New cd Jeroen Malaise – release concert 23 May 2026 MoMu Antwerpen
Nomad – that's what the Grand Café is called in the Singel in Antwerpen. Multiple award-winning composer, self-declared 'music archaeologist' and conservatory lecturer Jeroen Malaise feels at home there. That name is somewhat symbolic of his musical life, he admits. In his oeuvre, tradition and improvisation forms play an important role. He has already been a guest at, among others, the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Royal Opera House London, the Cage Festival Amsterdam, the Romaeuropa Festival, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Les Coups de Théâtre Montréal and the Beijing Music Festival. Furthermore, he sits on the Steering Committee Metric and is an ambassador of the Pleyel 1884 in the Vleeshuis in Antwerpen. Now his new cd has been released 'West Bank Echoes – A Journey Through Palestine'.
How does someone end up on the West Bank?
Via a project for the Conservatory in Italy, I ended up in Tunisia. There they asked me: are you interested in visiting a Palestinian Music Academy? Curious as I am, I jumped at the opportunity immediately. It was a very special experience. Poignant and beautiful at the same time. A place where so much history hangs: that's quite remarkable. You feel that too. It's in the air. (Read that wonderful book by Michael Church 'The other classical music traditions' as well.) And the fact that Palestinian culture was completely overwritten fascinated me.
I wanted to bring something beautiful there – something of beauty and wanted to ask my record label Etcetera if I could devote a chapter to it on my new cd. Etcetera was enthusiastic and even wanted a complete album around that theme.
That's why I traveled to the West Bank again last year. You do have conflicts there, but it's not a war zone. Ramallah and so on are relatively safe places because there are many tourists around. Music is my language. The focus on this album is on the West Bank, not on Gaza.
I had long been intrigued by the Arabic language and Arabic script. I even took three years of evening classes to learn more about it. On the cd cover photo I stand in an olive grove with white elegant cloths that are reminiscent of Arabic calligraphy. That was an idea from Samar Hazboun, the photographer who took the pictures together with Koen Broos. They are an integral part of this project, which is part of the Fantasia research project of Conservatory Antwerpen. The title on the cd cover is also in Arabic – that was simply a must.
What does that Fantasia project stand for?
In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries you had those Grand Tours: composers took a big trip to gain new impressions and get inspired. Think of the Pélérinages by Franz Liszt or the Waldszenen by Robert Schumann. That tradition has somewhat been lost. For me, the visit to the West Bank was a sort of Grand Tour. While traveling you discover a lot, and that was no different here. (I honestly find it a bit strange that these cultural differences between East and West are separated so artificially.)
On my previous cds everything revolved around Preludes. Now Fantasia, with larger improvisation pieces. Often interactive. I see my own music as one big Fantasia.
I never play the pieces on my new album 'West Bank Echoes' the same way. Just like in the nineteenth century: the score was a finished product, but they often played something different! Music is not a fixed work of art. Music is permanently in motion. You bring your own expertise with you, you process it and so you create your own musical language. I have no use for mindless repetition of repertoire work. Give me a more dynamic picture: a landscape where you develop an artistic and current profile for yourself.
--For me that's the norm: if you learn to play a musical instrument, you also learn to improvise. In the twentieth century that generally didn't happen within West-European classical music. In all other centuries it did: playing & creating as an intertwined duo. Look at Ludwig van Beethoven. Look at Franz Liszt.
Where does the title of your album come from: 'West Bank Echoes, A Journey Through Palestine' ?
'Echoes' because it's not literally Arabic music. The rhythms from there have stayed in my head in a certain way. I use those rhythms in my own music, although I may not have always understood them correctly. Arabs never say: that's wrong. They will keep remarking: interesting!
It was a journey in various respects: from Al-Bariyeh, the desert wilderness between Bethlehem and the Dead Sea, where you regularly encounter Bedouins. Where here and there Christian monasteries are scattered. To specific instruments like the qanun, the soulmate of the piano – or the oud, family of our guitar. On that journey I also took rhythms from there with me, think of malfouf, an essential beat in Arabic music… that rhythm is very popular in the Middle East. And poets may also travel along. The opening track, for example, is based on a poem by Mahmoud Darwish, who compared Palestine to a magnificent jewel. And that's how it felt to me too!
Now I'm a bit confused. Is the music on your new album then traditional or contemporary?
What does that mean: contemporary? There are already many different definitions for that.
If you look at other traditions, you see that this distinction between 'contemporary' or not plays a much smaller role there.
For me, contemporary means: that you can really do what you want.
In Western Europe we've gotten a bit stuck in that discussion. A back-and-forth with hierarchical and compartmentalized thinking, instead of simply placing everything side by side.
Your new album will be festively launched on May 23rd with a concert at MoMu Antwerpen. But first you're going to the Jasmine Music Festival in Palestine in May?
Yes, I want to translate that dialogue with the East into my concerts as well. On May 23rd there's a concert at the Fashion Museum in Antwerpen, together with the trio of a Palestinian oud player who lives in the Netherlands.
The Jasmine Music Festival takes place in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Ramallah. It's an extended festival: one musician gives a concert each time on the three stages. After two weeks it's the turn of the next musician who also performs at the three stages.
Together with the Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, I've already visited those three halls. Beautiful halls they are, with lovely grand pianos. These instruments are often donations. Palestinians are incredibly strong at fundraising. I think that has a lot to do with their survival instinct.
What I do with my music, they don't find strange at all there. Here at the Conservatory in Antwerpen you have the classical department and the jazz department. In the Middle East, conservatories divide into Western classical and 'Oriental' music – which means: Arabic classical music.
And now?
Ha, releasing this cd means quite a lot to me.
Right now I'm without inspiration, I'm completely empty.
Wherever the wind takes me…
All will be well, Jeroen Malaise. Congratulations again and thank you for your story!
'West Bank Echoes, A Journey Through Palestine' is out on Etcetera Records.
Release concert on May 23rd 2026 at MoMu Antwerpen
[caption id="attachment_52073" align="alignleft" width="612"]
www.facebook.com/asifsherazi[/caption]