Vivan los Independientes:
Ze Couch Cooks your Ear a Good Meal

patrick brennan
January 2014

Violist Frantz Loriot, who originated the series, tells this:

The idea of doing a house concert series started when I first entered the house I lived in for 2 years in Bushwick in Brooklyn. I saw the living room and I immediately thought we could have some concerts there. Also at that time, I had freshly arrived in NY from Paris, France and didn’t have many opportunities to play, so Ze Couch was an alternative.

I called the first event of this series “The Couch” to celebrate a couch we’d found with my housemate Daniele Chicca in Williamsburg and brought home by subway (L train and M train) one night in January 2009. Before the second event started, my friend Jean-Brice Godet from Paris ‘‘frenchisized’’ the name as ‘‘Ze’’ Couch.

I was joined a year and a half later, in October 2010, by Pascal Niggenkemper who helped me to curate the series. His enthusiasm and dynamism changed many things! We did Ze Couch every 2 weeks, we organized a few festivals and he brought many new musicians to perform. At the same time, people like Julián Silva and Devlin Goldberg or Luis Ianes and Blandine Le Gall or Daniele Chicca with Cesare Baccheschi and Virna di Schiavi showed their interest in helping us by hosting the event at their places and cooking dinner.

I’m very happy that, even as I’ve left New York, the series is still going on and that its reputation is still growing. The series is now curated by bassists Sean Ali & Pascal Niggenkemper and hosted in Brooklyn (in Bushwick and Flatbush) and Queens (in Woodside).

In Frantz’s words,

The credo of these events is: to hear different kinds of music in an intimate setting and to share this experience with people of various different backgrounds. Guests bring friends and drinks. A suggested donation is requested and all the money goes to the musicians. For each event, we provide food. We’re trying to offer an alternative to usual venues.

The series’ current co-curator, Sean Ali, recounts how his participation in the series evolved.

I got involved in Ze Couch mostly through being friends and musical collaborators of Frantz Loriot and Pascal Niggenkemper. In 2012, Frantz moved back to Europe. Frantz and Pascal had been doing a majority of the booking for the series, and they both asked me if I would fill in for Frantz, since he wouldn’t continue booking for the series when he moved to Zurich. For my part, I was more than happy to. I had been occasionally curating events in the city, but never with regularity. Also, Frantz and Pascal kept the artistic level of the performances very high, so this was also exciting to me.

I’ve witnessed plenty of house parties that include some live music as an additional element, and I’ve been, of course, used to gatherings of musicians to play at home, but not explicitly for an audience. I’ve heard the lore of rent parties from back in the day, but a deliberately designed at home concert, especially for more or less radical music, here in the U.S., was still news to me. Sean helped adjust my perspective.

The idea of in-home concerts may seem unusual on initial consideration, but it is, in fact, nothing new. People have been doing this for quite some time. The term “chamber music” speaks itself to a kind of music that was played in the chambers of one’s house. There is also the whole history of salon culture in 19th-century Paris. Europe, perhaps, sets the historical model for this kind of thing. Nonetheless, house shows are currently quite common in the US. It would be quite possible to do a tour of the entire country playing only house shows. Also, I think as the conditions for performers worsen in in the more official venues, the more that we see a proliferation of house concerts. It comes down to a quite simple conclusion really: why should I toil to play somewhere where I am mistreated when I can play somewhere that appreciates what I am doing? In the house series, this is possible, because we can control the conditions.

Frantz adds to this some of the examples that inspired his conception of Ze Couch.

I had been hanging and playing a few times in house concert series in NY… to name a few of them: Papacookie, Midwood music series, the Jonathan Moritz’ Prospect series, drummer Andrew Drury’s Soup and Sounds house concert series, drummer Dave Miller had one as well – the Evening Time place series, The Robinwood Concert House series in Toledo (OH) etc… and there are many others. This is just to say that it is not so unusual, I think.

