When Pieterjan Vervondel, the drumming half of Madensuyu, and Mirko Banovic, Arno’s bassing left hand, forge musical plans, the musical landscape pricks up its ears.
For 25 years, Madensuyu has been building an uncompromising, sincere and intense career in the field of noise, melody and experiment. Pieterjan Vervondel and partner Stijn Ylode De Gezelle created a musical language all their own. In 2018, the band said goodbye to the stage. But the blood of drummer and fellow composer Pieterjan Vervondel crawls where it cannot go.
This time we see him at work with a new project, and a new companion. Enter Mirko Banovic, bassed in Belgium, who has a very diverse and interesting career. He played the bass in countless projects and bands: from Jane Birkin to An Pierlé, from dEUS to Adamo, from experimental noise to Flat Earth Society.
The Belgian voice artist and performer Prisca – Agnes Nishimwege with Rwandan roots, soon joined the two men. She shared the stage with Jeroen Perceval, Gregory Frateur or Zino Moons and is a member of the multidisciplinary collective e-c-h-e-l-o-n.
In the separate 2020-2021 season, S T I L L L was born. Vervondel, Banovic and Nishimwege invested in the creation of this new band and music: improvising, writing songs, rehearsals, getting the sound right, the first try-outs and a recording session of first demos.
This start-up phase brought them on the radar of director Adriaan van Aken and led to the creation of the soundtrack for the multidisciplinary performance Surfer Rosa Begijntje of Het Nieuwstedelijk by S T I L L L.