The Colorist

Kobe Proesmans and Aarich Jespers founded The Colorist as a weird backup band for pop-oriented singers. Among them, Sumie Nagano, who writes delicate, intimate songs that require a little more than her voice and acoustic guitar to impress. The unorthodox use of classical instruments in combination with a wide variety of self-created musical instruments forms the foundation of innovative sounds and grooves. The intriguing and ground-breaking sound spectrum is inspired by the works of Harry Partch, Moondog and Luigi Rusollo a.o. Songs are reorchestrated and recomposed, the contours of these songs are re-colored, in the same way a colorist would do in a movie or comic book. Although the arrangements of the songs are completely new, you can call it ‘an acoustic live remix’ or ‘an inverse Karaoke’. The orchestra is characterized by its members, an eight-piece outfit, among them; Kobe Proesmans (percussion, calabash), Aarich Jespers (percussion, flapamba), Sep François (melodic percussion, hammered mbar), Wim De Busser (grand piano, prepared piano, keys), Tim Vandenbergh (doublebass, el.bass), Gerrit Valckenaers (bass clarinet, stones, mirrors, glass bowls, electronics), Jeroen Baert (violin), Karel Coninx (viola) The Colorist invites singers they admire into their world and whose music they feel a strong connection with; previously, they had the honour to work with Sumie Nagano (Japan/Sweden - Bella Union) 2014, Cibelle (UK/Brazil - Crammed Disc) 2014 and Emiliana Torrini (Iceland - Rough Trade) 2015. The Colorist’s last collaboration with Miss Torrini received raving reviews in the Belgian press and concerts sold out in almost all venues. This collaboration is extended into a series of upcoming international concerts and the release of a live recording. NOTE From around 2018, The Colorist expanded their name to The Colorist Orchestra