LAPS Ensemble

LAPS, a young association of Belgian musicians, arose from the desire to create an original ensemble which associates amplified instruments with three laptops. The first idea was to provoke human and gestural interactions, imagining a « chamber-music concept » emerging from the relation between « acoustic » musicians and « electronic » performers. But also to create a place where contemporary music can express its solidarity with popular musics, where the history of ideas can join the intense enjoyment of sensations ; not to mention the whispers, the rumours and other possible murmurs of our time - all these sophisticated sounds made possible by the crosses between computers and traditional instruments, in order to make an echo at the very heart of the new generations.

Launched in 2013 on the initiative of the composers Claude Ledoux – manager and conductor of the ensemble - and some of his former students - Gilles Doneux, Geoffrey François, Gilles Gobert, Pierre Slinckx - LAPS has for vocation to arouse a new repertoire for this original musical association. Besides a policy of guest composers and performers, the ensemble shows also the desire to promote its own composers. Moreover, its programs alternate « written » compositions and improvisations. Aesthetically, LAPS tries to introduce a fusion between urban sounds and contemporary writing, with occasional "world" musical references to the East and Latin America. LAPS was born at the occasion of the Electro Night during Ars Musica 2013. Furthermore, the Ensemble was invited at the Shanghai Festival in 2014. Amongst other concerts, LAPS Ensemble performed at many festivals as TRANSIT-Leuven, Saturnalia-Gent, SBAM-Mons, Loop, Artonov, Europart, ADEM and at The Festivals of Wallonia. In 2017, the Ensemble was in residence at the PROJECTION ROOM-Brussels and took part of the prestigious concerts series of the Royal Academy of Belgium. Recently LAPS was invited at the Festival "Musiques Démesurées" of Clermont-Ferrand (France) and participated at the composition of the stage music for the play "Nuisibles" (on tour in 2023).