Letting things unfold organically

»Dream of Electrified Blues I & II« is a registration of a live concert which took place on the 13th of October, 2023 at Grambacht in Mechelen, Belgium. It was the first collaboration between two sub-underground veterans: Belgian psychfolk musician Ignatz (moniker of Bram Devens) and NYC-based artist Marcia Bassett. It’s released as a cassette on Bassett’s own Yew Recordings. 

skug: How did you and Bram meet?

Marcia Bassett: In the mid-2000s, I can’t remember the exact time or place. The tour idea stems from 2012 when Bart De Paepe Sloow Tapes suggested that we tour together. For one reason or another, it didn’t work out to tour that year, but the seed was planted. In 2013, we were working with a booking agent who had us crisscrossing Europe on a bunch of cheap flights and we both decided that wasn’t our scene, so we backed out. In between, we shared a few bills and would revisit the tour idea every time we saw each other. Fast forward to 2022, I was in Antwerp playing the Kraak Festival, I ran into Bram there, and we talked about the possibility of touring again. Then, in 2023, I was talking to a promoter in Germany about playing a festival there, and the only way I could make it work financially was to plan a tour around the festival dates. So, I contacted Bram and asked if he wanted to tour. We ended up booking the October tour ourselves. It took us a while to materialize the plan, but it also perfectly suits our styles of letting things unfold organically.

What do the both of you have in common, you think? 

I don’t know; I can’t speak for Bram. I think the shared experience of working within a DIY underground scene for years is the most prominent. Having spent decades in the DIY scene, we share similar philosophies and approaches to getting our music out there and collaborating, and we know a lot of the same people supporting and dedicated to the DIY community. We are also easy-going people who take their time, allowing things to come together naturally. This made touring together relaxed and stress-free. 

And what are the differences between you two?

Differences fall into our individuality and unique playing styles.

What are your memories of the UK / North of Europe tour you did together?

It was all good, we got to meet some cool people and catch up with friends. Since Bram and I split the booking responsibilities, it turned out to be a combination of my friends / connections and his and some new introductions. We travelled by train, which made for good downtime – reading, listening to music, talking, and catching up on sleep. It was all pretty mellow. We even avoided the train strike delays that were going on while we were over there. Since we travelled during off-peak hours, it didn’t affect us. I had the disadvantage of dealing with heavy gear, my suitcase synth, and a large bag, so getting up stairs and over cobblestone streets felt like a comedy routine, but I just took it slow. 

Our first gig was in Sheffield, and hanging out with Paul Cross and Gayle Brogan set the vibe and was a good way to start off the tour. Sophie Cooper put me in touch with them and they are just absolutely amazing people and saved us from a last-minute cancellation up North. They were organizing a sub-event for the Sensoria festival. Their mini festival focused on audiovisual performances, so Bram and I played solo sets with films. I played with a video I made using digitized hand-painted and found footage Super 8 films, and Bram played to a film by a Belgian filmmaker. We shared the bill with Oupire. 

Being from the States, I get excited and gushy about playing at a historic venue. The Bishops House where we played dates back to the mid-1500s. For me, it is surreal to be playing a show in a historical Tudor house surrounded by displays of barbaric instruments, table settings, and dioramas, complete with taxidermy. I was on a giddy, fantastical adventure, checking out the witch’s marks in the beams, craftsmanship, and displays throughout the house. Before my performance, I stumbled on a placard that marked the exact vantage point where Turner painted his panorama overlooking Sheffield. I took a photo to memorialize the moment and scene and returned to the Bishop’s House with this dusky vision of floating in the mist between times in my mind. 

When we got back to Paul and Gayle’s house, we had wine, tea and Bara Birth cake that I think the Oupire people gave them. Bram and I traded music with them, and I was super psyched to hear some of Gayle’s recent work (Pefkin). I definitely felt inspired by being around them. It was totally positive and set the tone for an amazing tour. Nottingham was also fantastic. Rammel Club put us on, and I’ve known Johnny Scar for decades now, and Rammel co-producer Matthew was super generous and enthusiastic, picking us up at the station and treating us well with drinks and food. The sound system at the venue was mind-blowing, too. I can’t express how much it means to have people go out of their way to personalize the experience and really put energy into hosting an event. It makes touring feasible, and even though there’s not much money, the exchange and interactions with people are invaluable. We woke up with warm, fuzzy hangovers and made our way to the train station for the next gig.

The Paris show hosted by Le Non Jazz at Treize was a wild scene. I collaborated with Sergej Vutuc at that show – we did a full-on installation covering the surface with projected film, video, and sound. Ignatz’s set that night was a blazer and just soared into the night, with people gathering around him, sitting close on the floor. The atmosphere was definitely charged. There were long lines for the toilets with people coming out in twos and threes. It took a while before we realized that a lot of people had melted into the couches, literally incapable of standing. I don’t know what they were on, but Bram and I were standing around at the end of the show, watching the night disintegrate. He had a really late night because his host was trying to help one of the melting people get home safely. It made for some hilarious stories recounting the night when we met up again in Belgium. 

Then there was Laurent’s house, Grambacht co-hosted with Oorstof, both Koen and Christel are mainstays on the underground scene – longtime supporters –, and Mechelen was a perfect combination of an intimate setting with friends coming out to see a house show. Of course, that’s where the recording is from, so the evening was documented. Kraak Krut festivals are always the coolest with incredible programming. I gotta mention the very cool meat locker gallery we played in Liege, too. I was a little worried about the sound in the room, but once it filled up with people, it was a warm, enveloping sound and they also brought in an amazing sound system for that show. The tiled walls were perfect for projections, too. Highlights are really just connecting with old friends, meeting new people, hearing about what they are doing locally, enjoying the food, and being exposed to new music, be it from the local acts, DJs, or back at the host’s house. It’s all intertwined – information sharing, exchanging news about music, people, art projects, venues, or how to survive with little or no funding. It’s an exchange economy.

You only play synth during this tour. Why? Why no guitar?

Well, gear is heavy, so I need to decide before I head out, what I am taking. Also, I don’t think people are coming out to a show I’m playing to see a guitar, I think they want to see live improvised music, which is what I do, so it really doesn’t matter what instrument/s I show up with.

When Koen Vandenhoudt of Sound in Motion proposed to record the concert at Grambacht, Mechelen, was it already the plan to use these recordings for a release?

No, there wasn’t really a plan aside from Koen suggesting that we play together. Bram and I briefly talked about it a few times on tour, but neither of us had a »plan«. There was some discussion about me borrowing a guitar from Laurent, but then, during the sound check, I took a signal from Bram, and we both liked the way things sounded, so we went in that direction.

Is this tape a compete registration of the concert as it took place?

Pretty much so. We did two pieces that melded together. Koen did the mixing without any input from us. He gave us one long file, and I decided to split it on to two sides. Bram liked that idea too. The second side starts off with the tail of the first piece going into the second piece.

»Dream of Autumn Electrified Blues I & II« is released on Yew Recordings. Is this your own label?

It is. 

It is released as a tape. Is this important to you, that there’s still a physical object of a release?

Yeah, I’m definitely into physical objects when it comes to releasing music. Occasionally I release a digital only recording but it doesn’t feel like it has the same life as the object. Sometimes I go back and just delete the digital recording from the platform it’s on to make it disappear. Like digitally sold out from source. Ha!