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We couldn’t be happier looking back at our event at Korzo, which took place almost a month ago. It felt wonderful and festive to see so many of you at our first evening of presenting such special performances in quite some time. A heartfelt thank you to all the artists who performed — Allan Gilbert Balon & Uta Guan Hey, Marc Baron, and Nirantar Yakthumba — as well as to Korzo for hosting us, and to everyone involved in making it such a remarkable evening, including our attentive audience. We hope to see you again in the fall! [If you’d like to learn more about the artists who performed or explore their music, you can visit our Substack newsletter via the link in our bio. 📷 @mbet.ta

Our upcoming program is taking place this Friday, 27th of February – marking our debut collaboration with Korzo Theatre. For the program of default#25, we’re very much looking forward to hosting an evening with performances by Allan Gilbert Balon & Uta Guan Hey, Marc Baron, and Nirantar Yakthumba. Closer to each event, we send out ‘focus’ newsletters, in which we share more information about the planned program and the artists performing, as well as highlight some of their works. Read more via our Substack (link in bio). —- [1] + [2] Marc Baron - ‘Et nous neigerons sur nos pas’ (Lathe Cut, Holidays Records, 2024), one of our favorites from Marc’s rich discography – working self-reflexively with the format and mechanics of the ‘tape music’ tradition. [3] + [5] Allan Gilbert Balon - ‘The Magnesia Suite’ (LP, Recital, 2024), and Allan and Uta’s duo recording published via Balon’s website (2025) – showcasing a play with presence and space, where a flowing air and some (sound) poetic absurdness in its fringes is arranged around intimate piano and organ playing. [4] graphic score for “Stella Maris”, released as part of ‘The Magnesia Suite’ LP. [6] A glimpse of Nirantar Yakthumba’s new instrument. Nirantar will premiere a performance with his instrument next Friday – investigating the concept of ‘tone’ from an information-oriented perspective. [7] Uta Guan Hey’s ‘One thousand and one Water Droplets’ publication, released by xyä édition – a variable geometry press run by Hey & Balon. Together they publish handmade books and audio. [8] Marc Baron’s recent release in collaboration with Éric La Casa, recording film restoration, development laboratories, and tape manipulation; ‘Contrefaçons’ (CD, Swarming, 2025).

Nirantar Yakthumba is an artist from Nepal currently based in The Hague. In his work, Nirantar investigates tone, instrument building, and collective practice from an information-oriented perspective. In particular, he explores how variations in informational constraints – structure, redundancy, noise, (in)determinacy – are articulated with and within a work, and how such a practice of variation can be a technology for prompting transindividual introspection, challenging preconceived notions, and making space for difference in relational configurations. For his performance at default, Nirantar will be presenting a new instrument that he made in 2025. Nirantar is also the artistic director of the @kali.ensemble , and is engaged both as a performing musician in the ensemble as well as a composer within a collective of artists who regularly compose for the ensemble.

Marc Baron (b. 1981) lives and composes in Paris. For almost 20 years he has been dedicating himself to the work of electroacoustic composition using tapes and analog processes. The form that it takes – acousmatic concerts, radio broadcasts, records, specific live performances, or, more rarely, installations – depends on the music itself, while letting these specific listening contexts or spaces determine its parameters. In both his recorded works and live performances, he creates meticulous music that encompasses not only the harsh and heavy but also the fragile aspects of the tools he uses, while capturing the contingencies arising from material processes that interweave acoustics, electronics, and magnetics. The complexity of sound’s qualities and their assembling is at the core of his music, posing our listening towards this specific tension between a semblance of realism and the desire for abstraction, making use of cuts and creating shifts with perspectives. Marc regularly captures the domestic and unspectacular as they are conceived within the specificities of the magnetic medium (its limitations, diversity, and aesthetic determinations), including his working with the process of demagnetization of tape both in his recorded works and live performances. His practice builds further on a long tradition of tape music made for loudspeakers, although it is the self-reflexivity of its format and its mechanics that makes Marc’s work particularly distinct. The micing of those sounds themselves as well as the micing of the process of working on those sounds in the studio proposes some sorts of ars poetica of the recording technology –- as if letting us listen to the (studio-)practice of making electroacoustic music itself, and therefore to its conjoined listenings. His works have been released on labels such as Cathnor Records, Holidays Records, Potlatch, Erstwhile Records, Eich, Moremars, and Glistening Examples. He has collaborated with Jean-Luc Guionnet, Lucio Capece, and more recently has released collaborations with Mark Vernon, Jean-Philippe Gross, and Eric La Casa. His new solo album ‘Soleil-Néon’ is planned to be released on Penultimate Press this year