House concerts, at least in Europe, is part of a very old tradition. Lot of classical music, especially chamber music, was performed in “salons.” It was of course for a certain society… and I think it’s somehow still the case, but this is another debate. The only difference now is that it’s becoming very difficult to play music in a living room in Europe nowadays…

When I started Ze Couch, I’d seen already house concerts in Europe and my mother is actually still doing her own in Paris, but it’s a classical music one. And the way it works is the same as Ze Couch: free entrance – suggested donation which goes to the musicians, food and hang. So, I guess she inspired me a lot.

Devlin Goldberg, who’s hosted and cooked for Ze Couch events, describes her first encounter with the series.

Julián and I went to Ze Couch as audience members when it was still in its original home on Bushwick Ave. We lived right around the corner so when the guys moved out of that apartment we offered to host so that the series still had a home in Bushwick. But it was much more than that. We fell in love with the idea, the music and the people. I loved that during any given set break, you could hear five different languages being spoken around you. At one point I remember being one of two Americans in a packed room and obliged to talk to the other guy because he only spoke English and looked a little lonely. And then we had a great conversation – among so many I’ve had at Ze Couch.

I wondered how much of this an improvised string of happy coincidences and how much of this was a deliberate departure from business as usual.

Frantz said,

People came regularly for the shows but also for the ambiance and the hang. We had different friends who were not specifically musicians. We had a few discussions among us about how we should evolve the series – should we ask for a grant, get a real venue, what kind of music should we book, etc… but we agreed that what we really did like about this series was its simplicity and we were not here to generate money or please people. So, the deliberate decision we took was to keep it simple.

Devlin offered her observations.

To add to what Frantz said, I think house shows are the best way to cut out the middleman so artists can make money directly and not have to split the door with the venue/booker/manager, etc. It goes hand in hand with the current trend of artists doing it themselves without record companies. I play in rock bands and some of the best shows I’ve had were house shows. It wasn’t just that we made more money than in traditional venues, but it was always where I made the best friends, met the most loyal fans and felt a sense of community and support that make it all worth it to be a struggling independent musician. I know Ze Couch definitely provides that for the majority of the performers. The evidence is in the fact that they continue to be a part of the series as audience members, friends and repeat performers.

Sean Continued.

Ze Couch was already a house series when I began curating for it. I can’t claim to have chosen it. However, it’s what I would have chosen. It’s what makes the possibility for amazing nights. The home setting creates a feeling of intimacy that immediately establishes a strong connection between performer and audience. Performers know that they will have an attentive audience, and that’s why people like to play here. The audience who regularly comes to Ze Couch, I would conjecture, knows that they will experience high quality music in a setting that is much more comfortable and relaxed than many venues in NYC.

The musical curation is as polyglot and diverse as the guests. Franz explains.

My original idea was to bring together in the same evening different kind of music (improvised music, but also jazz, songwriters, traditional music etc) and not being exclusively in improvised and experimental music. I wanted the people to discover something new. I booked people I knew and I was interested in their work. I also booked people who asked to play at the series. I did different type of events – a special guitar evening (3 sets), a percussion one (3 sets duo bass/drums based on pulsations; improvised music solo, traditional Iranian daf music), a string one (3 sets bass improvised music solo, contemporary music cello solo, minimal contemporary music string trio). It helped to have a theme. Later, when we worked with Pascal, he just brought his own connections that were way bigger than mine. We booked people who were asking to perform, but we also started asking people whose work we liked. The panel of possibilities was suddenly way bigger!

I also asked Sean how they found and chose the music and the musicians.

Anyway possible. Stuff I hear live. Stuff my friends tell me to check out. Sometimes it is people we already know. Sometimes we reach out to total strangers. Mostly, it is just about keeping your ears open to what you consider to be good. New York abounds in it, so often it is not challenging to find musicians to book; it is challenging to to find the time to book all the artists that we want to have perform at the series.

