Bl!ndman

Unusually prominent among modern ensembles, the Belgian collective BL!NDMAN has issued recordings on prominent labels. Since 2008 the group has operated as four distinct quartets. Founded in 1988 by saxophonist Eric Sleichim as a saxophone quartet under the name BL!NDMAN—a spelling employed from the outset—the ensemble took its title from an artist’s magazine created by Marcel Duchamp. Its mission centered on developing novel saxophone techniques through partnerships with creators working in other disciplines. The quartet issued its first recording, Dust Makes Damage, in 1999 on the Warner Classics label. Early in the twenty-first century the musicians turned their attention to early music, often reworking it in distinctive fashions. Sleichim prepared an arrangement of Bach’s organ chorale partitas for saxophones; the resulting album, BL!NDMAN plays Bach (2002), enjoyed broad appeal. The group subsequently joined forces with early-music specialists such as the Huelgas Ensemble and Collegium Vocale Ghent.

In 2008 BL!NDMAN reorganized itself as a collective comprising BL!NDMAN [sax], BL!NDMAN [drums], BL!NDMAN [vox], and BL!NDMAN [strings]. The quartets have appeared both independently and in mixed formations. All four participated in the Kwadratur-Triptych project, staged in various Belgian, German, and Dutch cities. The collective revisited Bach in 2012 with 32 Foot/Sweelinck-Bach, performed by BL!NDMAN [sax] at the Festival Oude Muziek Utrecht and the Musikfestspiele in Potsdam; the project was captured for EMI and released in 2013. BL!NDMAN has also worked with living composers. BL!NDMAN [sax] + [drums] has toured Whiplash, a program of newly commissioned works by Mayke Nas, Riccardo Nova, Wim Henderickx, Frederik Neyrinck, and Sleichim. BL!NDMAN [drums] + [strings] joined composer and DJ Matt Wright, who performed on eight turntables with live video supplied by Dutch video-artist Olga Mink. In 2013 the full collective performed at New York’s MATA Festival, its first appearance in the United States as a unified ensemble. Additional Warner Classics releases include Water & Fire: Händel Revisited (2017) and ICONS: The American Minimalists (2023).