Composer, one of the usual suspects at SMOG, and professor at the Conservatory of Liège, Gilles Gobert is also one of our national geeks. With the same virtuosity—and the same versatility—he connects digital devices and weaves artistic friendships, bringing new aesthetic entities into existence. After his duo with Inger Elisabeth Gleditsch, after the two-headed hydra [KNAPP] with Gilles Doneux, after the ensemble LAPS, we discover in a single evening two new deities from the Gobertian cosmology: Eshu and a certain Signor Gomez. As an introduction, a pas de deux with our violist Victor Guaita.

ESHU

In the Yoruba pantheon of West Africa, Eshu is the messenger of the gods: a cunning shapeshifter who stirs desires and redirects destinies. The duo Eshu, formed by Gilles Gobert and Sara Picavet—a long-standing friendship—embraces a music of deliberately ambiguous character, oscillating between complexity and nonchalance.

GOMEZ

Signor Gomez is neither alive nor dead: he haunts the outer circles of the human world. Cymbalom, synthesizer and lap steel guitar weave a hybrid, ghostly music, gently undulating to the pulse of mystical beats.

With Tom De Cock and Pierre Slinckx

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PART OF ARS MUSICA 2026

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November 24, 2026,
164 Van Volxemlaan,
1190 Brussels