AU-DELÀ by V/A - VARIOUS ARTISTS

Au-delà is a collaborative record by La Scie Dorée and Meakusma. It features eight pieces of music by La Scie Dorée affiliates. For the 2018 Meakusma Festival, La Scie Dorée and Meakusma set up a collaboration that brought performances by Timo Van Luijk, Steven Stapleton, Christophe Heemann, Daniel Denis, Bart De Paepe and Kris Vanderstraeten to the festival in Eupen, Belgium. This was followed up with a night organized in the province of Limburg in Belgium featuring performances by Frederik Croene and Timo Van Luijk, Tom James Scott, Ecka Mordecai and Andrew Chalk.

Timo Van Luijk founded La Scie Dorée in 2000 to release his solo work as Af Ursin and the various collaborative projects he is involved in. Af Ursin opens Au-delà with a piece escaping straightforward definition, setting the tone for the album. The general focus of Au-delà is on musical space and the at times gentle yet always focused upset of musical and emotional signifiers. Tracks by legendary artists such as Michael Ranta, Steven Stapleton and Christophe Heemann together with work by relatively young or obscure performers and new projects such as Circaea, Raymond Dijkstra, James Worse, Bart de Paepe and Berrocal Epplay all delve into the niche that is free improvisation, frankly defining inward and outward space and movement and thus questioning the purpose of the niche itself.

Au-delà features a music that borders and transcends the genres of free improv, ambient, industrial and avant-garde composition. Its intention lays firmly in surpassing the general idea that experimental and improvised music is intended for the initiated only. Its subtle stance on musical beauty only adds to that intention.

The collaboration between La Scie Dorée and Meakusma benefited greatly from the support of the Flemish Community and Ostbelgien.