Allan Gilbert Balon & Uta Guan Hey Allan Gilbert Balon (b. Guadeloupe) is an artist and composer, working with sculpture, sound installation, composition and performance. Uta Guan Hey (b. China) is a writer, visual creator, and filmmaker. Together they have founded the publishing house @xyaedition – a variable geometry press entity geared towards writing, sound phenomenon and inner engineering technologies – which publishes handmade books and audio. At default, the artist duo will be presenting a performance for piano, objects, voices, and electronics, following some of their recent works: Allan’s ‘The Magnesia Suite’ (released via @recitalprogram in 2024), his site-specific installation in MoMA PS1 (New York, 2022), performances at Cafe Oto (London), ivprojectspace x STUK (Leuven), and ‘O LUNA – LIVE MUSIC AT STUDIO BLEU PARIS 13/05/2025’ – a recording of Allan’s and Uta’s duo performance published via Balon’s website. The latter functions as a compendium/collage of recorded pieces, (graphic) scores, drawings, writings & performance works, showcasing Balon’s approach through multifaceted disciplinary lenses. Balon’s ‘The Magnesia Suite’ had stricken us upon its release with its own assembled, unhurried world, where a flowing air and some (sound) poetic absurdness in its fringes is arranged around intimate piano playing, mixing in a sensation of presence throughout tape recordings, organs, field recordings, performative voice, and percussive objects. His earlier releases have explored solo piano recordings (‘So Lo Piano Works Vol. 1’, Wry Press & Séance Centre, 2023), as well as the possibilities and limits of communication and related technologies (‘High Latency Communication’, a house of saturn, 2023), including pieces for tuba, piano and voice.

The first default program of the year will take place next month, on Friday, the 27th of February — marking our debut collaboration with Korzo Theatre. – Allan Gilbert Balon & Uta Guan Hey | Marc Baron | Nirantar Yakthumba. For default#25, Allan Gilbert Balon (b. Guadeloupe), an artist and composer, working with sculpture, sound installation, & Uta Guan Hey (b. China), a writer, visual creator, and filmmaker, will present their duo performance for piano, objects, voices, and electronics. The performance comes after Balon’s LP ‘The Magnesia Suite’ (Recital, 2024) and a recording of Allan’s and Uta’s duo performance (released via Balon’s web page), both showcasing an intimate play with presence. Together they run the publishing house xyä édition, which publishes handmade books and audio. The Paris-based artist Marc Baron, who for almost 20 years has dedicated himself to the work of electroacoustic composition using tapes and analog processes, will be performing at default soon after his new solo album release ‘Soleil-Néon’ on Penultimate Press. His music encompasses not only the harsh but also the fragile aspects of the tools he uses, while capturing the contingencies arising from material processes that interweave acoustics, electronics, and magnetics. The complexity of sound’s qualities and their assembling is at the core of his music, posing our listening towards this specific tension between a semblance of realism and the desire for abstraction, making use of cuts and creating shifts with perspectives. Concluding our program, Nirantar Yakthumba (b. Nepal, currently based in The Hague), who in his work investigates the production and organization of tone, instrument building, and how variations in informational constraints – structure, redundancy, noise, (in)determinacy – are articulated with and within a work. He will be premiering a performance with a new instrument that he made in 2025. As this will be the only default program taking place this spring, we are pleased to invite you to this special event. — default#25, 27.02 Korzo Theatre, Prinsestraat 42 doors: 19.30, first performance: 20:15 Tickets (link in bio): €10/€20 poster by @basiast.__

