“Is there a relationship between sound, vibrations and the physical world? Do sound waves have the power to create?” These are the questions Andrew Claes sets out to explore.
He has already delved into these ideas in previous work with Cymatics, but now takes things a step further, developing the project towards a performance at Wilde Westen, joined by two members of the HERMESensemble, Teun Verbruggen and Jaak De Digitale.
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residents
Walter is a pit stop in the relentless rhythm of touring. A place to recharge, but also to pause. To find direction in an artistic practice. We support musicians who want to deepen their work in jazz, free music and improvisation — with quality infrastructure, fair pay and the right support. Walter collaborates with partners such as BOZAR, KRAAK and granvat for co-production residencies.
2027
Andrew Claes
Camille-Alban Spreng
Camille-Alban Spreng brings his trio Dear Uncle Lennie, joined by four additional guest musicians, to Walter to create music for the band’s third album.
The Swiss pianist is one of the most versatile figures on the Brussels jazz scene, with projects including Mobilhome, ODIL and Limite. This time, he expands his trio with Marco Giongrandi (banjo) and Benjamin Sauzereau (guitar) into a septet, joined by four new faces: Hanne De Backer (bass clarinet, baritone saxophone), Lucia Pires (flute), Sam Comerford (alto flute, clarinet) and Meskerem Mees (vocals).
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Lara Humbert
French pianist and composer Lara Humbert has become a fixture on the Brussels scene. At Walter, she’ll be working with her octet I’m Not Done Cooking.
This octet, featuring Raphaël Desmarets (guitar), Matteo Mazzu (bass guitar), Gaspard Sicx (drums/vibraphone), Alejandra Borzyk (saxophone), Adrien Lambinet (trombone), Lucia Pires (flute) and Amèle Metlini (violin) has already made a strong impression with its debut album Tome 1: Beauty And The Queen (Mokuhi Sonorities, 2026). Now, they’ll be cooking up a fresh batch of adventurous repertoire at Walter. More to come!
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Catharina Evens
Recently landed in Brussels, Catharina Evens explores how live electronics, piano preparations and other extended techniques can create an alternative sonic palette for the acoustic piano.
It’s an attempt to develop a musical language of her own, free from the confines of any particular genre and emerging directly from the unique qualities of the transformed instrument. Along the way, she moves between contemporary jazz, contemporary classical music and experimental electronic music.
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Amalia Deorsola
Amalia Deorsola will be working on Sinuosa, a band inspired by repetitive music, avant-garde improvisation and gamelan music.
The sound of Deorsola (prepared piano), Samuel Ber (drums), Zé Almeida (bass) and Sylvain Debaisieux (saxophone) will be an expansive exploration of rhythm and timbre, fuelled by a shared interest in non-Western sounds. During their residency at Walter, the quartet will shape its sound, identity and musical language through a process of experimentation, play and reflection.
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2026
Sam Comerford
Sam Comerford’s residency at Walter in 2026 consisted of two parts: expanding his trio Thunderblender with fiddle player Ultan O’Brien, and collaborating with acclaimed American pianist Myra Melford.
During his residency at Walter, Sam Comerford explored the space between the avant-garde, improvisation and the Irish folk tradition of his youth. The residency ties in with his research project, Radical Variations, Primitive Forms: The Melodic Language of Tommie Potts in Improvised Music. The residency began in 2025 with a week of research and a concert featuring John Francis Flynn, Jozef Dumoulin and Samuel Ber.
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Sylvain Debaisieux
The Sylvain Debaisieux Trio was one of three bands in residence at Walter during Belgian Music Week.
One raw live recording was all it took to win us over. Sylvain Debaisieux turns the saxophone trio tradition inside out, delivered an outstanding concert with Zé Almeida (bass) and Diogo Alexandre (drums), and recorded a session in Walter’s brand-new studio.
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Kris Defoort
For his project Happy Flaws, Kris Defoort expands his Trio with Nicolas Thys and Lander Gyselinck by inviting a special guest: multi-instrumentalist and former Walter resident Sam Comerford. The quartet will develop the music at Werkplaats Walter and record the compositions in our brand-new studio. The album will be released on W.E.R.F. records at the end of November 2027, followed by a presentation at BOZAR on 10 December 2027. Catch the try-out at Walter on 18 December 2026.
The goal: a one-hour suite incorporating field recordings, electronics and toys. Happy Flaws is taking shape as a blend of individual and collective experiences, unfolding across diverse and poetic worlds.
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Stijn Cools
With Book of Air: MØst, granvat, the production company founded by Stijn and Bert Cools, takes the next step in exploring spatial and collective listening experiences within contemporary improvisation and jazz.
The first step involves recording a large number of musical parts at Walter, performed by around twenty musicians. These recordings are then mixed into an extensive sound archive that collectively forms a “virtual orchestra”. Alongside this virtual orchestra, a small ensemble performs on electronic instruments, whose sounds are also distributed through the speaker system. This creates an interaction, bringing both together in a single immersive sonic experience.
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Raphaël Malfliet
Antwerp-based composer and sound artist Raphaël Malfliet explores how field recordings, text and image can be integrated into a performative context.
Malfliet’s starting point is to translate his background as a bassist and improviser into his current practice. He approaches field recording as his instrument, seeking to bring a direct, hands-on relationship with sound into live improvisation with recorded sounds.
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Jordi Cassagne
Barbastelle, led by bassist Jordi Cassagne, was one of three bands in residence at Walter during Belgian Music Week.
In cielo vivo, jazz met the poetry of Federico García Lorca. Barbastelle explored a fresh take on the trio format, with Cassagne, clarinettist Yann Lecollaire and drummer Samuel Ber joined by three guests: Basque musicians Beñat and Julen Achiary, and saxophonist Grégoire Tirtiaux.
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Esther Coorevits
At Walter, Esther Coorevits explored the electro-acoustic possibilities of the viola, one of the most underrated instruments in both jazz and classical music.
Coorevits experimented with the sound of a newly developed viola by instrument maker Tim Duerinck, specially designed for amplified music while preserving the beautiful qualities of the acoustic instrument. This opens up new compositional perspectives for classical music as well as jazz and pop, and invites us to rethink ensemble formats such as the string quartet or jazz trio.
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Maria Ferreira Silva
'Irisdescence' is new project taking place between New York, Paris and Brussels, brought to Walter by choreographer and dancer Maria Ferreira Silva.
This project on Debussy's oeuvre, was an invitation by the American producer Brian Adamczyk to work with the pianist Elodie Vignon, to which Silva invited dancer Jacquelyn Elder. The first meeting in Walter will result in a hybrid format of a concert with some choreographed parts.
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Laurence Cousseau
The Laurence Cousseau Quintet was one of three bands in residence at Walter during Belgian Music Week.
Dream and reality meet in Laurence Cousseau’s new compositions, firmly rooted in jazz but playfully flirting with contemporary classical music. The quintet delivered an outstanding concert and recorded a session in Walter’s brand-new studio.
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