default den haag

default den haag is a sound series in The Hague. Every month or two, the basement of The Grey Space in the Middle gets filled with amplified cellos, prepared homemade organ pipes or heavily processed field recordings. The sound series is halfway their first season and those first nights and afternoons have stuck with us. So, we figured it’d be nice for you to get to know default a bit better.

default’s track record is vast and varied. In the dimly lit concert space, the focus dangles mostly in the digital realm of experimental music and sound art. But it’s not restricted to that: manipulated, home-made or unorthodoxly used acoustic instruments have found their way to audience-leveled stage as well. The one aspect all events have in common is the evocation or invitation of attentive listening. Another is a curled up group of people listening closely together.

The establishment of a communal focus point is of high importance to default. Some installments are hosted with dinners, accompanied by DJ sets. With all the audio artifacts coming out of gaffer-taped MacBook’s and the conceptual discussions arising as soon as you ascend the basement, you can’t help but feel like you’re scrolling through threads of a passionate music and sound art community, IRL. 

What’s coming up? A Sunday matinee with “dissociative computer music, off-grid rhythms, obscured voices, clinical emotions & delicate, fragile soundscapes for the digital age.” A Saturday night dedicated to intimate long-form sound performances. And as season-closer: an evening full of “playful experimental sounds and refreshing computer music that seems to be about to collapse / fall apart.” Scroll through the program below.

default#4 w/ Jung An Tagen & Eric Frye, Marija Rasa, busf and Nozomu Matsumoto.
default#5 w/ Ulla, Nexcyia and Lucie Nezri.
default#6 w/ Loto Retina, Diego Behncke, Atte Elias Kantonen and ‘⊥’.

Tickets for default can be purchased here. There are a limited amount of free tickets for Subbacultcha members. Members can make a reservation by sending an email to mailinglist@subbacultcha.nl with ‘default +#’ in the subject line + your name in the email. Want to keep updated on events + news of default? Subscribe to their newsletter.