announcing our first event of 2026 – As we look forward to sharing this exciting program, and with our partner Korzo unveiling their spring season, we are happy to announce our first event of the upcoming year taking place on Friday, the 27th of February at @korzotheater . Allan Gilbert Balon & Uta Guan Hey | Marc Baron | Nirantar Yakthumba. For default#25, Allan Gilbert Balon (b. Guadeloupe), an artist and composer, working with sculpture, sound installation, & Uta Guan Hey (b. China), a writer, visual creator, and filmmaker, will present their duo performance for piano, objects, voices, and electronics. The performance comes after Balon’s LP ‘The Magnesia Suite’ (Recital, 2024) and a recording of Allan’s and Uta’s duo performance (released via Balon’s web page), both showcasing an intimate play with presence. Together they run the publishing house xyä édition, which publishes handmade books and audio. The Paris-based artist Marc Baron, who for almost 20 years has dedicated himself to the work of electroacoustic composition using tapes and analog processes, will be performing at default soon after his new solo album release ‘Soleil-Néon’ on Penultimate Press. His music encompasses not only the harsh but also the fragile aspects of the tools he uses, while capturing the contingencies arising from material processes that interweave acoustics, electronics, and magnetics. The complexity of sound’s qualities and their assembling is at the core of his music, posing our listening towards this specific tension between a semblance of realism and the desire for abstraction, making use of cuts and creating shifts with perspectives. Concluding our program, Nirantar Yakthumba (b. Nepal, currently based in The Hague), who in his work investigates the production and organization of tone, instrument building, and how variations in informational constraints – structure, redundancy, noise, (in)determinacy – are articulated with and within a work. He will be premiering a performance with a new instrument that he made in 2025. — default#25, 27.02 Korzo Theatre, Prinsestraat 42 doors: 19.30, first performance: 20:15 Tickets & more info via link in bio. poster by @balbinka_s

A long overdue summer post to thank everyone who came to one of the default events during our last season – forming each time such an open and attentive crowd; an extended thank you to all the wonderful artists who performed, the organizations we’ve collaborated with, and everyone involved in making default a special thing. We look back at this season with fond memories and lots of gratitude. As shared before, we’re taking a break from organizing for the rest of 2025, to prepare ourselves better for activities in the future. We want to thank you for your continuous support, and we hope to see you back from February 2026 onwards.  Photos 1, 5, 2, 3, and 9 were taken by @helenaroigg during the performances of Zara Joan Miller, Mette Edvardsen, Tom Mudd, and Augustė Vickunaitė at default#19 (14.12.2024 at the Grey Space in the Middle).  Photos 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 11 were taken by Pieter Kers during the performances of Áine O’Dwyer, Vanessa Rossetto, Roc Montoriol & Katarina Kadijević, Maya Verlaak, Adomas Palekas, and Nika Son at our collaborative events with iii (11.10.2024 & 17.04.2025 at iii workspace). –  default den haag is a non-profit curatorial initiative focused on the presentation of creative contemporary sound and performance in The Hague, curating and organizing their nomadic sound series with an international focus on experimental music and sound art performances since 2022, next to occasionally hosting accompanying talks and lectures.

introducing the program for default x iii, Thursday, 17th of April: Maya Verlaak’s composition ‘A Deviation for Approximation’ uses cardinal directions from a simple route as a musical structure. The analysis of this route unfolds every aspect and allows us to see the route as a complex piece of music. The performers receive a route Maya cycled in the city of Ghent and are asked to walk or cycle the exact same cardinal directions in the city where the performance takes place. The compositional process investigates the idea of approximation and how one route can become a musical variation of another route. Every time the route is performed, the initial map from Ghent develops into variations. The event involves an accompanying ‘deviated’ walk, exploring the aforementioned compositional system developed by Maya Verlaak. This presentation celebrates the launch of Maya Verlaak’s publication ‘‘Blueprint #3: Deviation’ as part of iii’s Blueprint series, giving a detailed insight into the presented work and inviting others to recreate her artwork. Maya Verlaak is a composer, for whom composing means research and communication. For each new situation, she develops new techniques and never takes anything for granted. Experimental methods for better communication are central to her work. Sharing the creative process is important to her, which is why she develops new notation systems for each assignment. Maya has been commissioned worldwide by an array of international ensembles and soloists among Ensemble Klang (NL), Asko|Schönberg ensemble (NL), Hermes Ensemble (BE), A.pe.ri.od.ic (US), IEMA – Ensemble Modern (D), Apartment House (UK), and by Karin de Fleyt (B), Mark Knoop (UK), Sarah Saviet (D), and many others. Her music has been released by labels such as Ensemble Klang Records (‘Vanishing Point’, 2024), Birmingham Record Company (‘Trace’, 2024) (‘Tape Piece’, 2020), and Another Timbre (‘All English Music’ is Greensleeves, 2020). She is furthermore a member of iii.

