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Newsletter 16
Early 2006 update
After an exciting year The Ex are ready for a new series of musical challenges. Not only once again a ten-day tour of friendly France in February, and cd-recordings and European concerts with Ethiopian saxophone-legend Getatchew Mekuria in April, but also, finally, after a hiatus of almost two years, a series of concerts in Holland, right at the beginning of the year 2006. Then, later in the year, we'll be travelling into unknown territory.
2005 was, again, a busy year for The Ex. During the Spring there were not only concerts at various European festivals (a.o. St. Petersburg, Athene, Biel, Moers, Bourges) and two tours of Frankrijk, but also work to be done for the after-summer release of the singles-compilation album Singles.Period. Next to that The Ex started the collaboration with theatergroup d'Electrique. This collaboration resulted in a re-make of Anthony Burgess' novel A Clockwork Orange, a true spectacle, with 5 try-outs and 15 sold out shows in June and July.
After the summer, in a new 4-piece line-up (instead of the long-time usual 5), The Ex worked hard at completely changing their live-set. This time without a bass, but with two baritone-guitars extra, which made way for a surprising and pleasant widening of their musical spectre. In between rehearsals there were concerts at festivals in Gent (Jem Cohen's Fusebox) and Strasbourg (Nuits des Européennes), after which during the autumn the entirely new repertoire was held at the font via a ten-day tour of Germany and a series of concerts in France, during which The Ex's 1200th concert could be witnessed.
Also for 2006 there are once again various events put on the stocks. Next to the already mentioned concerts in Holland and France The Ex will go into the studio in early April to record an album with the Ethiopian saxophone-giant Getatchew Mekuria and then do a row of concerts with him in Holland and France, a.o. on the last day of the Banlieues Bleues festival in Paris, where also Mohammed Jimmy Mohammed¹s trio (plus Han Bennink) and Mahmoud Ahmed will play.
Around the Summer there are plans for a tour of Scandinavia, Spain and Italy, plus concerts at various European festivals (a.o. Roskilde and Fusion-Berlin). And after the Summer America is calling again, and is the group invited to do concerts in Brazil. After which it will be almost 2007, in which year The Ex and d'Electrique will travel through Holland for four weeks with their Clockwork Orange performance.
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