Q3Ambientfest Adriaan Swerts
Adriaan Swerts will be as a virtual guest part of Q3Ambientfest.
An exclusive set will be shown on screen.
Adriaan Swerts (b. 1989) is a neoclassical and ambient composer from Belgium whose music is heavily focus on sounds from nature.
As a child he learned to play the piano and clarinet, but found the restrictions of his traditional musical education unfulfilling so he quit taking lessons. It was not until he got his first synthesizer that a world of freedom and exploration opened up and he started making his own sounds and music in a basement home studio. In 2007, he had a life-threatening accident which caused a lifelong disability and which drastically changed his life. Because of his injuries, he constantly suffers from pain, but music helps him to deal with this suffering.
He has always felt a very strong connection with nature and tries to give nature a voice – especially in these difficult times of climate change and pollution. The characteristic sounds in his music are field recordings of places in nature he visits, which he transforms into instruments and uses almost solely to compose. With these ingredients, he always makes music from the heart that is deeply personal and minimalistic by design. He hopes it can provide as much peace and stillness for other people in this always busy world as it has helped himself.
In 2022 his debut album One was released by Piano and Coffee Records to great critical acclaim and featured on KEXP, Soho Radio London, Operator Radio, Radio Klara, A Closer Listen, Echoes and Dust, Waveform Magazine and many others.
- A Closer Listen:
"[...] a timely meditation on the fragility of our place in the natural world and a beautiful aural accompaniment to the slow decline towards the darkest time of the year."
- Echoes And Dust:
"One is full of languid, almost melancholic sounds, [...] Yet Swerts creates his music without overt pathos, it is all subdued, or even more so, sublime."
- Gezeitenstrom Musicmagazine:
"[...] Adriaan Swerts shows once again that even the worst events in life do not prevent the creation of practically timeless music. [...] melancholy on a very high standard, effortlessly reaching the deepest bottom of the listener's soul [...]
- Music Won't Save You:
"the twelve pieces on his debut album [...] distill the essence of a sweet balm for the soul"
- Luminous Dash:
"[...] painfully honest neo-classical ambient. [...] A piece of musical poetry and a search for those sparkles of beauty that make everything worthwhile."
https://www.instagram.com/adriaanswerts
https://www.youtube.com/@adriaanswerts
https://soundcloud.com/pianoandcoffeerecords/adriaan-swerts-still
