Belgian drummer-percussionist-sound artists Karen Willems calls her new solo album, KAAP MIJ (released as a limited edition of 70 cassettes plus download option), a «Welcome to planet grom wom! Open, porous, playful. Where people can be and go wherever they want to». The album was recorded at the De Werf in Bruges during a residency at the KAAP art center in May 2023.
As in previous projects of Willems, she continues her search for personal modifications within her play of instruments and objects. KAAP MIJ is another chapter in her musical play that juggles between organic seeking and playful turmoil. Willems moves between collage art, shamanism and a kind of futuristic ritualism. Man, machine and nature keep on interacting in constantly transforming constellations. It is a mission of searching, feeling and letting go, the spontaneous game with adventure and connection as underlying key motifs.
Willems adds to her unconventional percussive arsenal, voice, field recordings and electronics. She sketches an intuitive, free improvised subtle and adventurous musical play, a mysterious yet cinematic story about the trip to the strange trip to planet grom wom and its enigmatic rituals, suggestive attractions, cryptic lingo and Willems’ own subversive experiences. It is a quiet and detailed, psychedelic-dadaist summary of this exotic and imaginative trip.
Eyal Hareuveni
Karen Willems (perc, v, field recordings, elec)
