);

After a first successful creative residency in Essaouira (which will result in the spring of 2023 in the release of a mini-album + photos on the Transonic label), Thanas Kas begins a second exploratory project in Morocco, this time in the desert also supported by the European Creation and Transculture Nurseries.

In this exceptional environment, it involves recording field recordings but also local musicians (opening up to a possible new publication on the Transonic label) as well as taking images with a view to a future video.

“We are approaching absolute silence. Here, in the Sahara, it is golden as it is bathed in sand.
Each place has its own song, and perhaps I am venturing too much, but I already know its tonality, as if I have been here before.
I find myself at the gateway to the vast Sahara Desert, not far from the Algerian border, in M’Hamid El Gizlane, a small remote village, so remote that what follows is nothing but rocks, lost palm trees, and sandy horizons. Shaped by the wind and sand, the desert will be my guide for a residency of sound and visual creation.
Here too, silence does not exist.
Two sounds persist in the body, more resonant than ever: the very high-pitched one of our brain and the beating of our heart. As they get lost among the sand giants, they provide the essential pulsation.”

T. Kas 2024

Thanas Kas (De/Al/Be)

Thanas is a Belgian multi-instrumentalist musician of German and Albanian origin. As a young teenager, he explored noise and psychedelic rock and formed the music group Antichronique with his brother Milaim, then he decided to study this art more deeply at the Jazz studio. in Antwerp and at Jazz Bxl.

Not being very satisfied with teaching and too curious to discover other music, he then traveled to Argentina, India, Mexico and studied at the National Institute of Arts in Bamako and at the School of La Dernière Trumpette in Ouagadougou in West Africa to immerse yourself in traditional music. On his return, he created the independent Brussels label Matilemstudio.

A professional drummer, he explores this instrument in more than ten groups and, more recently, practices other instruments such as acoustic guitar, percussion but also electronic treatments. He devotes himself to his solo project, Grand Than, which combines poetry, song and soundscapes.

He is also part of the world music quartet Les Frères Barezzi, the Oriental/flamenco group Rihhal Duo with Karam Al Zouhir and Guillaume Van Espen’s contemplative/meditative music project Ocean Voices Duo.

Infos

  • 29.01 > 11.02.2024
  • Transonic Lab M’Hamid El Ghizlane
  • M’Hamid El Ghizlane 47402, Maroc

Production

  • Transcultures/Transonic – in the framework of City Sonic 20 Years
  • With the support of European Pepinieres of Creation