By Eyal Hareuveni
Dutch guitarist Terrie Ex (aka Terrie Hessels), one of the founders of The
Ex, has no formal schooling as a guitarist, no killer riffs or licks, and no
technique that is identified with him. He still plays the same, almost
fifty-year-old Guild electric guitar, his first guitar, which he bought
before ever touching a guitar, just because Peter Hammill has the same one
(and Hammill was not impressed by the gesture). Now heavily battered,
stained with blood and rust, after being hit by sticks, screwdrivers,
knives, and other objects, or pushed into the ground, pillars, and
amplifiers (and also towards too eager photographers), it has only five
strings. Ex’ Ethiopian friends call this guitar Lucy, after the skeleton of
a 3.2 million-year-old hominin woman discovered in Ethiopia.
Ex played solo, free improvised concerts since the early 1990s, and
performed (and recorded) many duo performances with fellow Dutch improvisers
like Han Bennink and Ab Baars or with Ken Vandermark, Paal Nilssen-Love,
Kaja Draksler, and Thurston Moore. But only now, the 71-year-old Ex finally
releases his debut solo album, Flaps. Flaps is the name Ex’ daughter,
singer-songwriter Lena Hessels, has called him since she was an infant. This
family affair features cover artwork by Ex’ partner. Emma Fischer, and the
album was released by Ex’ label, Terp.
The 48-minute Flaps distills the essence of Ex. It rarely corresponds with
the avant-Ethio punk grooves of The Ex, and has very few rhythmic attacks,
but it is unpredictable, equipped with sharp instincts, free and wild
imagination, and tons of experience (only The Ex played 2060 concerts since
its foundation in 1979). Ex plays the electric guitar as if it were an
elastic, experimental material that he can shape and mould its poetic,
noisy, and thorny sounds. It captures Ex’ stream-of-consciousness
beautifully, exploring fleeting moods and eccentric sounds and soundscapes
without attachment to any of these, suggesting an insightful glimpse into
the abstract film in Ex’ head. No one plays like Ex, totally possessed by
the art of the moment. At times, Flaps sounds as if his guitar has a mind
and will of its own. Only very few can offer such an arresting, risk-taking,
spontaneous, and free sonic journey.