat surreal, as if the view from your balcony has suddenly flipped and a Sufjan Stevens record is being played backwards ten gardens away. Ghekiere sounds different in every setting: the natural orchestra of Vlieland is ready.
