acidmothersgurugurugong

Guy Segers has been a part of the RIO music scene since the early seventies. He recorded and toured with Univers Zero and has performed with various musicians from all over the place. He's also the co-founder of the legendary Carbon 7 record label.

Hello Guy,
you will be performing with Acid Mothers Guru Guru Gong at the ZAPPANALE FESTIVAL on Saturday. How did this come along?

Guy Segers: Makoto KAWABATA contacted me. I have played twice with him, and it seems that he liked it.

What was it like to play together with Makoto Kawabata?

Guy Segers: The two concerts with Makoto were very nice. I was completely free to do whatever I wanted. We started the two concerts without any planning, just play... It went, well, mostly based on energy. Any harmony or rhythm to follow, but at the same time many changes of harmony and rhythms!

What can we expect at the Zappale? Did you already share the stage with Daevid Allen and Mani Neumeier? And have you already discussed the concert with the other members of the band?

Guy Segers: No, nothing has been said, and until now I still have to exchange the first words with Mani and Daevid. There will be many options I guess. In the coming weeks I’ll listen to some of their respective music so that I can understand with what I can help them to feel comfortable.

Are you familiar with the Zappanale festival? Had you ever heard of it before?

Guy Segers: Not really, I heard about it the first time only last year. It is Michel Delville with whom I play in a new band who told me about it. He is also playing at the festival this year.

I really like the fact that you'll have musicians from different bands playing together. It's a bit like the new band that you mentioned, The Moving Tones. Can you tell us a bit about this Moving Tones project?

Guy Segers: Yes, it is a bit like MOVING TONES, but at the same time very different. Here we come from different countries as well. But the main difference is that Daevid, Makoto, Mani and I come from the “Rock” scene, the energy is different.

With MOVING TONES, I am the only musician that is not coming from the Jazz scene. The concept is nice, and consists in bringing some own compositions as well as “covers”. This brings us in a very wide spectrum of styles. In the same repertoire we play things that shouldn’t be together, like some Tony Williams and some old Pink Floyd or Radiohead. It looks iconoclast, but the fact that we put our personalities in it, gives a new lecture of these pieces. We include in each song a large space for improvisation, and this also gives us the possibility to include a guest musician. I think that more and more this way of mixing styles will appear with new bands because most of the actual musicians have access to all kind of music styles and live with this mixed background. It is a much more flexible situation than in the past. Perhaps it will take a little time to be legitimate as “new” because some people will think that playing some old Pink Floyd is old fashioned. All the difference is how and in which context!!!

What else can we expect from you in the near future?

Guy Segers: Quite a lot I hope.

Live I also play sometimes with “Sibel” a Turkish oriented music. And soon I’ll start a new band called “Emergent Sea”, this time a “Rock” oriented band including improvisation in a “Rock” context. I also record my bass as guest with different people all over the world. I like that, because here again you are not bound to a specific style, people or instruments. I already had some good experiences, but now that I started playing again, I am looking for more, especially joining musicians for live performances.

Thank you for your time & see you soon !

Guy Segers: If you want to know more, have a look here :
http://www.myspace.com/guysegers – or ask me !

1970 - Meets Roger TRIGAUX with whom I form an innovative rock group with our own compositions.

1973 - Birth of the group "NECRONOMICON" with Roger TRIGAUX, Daniel DENIS, Claude DERON and Guy DENIS. Playing our own compositions, mostly influenced by Tony WILLIAMS "LIFETIME", "MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA", Miles DAVIS and Manfred MANN's "CHAPTER THREE", among others.

1974 - Creation of the group "UNIVERS ZERO" (http://www.myspace.com/universzerounofficial) with Daniel DENIS, Roger TRIGAUX, Claude DERON, Vincent MOTOULLE, Patrick HANAPPIER and John VAN RYMENANT.

