Guitarist Bram Stadhouders (known in the Netherlands for his distinctive and unconventional guitar playing) and guitarist Melle Weijters (for many years closely involved with the Huygens-Fokker Foundation and an expert in microtonal music) will alternately, but also jointly, control the Fokker organ via their guitars and laptops. Stadhouders will mainly focus on his characteristic and energetic improvisations, magnificently controlling the organ with his MIDI guitar. Weijters, on the other hand, will concentrate more on new microtonal applications within jazz and blues, using an electric guitar and software to communicate with the 31-tone organ.
Bram Stadhouders studied electronic music in Utrecht and composition at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and he has gained considerable experience in playing an organ through his guitar. Under the title Organic Guitar, he has performed live improvisations on the BusyDrone barrel organ in the Orgelpark in Amsterdam. Melle Weijters studied jazz guitar at the Maastricht Conservatoire and has devoted himself for many years to fretless and microtonal guitars. He has already controlled the Fokker organ with his guitar in both 2014 and 2016, including improvisations on chords by Adriaan Fokker and Duellin’ The Meantone Blues, one of his own compositions, which will also be performed again on this occasion. The differences in approach between the two musicians will also become apparent in a collective improvisation, in which they will engage in a musical duel.