menu

welcome!

 – my phd thesis ‘ les petits pays colorés : adding the colors of Messiaen to jazz composition and improvisation’ is now available on this website, all pages are online : scroll right and down from the ‘research’ tab, if you want to go straight to the heart of the thesis, go to the ‘compositions’ page / happy to share after a 5-years doctorate research at the university of LEUVEN / all in french though…plan is to do an english version…

– link to my basic soundcloud page :                                                 https://soundcloud.com/bo-van-der-werf-209926043

– new CD : VERESS VARIATIONS on PEEWEE label / listenable on spotify : https://open.spotify.com/intl-fr/album/1rXjvfZhhFsO0GWsqU8Qrk?si=mKopv0lYQx-B-s9v3wLZYQ                                                                                                                         more info here: https://peeweelabel.com/fr/albums/44

some nice reviews:

https://jazzmania.be/octurn-veress-variations/

https://www.citizenjazz.com/Octurn-3483427.html https://www.citizenjazz.com/Octurn-et-Veress-d-un-monde-a-l-autre.html https://www.citizenjazz.com/Bo-van-Der-Werf-3483426.html

– check this EP : 4 songs recorded with magic malik, jozef dumoulin, cyrille obermuller, nelson veras and stéphane galland / listenable on my spotify page: https://open.spotify.com/album/7qIFFzGssqaInVRU4K7b0y?si=9yUdoakxSKiq1dMXTzB56g

– very happy to be artist-in-residence for 2 years at LE PETIT FAUCHEUX (2024-2025)  https://petitfaucheux.fr/ some great project in the making  ! more info soon !!

– check ‘speaking kindly’, a duo with jozef dumoulin, released in october 2022 on PEE WEE

– for those interested : I uploaded our concert with OCTURN at KLAENG festival in köln on november 2022 with the inspiring bass clarinetist joris roelofs as guest, and with the usual partners-in-crime jozef dumoulin on keyboards, fabian fiorini on piano and dré pallemaerts on drums / if you want to listen : visit the ‘listen’ page

 – if you landed here because you want to know a bit more about OCTURN: www.octurn.com contains a large selection of materials from our recent projects and you can order cds if interested / I’ve been directing this ensemble for many years now / our latest project was created in april 2023 ‘the sandor verses’ , at BOZAR in brussels and palais des beaux-arts de charleroi / and recorded in paris for the PEE WEE label, for a new CD released in may 24 / bass clarinetist joris roelofs and a beautiful string trio ( eugenie defraigne on cello, laure bardet on violin and esther coorevits on alto ) join us on a series of new compositions, freely inspired by the string trio of hungarian composer sandor veress. In the meantime you can listen to this nice project / you can check octurn’s most recent release ‘GAMELAN’  = a collaboration between octurn and the contemporary ensemble ictus ( actually a project that took place 12 years ago but just came out ) I wrote the music, freely inspired by the modus operandi of the gamelan music / octurn’s bandcamp page : https://octurn.bandcamp.com/

– if you landed here because you heard about a mysterious project featuring Tibetan singing monks, take some time to dive into this amazing website

– check the  ‘mantra magnets’ project / this is a video of our first (ever!) ‘concert’ recorded in January 2021

– if you landed here because you want to know more about my documentary film on the great filmmaker satyajit ray and his photographer nemai ghosh, and you want to watch the film or explore the archives, here you go: http://manikda.space

– if you have no idea how or why you landed here, my name is bo van der werf, and besides my main job as family’s official dog walker, I play baritone saxophone, I try to compose nice music and I share my passion at the conservatory of antwerpen / these are some of the projects I am happy to play with :

TONNETZ : https://www-fourier.ujf-grenoble.fr/~faure/Modelisation_musicale/index.xhtml

lynn cassiers ‘YUN’ : https://lynncassiers.com/yun/

the workshop : http://www.stephanepayen.com

lidlboj : http://www.jozefdumoulin.com