Andre van Rensburg (born 22 December 1976 in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

) is a

South African __NOTOC__ South African may relate to: * The nation of South Africa * South African Airways * South African English * South African people * Languages of South Africa * Southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost subregion of the Afric ...

avant-garde composer, producer and instrumentalist living in Tokyo, Japan. Van Rensburg is a prolific artist with dozens of credits as composer, performer and producer.

Career

He established himself in South Africa in the mid '90s and has since traveled the world, performing and recording regularly in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He is known in South Africa as the founder of the group Supernature as well as the guitarist for the hugely successful industrial group Battery 9 from 1999 to 2004. His solo instrumental work is characterized by dissonance, non-predictable structures and the absence of traditional melodic or harmonic content. His solo guitar playing often utilizes extended techniques and string 'preparations', as in the prepared piano works of composer

John Cage John Milton Cage Jr. (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American composer and music theorist. A pioneer of indeterminacy in music, electroacoustic music, and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading fi ...

. He has been influenced by composers such as

Morton Feldman Morton Feldman (January 12, 1926 – September 3, 1987) was an American composer. A major figure in 20th-century classical music, Feldman was a pioneer of indeterminate music, a development associated with the experimental New York School ...

Giacinto Scelsi Giacinto Francesco Maria Scelsi (; 8 January 1905 – 9 August 1988, sometimes cited as 8 August 1988) was an Italian composer who also wrote surrealist poetry in French. He is best known for having composed music based around only one pitch, ...

, Leo Brouwer,

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conductor, saxophonist, arranger and producer who "deliberately resists category". Zorn's avant-garde and experimental approaches to composition and improvisation are inclusive of jaz ...

and

Pierre Boulez Pierre Louis Joseph Boulez (; 26 March 1925 – 5 January 2016) was a French composer, conductor and writer, and the founder of several musical institutions. He was one of the dominant figures of post-war Western classical music. Born in Mont ...

, and improvisors Derek Bailey,

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as one of the founding members of the English avant-rock ...

and Marc Ribot.

Early life

Andre van Rensburg grew up in South Africa and studied

classical guitar The classical guitar (also known as the nylon-string guitar or Spanish guitar) is a member of the guitar family used in classical music and other styles. An acoustic wooden string instrument with strings made of gut or nylon, it is a precursor o ...

from the age of 7. He started composing at the age of 10. After studying with various teachers he developed his own notational technique, blending traditional musical notation with abstract and graphic notation. In 1994 he moved to

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

busking Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

for a living. In 1995 he returned to South Africa, forming the group Supernature, who had a number one hit on Barney Simon's

5FM 5FM is a South African FM radio station that follows a Top 40 music format and is owned by the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), South Africa's public broadcaster. SABC announced the appointment of Mr. JD Mostert as Business Mana ...

Alternative Chart with their first single "Devil" (1997). Supernature went on to record two albums. He then joined Brendan Jury and

Warrick Sony Warrick Swinney (born in 1958), more commonly known as Warrick Sony, is a South African composer, producer, musician and sound designer. He is the founder and sole permanent member of the Kalahari Surfers. They made politically radical satirical ...

's Trans.sky project as guitarist, later forming the group Ohm with Jury. Ohm went on to release an album through the British label M.E.L.T. 2000 and touring

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

and the

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in 2000. In 1998 he moved to

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...

and joined the industrial group Battery 9, appearing on their album ''Sondebok'', released by

BMG BMG may refer to: Organizations * Music publishing companies: ** Bertelsmann Music Group, a 1987–2008 division of Bertelsmann that was purchased by Sony on October 1, 2008 *** Sony BMG, a 2004–2008 joint venture of Bertelsmann and Sony that wa ...

in 1999. He also composed and recorded an album with Battery 9 front man Paul Riekert as Die Menere; the album ''Floukop'' was released by One F Music in 2004.

Recent projects

Van Rensburg moved to Asia in 2003, forming the recording label South of the Border, and released five solo albums: ''Concrete'' (2007), chamber music performed by the Poisondwarf Ensemble; ''Unfinished Cities'' (2008), recorded in Japan and Taiwan with koto player Mori Chieko; ''Scopophilia (7 etudes for solo bondage guitar)'' (2008); ''Kopstukke Vol. 1'' (the first in a series of nine albums of new compositions for classical guitar, 2011); and ''Game of the Voce'' (2011). In 2009 he collaborated with South African expats Louis Minnaar and Jean Marais (also known as MoShang) and released the album ''Eentonig'' through the Onse Plate label. He has recently scored music for award-winning Thai film director Pramotz Sangsorn and creates various sound installations internationally. In 2016 he relocated to Tokyo where he performs with various

butoh is a form of Japanese dance theatre that encompasses a diverse range of activities, techniques and motivations for dance, performance, or movement. Following World War II, butoh arose in 1959 through collaborations between its two key founders ...

dancers and other improvising musicians, including Tetuzi Akiyama. In 2022 he produced and released the album 翠靄 (Suiai) with Ko Ishikawa on shō (a traditional Japanese instrument usually associated with its use in

gagaku is a type of Japanese classical music that was historically used for imperial court music and dances. was developed as court music of the Kyoto Imperial Palace, and its near-current form was established in the Heian period (794-1185) around t ...

music) and Naoto Yamagishi on percussion.

Discography

* Supernature – Sugar in a Hurricane (1998) * Supernature – Spill (1999) * Ohm – Ohm (2000) M.E.L.T. 2000 * Ohm – 2nd (2001) * Poisondwarf – Clinical Capsule (2001) * Battery 9 – Sondebok – "Iets om te blameer"(2003) BMG * Die Menere – Floukop (2004) One F * Eentonig – Eentonig (2009) * André van Rensburg – Concrete (2007) South of the Border * André van Rensburg – Unfinished Cities (2008) South of the Border * André van Rensburg – Scopophilia (2008) South of the Border * André van Rensburg – Kopstukke Vol. 1 (2011) South of the Border * André van Rensburg – Game of the Voice (2011) South of the Border * Duo Sovtio - Prima Matera (2015) South of the Border * André van Rensburg – Trepenation (2016) South of the Border * André van Rensburg, Ko Ishikawa, Naoto Yamagishi - Suiai (2022) South of the Borderhttps://jazztokyo.org/reviews/cd-dvd-review/post-74636/?fbclid=IwAR0i5CFjCBbUBG-eOnNVB_o8Pf9DFF_ee2o3WOEq2A1uwLVKolp7YRIrbRw

References

External links

* * http://www.andrevanrensburg.org/ {{DEFAULTSORT:Van Rensburg, Andre 1976 births Living people South African guitarists