Concert:

Terrie Ex,
Improvisation

Terrie Ex performs an improvised solo drawing on several decades of exploring the physical and sonic possibilities of the guitar. He began playing in 1979 when he co-founded the Dutch band The Ex—almost by accident, as the guitar was simply the instrument no one else chose. Since then, he has played close to 2,000 concerts with the band, while developing a distinctive language at the intersection of punk energy and free improvisation. Already in the early 1980s, he started working with improvised forms, first through short solo passages and later in extensive collaborations with musicians such as Han Bennink and in projects like Offonoff and Lean Left.

Travel and collaboration have been central to his practice. In the 1990s, he undertook an extended journey through 21 African countries with Emma Fischer, which led to the founding of the TERP label in 2000. Through this platform, he has released his own improvisation projects as well as produced recordings with key musicians from a range of African traditions. Terrie Ex has also collaborated with artists such as Sonic Youth, John Cale, and Getatchew Mekuria, and his playing reflects an ongoing dialogue between different musical cultures, raw materiality, and spontaneous composition. In this concert, the music is shaped in the moment as an open structure in which rhythm, noise, resonance, and movement emerge in direct response to the space and the situation.

Performance in collaboration with Only Connect Stavanger.

• Terrie Ex, guitarist and co-founder of The Ex (b. 1959, Netherlands)