Sarah Davachi / Ignatz

PROGRAMME

20:00: Ignatz (piano)
21:00: Sarah Davachi (Hammond organ)

• Ignatz
(piano)

Ignatz is the moniker of guitarist-singer Bram Devens. Since 2005, he has released around twenty albums. His signature ingredients: acoustic guitar, vocals and a few effects. His signature formula: introverted, mysterious songs driven by primitive improvisations that can be described as ‘Euro blues’. Earlier this year, however, Ignatz surprised listeners with his album I Don’t Know, on which he swaps his guitar for the piano. In the mid-2010s, he inherited the family piano. As a self-taught musician, he explored the instrument and gave a piano concert in the small Flemish town of Geel, which was filmed by musician and filmmaker Jef Mertens. A few years later, Devens recorded this haunting piano album at his home in Landen. The result is a sleepy, dreamlike cloud of pentatonic piano patterns, mumbling vocals and grainy textures.

• Sarah Davachi
(Hammond organ)

Sarah Davachi is a Canadian composer who creates minimalist music with influences from classical, ambient and ancient musical traditions. She is interested in the relationship between sound, time and perception, in the tradition of Éliane Radigue, La Monte Young and Kali Malone. Long but carefully thought-out compositions gradually reveal tiny variations in texture, overtones and tunings. Listening to Davachi is like gazing at a vast landscape or wandering around a Gothic cathedral as memories and emotions surface. She has played at MoMA and the Barbican Centre, toured with Grouper and William Basinski, and created commissioned works for the London Contemporary Orchestra and Brussels Philharmonic. In 2026, she even won the Silver Lion at the Venice Biennale. Few composers can bring the audience so close to a transcendental experience. At STUK, Sarah Davachi will present her new album on the Hammond organ.

Co-presented by MUTEK, with the financial support of the Canada Council for the Arts.

WORKSHOP SARAH DAVACHI 

Do you want to dive deeper into the world of Sarah Davachi? The day before her concert, the Canadian composer will give a workshop on composing using special tunings and temperaments.