My mother is always asking what it actually is that I am doing. This blog can help her to get to know a bit more about all about the activities of Ruben Nachtergaele aka Lewis in heaven aka her oldest son.
As a child I liked to perform for people: a clown act, a rockband, I did all that.. But the first time I felt at ease being an artist, was while studying architecture in Sint lucas Ghent. That’s where I learned how to be pure as a person/artist. Each step one makes, or each artefact one produces, can be defined as an autonomous artwork. If you propose it in the right way, the way it deserves.
For my graduating project in 1999 (an online library in Sarajevo) I needed some music to boost my computer presentation. So I spend some time in between to make the sounds on my aldi-computer, using very simple free software. Because I had the feeling that I could say more with music than with words.
The tracks kept on coming, so at a certain moment I felt that some of them together, could form a global story. The self-titled Lewis in Heaven Cd was born a bit later. In the mean time we had formed ‘Starbot’, a group of friends organizing expo’s, free parties and other cultural events. This also gave me – as a musician – many ouput possibilities.
Beneath electronic (computer) music, I had the urge to play free music, with real things in my hands. With kapotski, we added some more limitations to that urge so we had a nice concept to form our own sound.
Here and there, people noticed what I did and I ended up producing stuff for theater, dance, freakshows, commercials, installations, movies, field recordings, remixes… Gradualy I learned how to handle software, mixing tables, recording tricks, studio environments, all kinds of knobs & sliders…
Electro-aucoustic music and impro became the keywords. To collaborate with other fields, & people is also essential for my path. In performing together on stage for an audience, I find the most beautiful exchange of energy. Where no one loses and everyone ends up richer than before. That’s how I found for myself the most accurate way to mutually communicate feelings and share unspeakable things.
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