1978 - Play with the "WIM BIG BAND" with Fred VAN HOVE" including occasional guests such as Peter BRÖTZMANN (http://www.myspace.com/peterbrotzmann), Evan PARKER, Peter KOWALD, Albert MANGELSDORF, and numerous Belgian musicians including some of UNIVERS ZERO.

1978 - First concerts abroad with UNIVERS ZERO, including reunion concerts with the French band "ART ZOYD"

1979 - Live concert with the experimenal project "MUSIQUE FLEXIBLE", including Marc HOLLANDER, Vincent KENIS, Denis VAN HECKE, Franck WUYTS.

1979 - Recording the second UNIVERS ZERO album "Hérésie" with Daniel DENIS, Roger TRIGAUX, Patrick HANAPPIER and Michel BERCKMANS, followed by a European tour.

1981 - Recording of the third UNIVERS ZERO album "Ceux Du Dehors" with Michel BERCKMANS, Patrick HANAPPIER, Andy KIRK, Daniel DENIS, and Thierry ZABOITZEFF, Jean-Luc AIMÉ, Jean DEBEFVE, Ilona CHALE as guests, followed by a European tour.

1981 - Played in the electric jazz group "DEFORMATION" including Alain ROCHETTE and Daniel DENIS.

1982 - Tour with the group "PRESENT", with Roger TRIGAUX, daniel DENIS and Alain ROCHETTE.

1982 - Recording the one side single vinyl "Triomphe Des Mouches" by UNIVERS ZERO and tour with the band.

1982 - Recording of "Influences" a title by UNIVERS ZERO on a compilation for "Recommended Records" with among others, Robert WYATT, The RESIDENTS and ARTZOYD.

1983 - Recording of "Crawling Wind" a UNIVERS ZERO extended single and touring with the band.

1983 - Co-founder of the improvisation group "LIQUIDATION TOTALE" with Daniel DENIS, Franck WUYTS and Michel DELORY, playing a kind of Tony Williams - Miles Davis direction.

1984 - Start mail exchange of work on tape cassette with the American band "CARTOON".

1985 - Plays with the group INTERACTIONS including Mark BOGAERTS and Garrett LIST

1986 - Recorded as guest on "Happy Accidents" CD from the group "RASCAL REPORTERS"

1988 - Plays with "THE MORTON FORK GANG", with Geoff LEIGH, Joe HIGHAM, Daniel STOKART, Jan KUIJKEN, Mark BOGAERTS and Daniel DENIS.

1989 - Plays with the Celtic Folk band SUZIE SOFTWARE & The PERIPHERALS with Alan WARD ex UNIVERS ZERO violinist, but also Michael DEVLIN, steve SHAW and Suzette O'BRIEN on vocals.

1990 - Release of "Toujours Plus A L' Est" by UNIVERS ZERO on a compilation called "Enneade", with amonst others, the group MAGMA

1990 - Rejoins the ethnic-jazz group GALILEO'S LEFT WING with Luk MISHALLE, Danny DE CORT and Dirk WACHTELAER

1990 - Participates to a few concerts with the mega group THE SIMPLETONES including numerous Belgian and English musicians.

1991 - Founds ARGONOTE with Alan WARD, a management agency principally focused on promoting Belgian artists.

1991 - Playing with the somewhat sarcastic / "tongue in cheek" band NEW VIVOLA, with compositions and direction(s) by Johan DE SMET

1992 - Plays with X-LEGGED SALLY, this time including Pierre VERVLOESEM and Jean-Luc PLOUVIER.

1994 - Becomes member of the Rock group "GUTS !", including Fabienne VANDENPLAS, Arianne PLUMEREL, Luc VAN LIESHOUT, Eric LEMAÎTRE, Matvei BILIS, and Thierry CARCAN.

1994 - Play bass on the CD "Each In Our Own Thoughts" by Tim HODGKINSON including some unreleased titles from HENRY COW with Dagmar KRAUSE on vocals, but also Chris CUTLER, Lindsay COOPER, Bill GILONIS, Rick WILSON among others.