introducing the program for default x iii, Thursday, 17th of April: ‘Sing in the Dark’ by Áine O'Dwyer is a performance that recreates the vocalisations of the European nightjar – a crepuscular bird whose strident churring call can be heard several hundred meters away. ‘Sing in the Dark’ pays homage to the nightjar’s nocturnal vocalisations and mastery of acoustic camouflage. The performer remains invisible to its audience while vocally mimicking birds and insects from the surrounding habitat, using ventriloquism to confuse predators. The nightjar’s association with darkness has cast a sinister tone through the ages, and brought with it a barrage of prejudice and superstition. In parts of Germany the nightjar is known as the death bird or ‘todtenvogel’; in other parts of Europe they are called ‘night swallow’, ‘fern owl’, ‘goat-sucker’, ‘screech hawk’, or ‘the spinning wheel bird’. ‘Sing in the Dark’ was first performed in 2023 at Cafe OTO, London, where the audience were placed in a dusky environment of natural sounds (crickets, toads, rustling leaves), complimented by a series of unsourced vocalisations. Áine O'Dwyer is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is informed by both the conceptual concerns of sound art and traditional composition techniques, embracing the broader aesthetics of sound and its relationship to environment, time, audience, and structure. She has created works for large-scale and intimate settings that allow for both planned and chance compositions to co-exist in live situ. Her recent works include 'Poems for Daedalus' (2018), a series of site-specific performances developed in Athens; the book 'Poems for play' (2018), a collection of scores for a Jesuit monastery; 'Accompaniment for Captives' (Open Ear Festival, 2019), a performance for two fishing boats; 'Performance for Live Stream' (Cafe OTO, 2021), an audio-visual work; 'Song of Place' (2022), a street opera staged in Bristol suburbia; and the Cassette Box ‘Turning in Space’ (Blank Forms, 2023), which compiled a series of sonic choreographies using post-collagist techniques, conducted at the artist’s living and studio space in suburban East London.

introducing the program for default x iii, Thursday, 17th of April: Vanessa Rossetto is an American composer and chipper-shredder, processing whatever sounds cross her path into sprawling, long-form narratives. Trained as a painter, Rossetto began working with sound in 2007 as a way to incorporate the element of time into her work. Since then, she has released 20+ albums of rollicking, homebrew musique concrète both on her own and with a host of collaborators. Through an intricate diary-like stitching of field recordings, electronics, chamber instrumentation, a wide array of objects, captured conversations, diegetic music and other found sounds, Rossetto creates music that makes the lost and humble sounds of everyday life feel very close and at the same time fit seamlessly in their respective carefully constructed realities, implying or obscuring narratives and accentuating the drama of normality. Her output is mainly focused on recording works, making this performance a rare occasion as part of her first ever European tour. These performances come just after her 2025 two-cd release on @erstwhilerecords ‘Pictures Of The Warm South’ that followed up her previous two-cd release ‘The Actress’ (Erstwhile, 2022). Rossetto has furthermore released music via Graham Lambkin’s now defunct Kye label, @anothertimbre , @toneglow Records, @no_rent_records , @regionalbears , and other labels including her own Music Appreciation. She has collaborated with artists such as Lionel Marchetti, Kevin Parks, Moniek Darge, Lee Patterson, and extensively with Matthew Revert.

For our second collaboration with iii, taking place on Thursday, the 17th of April, we invite you to join us for an evening of performances at iii workspace – closing off our third season how we’ve started. — Maya Verlaak ┆Áine O'Dwyer ┆Vanessa Rossetto For this edition, we are very happy to welcome Vanessa Rossetto, an American composer and chipper-shredder who processes whatever sounds cross her path into sprawling, long-form narratives, accentuating the drama of normality through recordings from spaces of everyday life; the multidisciplinary artist Áine O'Dwyer, whose work embraces the broader aesthetics of sound and its relationship to environment, presenting ‘Sing in the Dark’ – an homage to the vocalisations and acoustic camouflage techniques of the European nightjar; and Maya Verlaak, the composer and iii member, for a staging of ‘A Deviation for Approximation’, in which she invites the audience to investigate deviations from a walking route as a compositional tool. In addition to the three performances that treat the notion of 'space’ in idiosyncratic and diverging ways, the program involves an accompanying ‘deviated’ walk, exploring the aforementioned compositional system developed by Maya Verlaak for which the audience is invited to join at a given place before the start of the event. This presentation of Maya Verlaak’s composition/walk celebrates the launch of her publication ‘Blueprint #3: Deviation’, as part of iii’s Blueprint series. Read more information on the program and the artists performing via the link in bio. — default x iii, 17.04 iii workspace Willem Dreespark 312, The Hague doors: 19:30, first performance: 20:00 Tickets (SOLD-OUT): there will be no ticket-sale at the door. + accompanying walk with Maya Verlaak, meeting at 18:45 at the coordinates 52.046895, 4.296389 | Reserve a spot via the link in bio default x iii is financially supported by The Municipality of The Hague and Creative Industries Fund NL. poster by @balbinka_s