Info over Somnambulist

M.Bryo, Somnambulist,KLINIK, KOYT!, Thepaphone, ElectraSonic
M.Bryo is the soloproject of Mark Burghgraeve, of whom in May 2007 a split 7" was released on the American Minimal Wave label with another project of him on the b-side:Somnambulist.
M.Bryo and Somnambulist are projects from the early 80’s, KOYT! Was formed in 2005 Somnambulist released 2 cassettes on the famous Central Tapes cassettelabel ("Withered Land" and "A Kite of Glass") and songs on different compilations, e.g. on "Art & Dance 3" on the German Gothic Arts Records label and on the compilation cd "Rape the City" on KK records.

Listen here: Somnambulist - The Withered Land

M.Bryo released the cassette "Homo Fabre", 2 songs on the cassette compilation "Evergreens Compilation" ("Shift" and "Shrinking Rooms") on Central Tapes, 1 song on the compilation lp "No Big Business 2" ("The Empty Street") and 1 song on the compilation cd "Rape the City" on KK records ("Wrong House").

Listen here: M.Bryo & D.M.T. - Homo Fabre

* "Blanco" was recorded live on 18 june 1982 at Galerie Blanco in Antwerp, Belgium. The idea was to raise some money because previous events organised at Club Moral had been cancelled by town authorities and we had run into troubles with tax authorities, security regulations et al.
Apart from the recorded performances there were also installations by Claude and Waving Ondulata, films by J.C Wouters and Fugitive Cinema, and videos from The Kitchen, New York and De Nieuwe Workshop, Brussels.
The evening started out around 19.30hrs with a performance by V-Side. Dirk Paesmans and Frank & Koen Theys were laying in the gutter of the street outside the gallery with shortwave radios tied to their head. DDV interviewed people about their opinion towards the performance, which was stopped by the police after about 15 mins. On stage M.Bryo kicked off, a one-man new wave synth project of Mark Burghgraeve. M.Bryo was part of an emerging new beat generation which also produced bands like DMT, The Klinik, Vomito Negro, etc. Next to torture the sound system was Angst. With nothing but cassette players and effects Erik Vloeberghs instantly brewed an exquisite noise set just using found footage and home recordings of his parents, relatives and neighbours chatting and whining. Then Club Moral took the stage. With Super8 movies and slides for visual effects some of the classics including 'Eating Limbs', 'Der Wind Schlagt um' and a rare 'Hail to Thee, Black Prince' were performed con brio. Etat Brut would fulfill their usual role of aural rapists with the most powerful and obscene electronics. To finish off in chaos V-Side came onto stage again.
* * Between 1981 and 1986 - D t transported the stone from Wales to the Himalaya, first on the flatbed of their Bedford truck, later on a special trailer. They travelled all over Europe, visiting art events, but they also managed to have the stone sprinkled with Holy Water by the Pope or having Rolling Stone (!) Mike Jagger posing next to it.
In february 1982 they were staying at Club Moral to do some repair work on their truck, and for a 'Bangkok' event at Montevideo, an Antwerp art space. We were scheduled to play, and Claude was doing a performance (with pig entrails and molotov cocktails and the whole). As a stage for our performance we built a 6m high metal scaffolding covered with parachutes. While - D t drove their truck inside the space, we had to move our scaffolding. By doing so a metal door which served as a platform fell down and knocked DDV and M.Bryo on the head, they were driven off to the hospital with head injuries while AMVK, supported by Raf Bauwens, performed as Club Moral. The show must go on. In late 1982 - D t took off to India, and from 1 april till 30 may 1983 the Bangkok Project was held in the Bhirasri Institute in Bangkok, Thailand. Club Moral were supposed to play, but we never managed to get the funding.

see DDV's 8mm film here

‘Schetsen Voor Een Cementen Tuin’ were musical scetches for a theaterplay by Guy Cassiers, De cementen tuin (The Cement Garden) in1984. ‘A Kite of Glass’ was the synthesis of these scetches...

