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Walter Hus (born 1959) is not only a composer, but also a performing pianist and improviser. From the age of ten, he has performed as a concert pianist at home and abroad, and from 1979 onwards as a pianist-improviser.
Hus played with the free jazz formation The Belgian Piano Quartet and was affiliated with Maximalist!, a musical group founded in 1984 that straddled the intersection of pop, rock, classical, and avant-garde. The musician-composers who united in this movement (including Vermeersch, Sleichim, De Mey, and Hus) had met a year earlier during Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker’s first choreography (Rosas danst Rosas). Their image was strongly influenced by popular culture. Furthermore, interdisciplinarity was characteristic of the collective: a remarkably large percentage of the music Maximalist! composed was performed by the group. wrote, is conceptually connected to other arts such as dance, theater, and film.
The music of Maximalist! seems to be situated primarily within the framework of New Simplicity, which emerged from minimal music. A high degree of repetitiveness, microscopically varied rhythms and dynamics, the simple manipulation and transformation of motifs, a limited harmonic organization, and very limited starting material are its most important characteristics. This generally resulted in music with a high degree of consonance and direct accessibility.
When Maximalist! disbanded in 1989, Hus focused more on classical genres and from then on wrote operas, concertos, symphonic works, and string quartets, which were performed by the Arditti Quartet, among others. Yet, the functional and cross-disciplinary aspect that Hus developed at Maximalist! remains defining for his oeuvre, even after Maximalist!. In addition to music for fashion shows (e.g. Five to Five for Yamamoto (1984)), choreographies (e.g. Muurwerk (1985) and Hic et Nunc (1991) for Roxane Huilmand, and Devouring Muses (1997) for Irène Stamou) and films (The Pillow Book by Greenaway and Suite 16 by Deruddere), several of his compositions were created in collaboration with contemporary poets or playwrights, such as Stefan Hertmans (Francesco’s Paradox), Peter Verhelst (One Day They Appeared), Jan Decorte (Meneer, de zot en tkint) and Jan Lauwers of Needcompany (Orfeo).
In 1996, Walter Hus worked at Limelight in Kortrijk, where the festival and CD label Happy New Ears was founded at that time. Starting in 2000, Hus developed his own “Decap Orchestrion,” an installation with automated organ pipes and percussion instruments that can be controlled by computer. With this instrument he created soundscapes, film scores (e.g. N by Peter Krüger), rock songs, and arrangements of techno hits. Jazz guitarist Pat Metheny used Hus’ “Decap Orchestrion” for his “Orchestration Project.” Although Hus wanted to concentrate mainly on serious composition from 2015 onwards, the jazz pop group Hus & The Next Generation was founded in 2016. (Matrix)