Thomas Smetryns

Thomas Smetryns studied composition at the Ghent Conservatoire. As a composer, he is immensely interested in the search for a new, experimental musical practice which is rooted in a historical or social consciousness. A broad range of instruments is used in his projects (from ophicleide to electronics to turntables) as well as a wide variety of performers (professionally schooled classical musicians, improvisers, amateurs and youngsters).

Even in his activities as a DJ (only with 78 rpm records), setting the musical past in a contemporary context is central to his work. He often employs alternative notation systems (relative notation, graphic scores) in his pieces as an implementation of this basic principle.

Since 2008 he has been collaborating with LOD. He wrote the music for The Devil Bedevilled, commissioned by LOD, as well as a contribution to Lecture Songs 1 and 2. In 2013 he also composed for the music for the LOD production The Incredible Changes of Mister Afzal (we won’t mention his glass leg). February 2015 saw the premiere of the LODproduction Snow, Smetryns' first joint venture with Inne Goris. In 2016 he created the production Paradis together with Hof van Eede and in 2017 he composed the music for the LODproduction In between violet & green in collaboration with Atelier Bildraum. At Oerol Festival 2019, 15 419ft, a collaboration with Post Uit Hessdalen, premiered on the beach. In 2019, as long as we are playing, his first collaboration with kabinet k, premiered at hetpaleis. In 2021, Thomas joined forces with Lies Pauwels for the first time for Pleidooi voor de Zonde. The same year, he composed the music for Ophelia by Inne Goris, a co-production by LOD, hetpaleis and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen. 

In November 2023, Thomas presents the LOD production Hink Stap Spring together with director Inne Goris and author Pieter Delfosse. It is a unique collaboration between children and adults, because young and old go all the way together: from the text to the music, from the technique to the photography. The result is a joint quest for growing up, being a child, being the boss and setting boundaries.