Listen here: Somnambulist - A Kite of Glass

Mark worked with/for Guy Cassiers, Jan Fabre, Stef Vianen, Wim Delvoye, Happy Female Artists, Elaine Shipman, Eric Joris, Kasjanoova, Guillaume Bijl, Wessel di Wesseli and many more artists as a composer/ actor/ dancer/ singer/ multimedia technician/ CG artist. He was an independent multi-media artist, teacher micromontage and created CD-roms, computer animations, 3d-illustrations and even build a complete virtual world, based on a dodecahedron in a computer-video-installation called “Pythia meets Pythagoras” at MuKHa with the help of Kasjanoova, Dimitri van Elsen, Skull-Jedha, Roel Delafaille, Hans Mortelmans, Brik Van Der Groen and Vidisquare. In the late Seventies, M.BRYO, alias Mark (Merlin) Burghgraeve, Somnambulist, followed Art School and formed from Fluff (an experimental band before the synth-revolution) and later the first full synthetic M.BRYO & D.M.T. with some fellow students. The first public performance was literaly "unplugged" by the teachers of the concervatorium at the Royal Academie of Fine Arts. They pulled the pluggs: noone should be harmed by the diabolical disharmonics these paranoid creatures seemed to find in our harmless exploration of new technology, then again, M; was an Fine Arts student, not a Music student...
In the early eighties Mark himself kept himself alive by being a DJ at the Domino Club, a new wave dancing at the notourious Stadswaag in Antwerp, later he became a bouncer at the Zazou and at the Plaza, also new wave clubs.
He was an actor/dancer in experimental theater where he met Jan Fabre in the exciting times of postpunk. M.Bryo was engaged by Jan Fabre to be part of the "Homo Fabre" installation, as a coldwave thing. They performed in "c.c. ter Dilft".

Strong friendly connections took place at "Club Moral" during an theatherplay with D.D.V. & Annemie Van Kerkhoven. He played in their kitchen and there where publications in "Force Mental", an independent art magazine by Club Moral. M.Bryo & D.M.T. played from 1982 till 1984 in clubs, cultural centers & chappels on exhibitions as morning-, noon- or evening-entertainment. Every concert was different, sometimes complete with the D.M.T.band, sometimes solo.
Instruments where: KORG MS10 & 20, KORG SEQUENCER, TANDY Ritmebox, KORG KR55, ROLAND TR808, KORG POLYSIX, ROLAND SH-01, CRUISE, DX7, DX21, ENSONIQ, ARP2006, ELECTROHARMONIX Delay. Ibanez analog Echo-Flanger, etc...
From M.Bryo KLINIK soon emerged.
The look of KLINIK was derived from a theaterplay Mark with Guy Cassiers was envolved with at the time: “Kasper”.
All the actors were made to look like each other and wore selfmade latex masks, made from stockings, giving them a pretty strange appearance.
By lack of latex, we emptied the EHBO case of the car et voilà, KLINIK was born:
in 1984 KLINIK started with 3 members: Mark Burghgraeve (concept/singer) Marc Verhaeghen (ARP2006) and Ivo Dierickx (TEISCO)...
After some depressing gigs (Tom Tom Club & Cinderella's in Antwerp) , Mark decided to stop and the Marc Verhaeghen carried on with Sandy Nijs (Hybryds) & Dirk Ivens (Absolute Body Control, Dive, Daft records, etc..) Later, Mark joined KLINIK again on tour as sound & light technician, programmed the sounds & rythms with Noise Unit, appeared as ‘The Alpha Project on Hybryds ‘Octahedron’ & Vidna Obmana’s “‘Revealed by composed Nature”, worked as a graphic artist for INSEKT, TRANS4M, XIO, Vomito Negro and finaly reappeared on "The KNIFE" & “STITCH” by the KLINIK and hit the stage in Germany, this time again as a singer...
Later, he contributed to some of the Brain Pilot projects by S.van Elsen & Dimitrive, worked with Nikki Mono and Kiran Singh.


Listen here: Somnambulist - Piano Debris

Nowadays, he lives with his son Merlijn in a caravan, working on a new project with Nickanor and creating new songs as Somnambulist or M.Bryo, depending on the mood...