Hanne De Backer is an artist of many talents. She graduated from the Herman Teirlinck Instituut in 2010 before becoming the co-founder of BOOKERS & HOOKERS, the literary kamikaze collective in which she, Aurélie Di Marino, Nico Boon and Ine Bettens transformed literature and music into anarchist on-site performances. Gradually she developed more and more as a musician, studying at the Royal Conservatoire Antwerp and the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki.
Hanne De Backer – bariton saxophone
Henrik Munkeby Nørstebø – trombone
Raphael Malfliet – electric bass
Agnes Hvizdalek – vocals
Travel story
g a b b r o is proof that improvisation is where her heart lies. In this project, the saxophonist explores the different colours and worlds of the baritone saxophone. She released the project’s first, eponymous album with Marc De Maeseneer in 2017. On it, the two artists tell an improvised travel story: soundscapes that carry the listener all the way from the far north to the sultry heart of the metropolis.
Dialogue
On her second album, GRANULAR, released during the Summer Bummer festival in Antwerp, De Backer embarked upon a dialogue between free improvisation and closed places and communities. Artists such as Pauline Oliveros and Tehching Hsieh inspired her to seek out people from those specific places. That led her to the F wing of the prison in Antwerp.
festival partners
