Newsletter #7

Whether by destiny or design, several publications are arriving this December from across the artistic sections of newpolyphonies.

After participation in the Brussels Ass Book Fair, YouYou Group's new book A Li'nuage is now available at bookstore rile*. The first in a forthcoming series, this publication explores the group's distinctive use of voice in public space—an approach that has shaped both its aesthetics and its politics. Editors Justine Maxelone and Will Holder stayed close to the group's orality and pluriphony while transmitting its multifaceted knowledges to a wider readership.

I am also pleased to announce Sonic Scenes, the special issue of Etcetera that David Helbich and I curated together with Simon Baetens, featuring contributions from around twenty artists. We amplify practitioners working at the intersection of performing and sonic arts. Across more than 90 pages, the issue offers a clear call to listen more closely to what sound can do through its own  forces in performance. Launch on 15 December on Etcetera.be, accompanied by playlists on SoundCloud.

In the upcoming publication of the Louis Paul Boon Kring, Lieve Franssen interviews Irena Radmanovic and me about Manchester Space—the venue newpolyphonies inhabited for two years in Manchester Street, Molenbeek. During that period it grew into a communal meeting ground for vocal, sonic, and listening practices, and it became a crucial chapter in our evolution as a young organisation exploring sonic communities in Brussels.

Finally, words return to breath and bodies in an upcoming residency with artist Marcus Bergner at Temperance Hall in South Melbourne. In our showing, Pattern poems and other mechanical prose spoken, we bend language, pattern, and patter without moderation. Drunk on words—my wishes go out to you all for the end of this year and the one now forming.

Upcoming
 
CLUB ZAGHAREED
PRACTICE
KBR, Brussels, Mont des Arts 28, 1000 Brussel, België  
6 December, 14:00 - 17:00
Women can join YouYou Group' monthly practice around ululation and trilling voice techniques at the current residence of the group at KBR, Mons des Arts 28, 1000 Brussels. Inscription with a couple of lines of motivation can be sent to info@newpolyphonies.be
 
'SCHOP DE MENSEN EEN GEWETEN'
BOOKLAUNCH
Raadszaal Gemeente Etterbeek, Kazernenlaan 31/1, 1050 Etterbeek
11 December 2025, 17:30
 
The new book of Louis Paul Boon Kring contains an Interview with Myriam Van Imschoot and Irena Radmanovic by Lieve Franssen. They talk about Manchester Space, a communal artist-run space for sonic, vocal and other connecting practices in Brussels. 
 
SONIC SCENES
LAUNCH ETCETERA SPECIAL 
15 December 2025 here
 
Curated by David Helbich and Myriam Van Imschoot, with contributions of David, Myriam, Simon Baetens with Jean-Baptiste Veyret-Logerias, Jule Flierl, Friedemann Dupelius, Yann Leguay, Anne Vanderstar and many more, this special issue on sound in the performing arts turns the ears to what sound and voice can really do when it's not merely treated as an instrument. Check the website of Etcetera.be
 
PATTERN POEMS AND OTHER MECHANICAL PROSE
SHOWING end of residency Myriam Van Imschoot & Marcus Bergner
12 December, 19:00
Temperance Hall, 199 Napier St. South Melbourne
Info and tickets
 

Pattern poems and some mechanical prose spoken pairs live poetry with performance with an interested in how an audience can patter in. It concludes a residency at Temperance Hall.