1994 - Produce and plays as guest on "Home Made", the first Pierre VERVLOESEM" solo album.

1995 - Releases "Onde Crépusculaire", a composition initially written for Univers Zéro, on a compilation by "Cuneïform Records", under the name of DOCTOR ZERO, with the participation of the group DOCTOR NERVE.

1995 - Participates in the reforming of the group PRESENT with Roger TRIGAUX, Daniel DENIS and Réginald TRIGAUX.

1996 - Produce and play bass on "Ardense" the first CD from rock band "GUTS!", with vocals in French.

1996 - Rebirth of UNIVERS ZERO with Daniel DENIS, Andy KIRK, Marianne DENOÏA and Kaat DE WINDT

1997 - Play a unique concert with UNIVERS ZERO at Victoriaville Festival in Quebec - Canada.

1997 - Play with Andy KIRK & The Heatmakers a very good cover band with a mixed repertoire including Andy's compositions and songs from Peter Gabriel, Police, Pink Floyd, U2, Deep Purple, Simple minds, and jimi Hendrix among others.

2002 - Produce and play bass on the CD "Grosso Modo" from Pierre VERVLOESEM, with Peter VANDENBERGHE ..boards, Charles HAYWARD on drums, and Peter VERMEERSCH as guest on Clarinets.

Partly composed, and partly improvised, a successful way of keeping intact the energy of live music.

2005 - Play a live concert as guest with KK NULL electronic devices, Seijiro MURAYAMA on drums and Eric LEMAÎTRE on guitar.

2006 - Play bass, and do some vocals on Modified Reality by Franck BALESTRACCI, produced and released on my label. This is the first work thru the channel of internet. I recorded myself as well than the guitarist and the violist at home, and send it to Franck who finalised the all work at home as well.

2007 - Played as guest on Acoustic Camera by Karl Off aswell than Dirk DESCHEEMAEKER, Jan KUIJKEN, George VAN DAM, Charles LOOS, Félix SIMTAINE, Jean-Louis RASINFOSSE

2007 - Played as guest on "Agakuk" a composition by Henry KRUTZEN on which I worked a personnal bass line. Also Morgan AGREN and Réginald TRIGAUX appear as guests on this track. It will be on the next FINNEGANS WAKE album.

2007 - Played as guest on 2 compositions that will be on the next 48 CAMERAS album.

2007 - Played live as guest with SIBEL and her band. A repertoir made of Turkish music.

2007 - Played on a compostion by Nick GREY that will be released on a next album.

2008 - Played live for two concerts with Yoshida TATSUYA from RUINS, and Kawabata MAKOTO from ACID MOTHER TEMPLE

2008 - Join a new band under the name of PURPLE VISHNU, with Michel DELVILLE (Synth-Guitar), Frank VAN DER KOOIJ (Acoustic and electronic Saxophone), Ivo SANS (Drums). Already two concerts have been done under this name, and are expecting some feedback for more... he music is a mix between own compositions and destructured "Rock" covers.

2008 - The band Purple Vishnu change its name into The MOVING TONES, and has been rejoined by Catherine SMET (Keyboards).

2008 - The MOVING TONES play 3 concerts with Benoît MOERLIN (Electronic Vibraphone, Marimba) as guest.

2008 - Play Bass as guest on the track "Agakuk" from the CD "Blue" by FINNEGANS WAKE. The two other guest are Reginald TRIGAUX (Guitar), and Morgan ARGEN (Drums).

2009 - Played live as guest with SIBEL and her band. A repertoir made of Turkish music, including a part of a composition of mine.

2009 - Made a concert of totaly improvised material with Geoff LEIGH on flutes, saxophones, percussion, vocals, electronics, Michel DELVILLE on guitar and Ivo SANS on drums. Reinforced by Frank WUYTS on melodica.

AN INTERVIEW WITH GUY SEGERS - june 2009