Belgian composer, organist and musicologist Sander De Keere shares “Pt. 2”, the third and final single from his forthcoming new album The Manual Stop, out 23rd October via Phantom Limb. An evocative work for solo church organ, “Pt. 2” draws on the traditions of early choral music and mid-century composition, bringing the album's ancient and contemporary sensibilities into clear focus.
Hear it here:
Towards the end of the record, “Pt. 2” is mournful and sombre, the influence of early choral music and mid-century composition forming a greyscale beauty. The piece recalls the great traditions of the church organ and the many seminal composers who coloured its history, but a roving bassline and aching chordal turns root the piece within De Keere’s world and The Manual Stop. It is sorrowful, elegiac, haunting, and powerfully expressive.
Recorded entirely on a faithful 2022 replica of a 1763 Contius baroque organ at the historic St. Catharina Church in Wondelgem (Ghent, Belgium), The Manual Stop treats the church organ as both an homage to its ancient craftsmanship and a sonic experiment in itself. Constructed by organ builders Joris Potvlieghe and Wim Winters, the instrument becomes the centrepiece of a broad compositional superstructure coloured by the influence of many contrasting musics.
De Keere references mid-century minimalism, early sacred music, the classical avant-garde and experimental electronic music in his search for “landscapes that challenge expectations of what a pipe organ can be.” Across the album, the church organ takes on the role of an ancient synthesizer, its 1,765 pipes clicking, swelling and pulsing “like analog circuitry from a time before electricity.” The Manual Stop was recorded over weeks of night-time sessions in the church, where De Keere was given the freedom to play deep into the night. “You feel the music through your whole body,” he says. “It's incredibly physical. Each register holds a sonic character, and combining them becomes a kind of alchemy.”
“Pt. 2” follows the previously released “Pt. 6” and “Pt. 4”, completing the introduction to The Manual Stop ahead of its release next month Where “Pt. 6” introduced the organ as an organic sequencer and “Pt. 4” explored its capacity for grandeur and radiance, “Pt. 2” reveals another, more mournful and contemplative side of De Keere's instrument.
Originally from Ghent and now based in Brussels, Sander De Keere is a composer, organist and musicologist whose work bridges historical traditions and contemporary sound. Alongside composing, he has spent more than a decade as a radio and podcast host with the classical music station Klara for Flemish broadcaster VRT. He also lectures on classical music at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels and is a regular Q&A and podcast host for the Brussels Philharmonic and Flemish Radio Choir. His work has also encompassed an award-winning nonfiction podcast soundtrack, contemporary art commissions, theatre productions and new choral composition.