We aim to present the best stuff possible. Specifically though, we aim to present music that has a strongly formed identity and reason for being. This means we tend to book stuff that is more project oriented. There are many performances that happen in NYC where improvisers get together and play a show and then probably that group never plays again. Although that is actually a quite beautiful way to approach a performance, and it is something I have done very often myself, it is nonetheless not something we’re generally interested in at Ze Couch. So although a good deal of the music we present is improvised, it is usually by groups that have a history of playing a lot or that at least have some kind of unique language they’ve developed together. If possible, we try to avoid the “all-star game” type of shows.

I was also curious about the responses listeners to the music and from musicians, who are chronically underpaid, to performing in an informal setting funded only by spontaneous donations. Sean answered,

Almost all positive. But it’s hard to know, since people aren’t always honest in this field. Nonetheless, based on what I observe and feel at the events, it seems that most of the positive feedback is valid. Artists seem to like performing at the series, because we’ve gotten lots of requests. It also appears to me that the audience is generally into it. Most people who come stay for every set. They’ve also been generous in donating to the performers. I take this as strong enough feedback. In fact, I am quite proud of the Ze Couch audience. They even make the trek out to Queens when we have them at my place!

Frantz adds.

I guess most of the musicians who’ve come to perform have appreciated how people are listening. From the listeners, this varies. I think most of the people like the concept of it, the hang also. What is sometimes maybe harder for the audience is just the music that is proposed… they like it or they don’t.

So, what did each of them personally like most about the series?

FRANTZ: What I liked was being together with great friends for the same reason – to make it possible to hear some great music. That everybody gives what he/she can for this event to happen.

DEVLIN: I think it is the schedule that makes it work so well – The music starts off the evening so by the first break, people have loosened up a bit and have something to talk about (not that that’s ever a problem at Ze Couch!). Then they stick around, even if they don’t like the music, because delicious food is served at the end. Unlike some shows where everyone leaves immediately after the last set, the home cooked meal creates a great social atmosphere that makes people want to stick around longer, at least until Julián has told his last joke.

SEAN: The vibe.

Julián Silva also wanted to make sure that this irreplaceable component wouldn’t be left out.

The one and only thing I would add would be that the music you hear at Ze Couch you will never ever hear again, and that’s my favorite part.

And what about surprises? For Frantz,

It’s how it grew, how people decided to be involved into this and that it is still existing!

Devlin has been surprised that,

Ze Couch continues despite many of the original members moving out of NYC. The evolution of the content has been great to see too, and in line with Frantz’s original vision of mixing it up.

Sean especially notes,

The goodness in people, that we can come together, share in the experience of a performance together, eat together, sincerely enjoy the company of others, sincerely feel gratitude for the existence of such a community. That this is possible in world such as we live in never ceases to amaze me.

Finally, I just had to ask what they’ve learned and how they’ve changed through this experience.

FRANTZ: It was interesting for me to start alone and see people joining Ze Couch. I had to collaborate and leave space to the others without trying to control everything. This was sometimes difficult. I had to learn and work on myself. I like the fact that from a personal thing, it became a collective experience.

DEVLIN: I’m about to perform for the first time at Ze Couch festival this month. I’m really excited because I’ve thought out my piece specifically for this venue. I can’t imagine another place where I would want to try out this material. Ze Couch has given me a new way to think about presenting my work and that is really special.

SEAN:. That flexibility and openness is everything. It can be easy to get carried away with some great plan, but then reality steps in. Schedules conflict, people get sick, sudden problems can arise with apartments, crazy weather, etc. It can at times feel like gods are mocking our mortal attempts to plan anything. But you say fuck it and keep going, cause that’s what mortals do. If you can’t be open minded and flexible, then you can’t make anything happen. We present everything as though by grand design, but really, like most things in life, it’s the result of wrestling match between human will and an indifferent, chaotic universe. Amazing things happen along the way.