RUISKAMER: Charlemagne Palestine & Seppe Gebruers / Brìghde Chaimbeul

Charlemagne Palestine & Seppe Gebruers

Palestine and Gebruers are two idiosyncratic top talents with a shared passion for playing multiple pianos simultaneously. A common ground for collaboration that the New York composer, visual artist and carillonneur, and the Belgian pianist discovered in Antwerp, during a festival celebrating the artistic versatility of the “Quasimodo of New York” where Gebruers performed a carillon concert in the Onze-Lieve-Vrouwekathedraal.

The unique collaboration between the two artists premiered during Ear To The Ground at De Bijloke in Ghent, where they transformed the hall into a colorful chapel, filled with Palestine's “divinities” (a whole bunch of cute stuffed animals), and their atonal genius on four grand pianos, with Gebruers working with quarter-tone tunings, while Palestine uses a completely original tuning.

Sometimes called the shaman and the professor, they mysteriously find each other in a magical sound bath. Their collaboration remains a rare phenomenon, in which even the silences between piano transitions are imbued with an almost mystical energy. In February 2025, they released 'Beyondddddddd The Notessssss', a live recording at the Junxxxxxion Hall of the Fonderie Kugler in Geneva, from the leading Konnekt. 

Brìghde Chaimbeul

Brìghde Chaimbeul is a leading purveyor of celtic experimentalism and a master of the Scottish smallpipes – the bellows-blown, mellower and more emotive cousin to the famous Highland bagpipes – and she’s taken them to the global stage. A native Gaelic speaker from the Isle of Skye, Brìghde roots her music in her language and culture. She rose to prominence as a prodigy of traditional music, but has since begun a journey to take the smallpipes into uncharted territory. She has devised a completely unique way of arranging for pipe music that emphasises the rich textural drones of the instrument; the constancy of sound that creates a trance-like atmosphere, played with enticing virtuosic liquidity.

She draws inspiration from the world of interconnected piping traditions, and her most recent album brings in influence from ambient, avant garde and electronic music. One can talk about Brìghde’s awards (BBC Young Folk Award; BBC Horizons Award; SAY Award nominee) and her wide array of collaborators (Caroline Polachek; Colin Stetson; Gruff Rhys; Aidan O'Rourke...) but after it all, her music speaks for itself. Haunting, entrancing, breathtaking, beautiful – this open-eared, understatedly virtuosic performer is transforming and creating new definitions for Scottish folk in the 21st century.