SAJ-47

Fred Van Hove

Due only to the work of FMP I am, as a Belgian improviser, one of those musicians from all over the world who have been able to present their work in Berlin since 1968 nearly every year one or more times, the only interruption being changes in the history of improvised music.

After Antwerp, where I was born and still live, Berlin became to me the second important town in my life. Not only because I was invented there so often, but also because in this town I experienced most of the human feelings and thoughts I am capable of: hope & despair, love & hate, friends & enemies, beauty & ugliness, war & peace, energy & fatigue, shame & pride, safety & insecurity, beautiful music & total losses, etc.'s & etc.'s, and nowhere I played billiards so often as in Berlin. From April till October 1983, I was invited for a six months stay in Berlin by the DAAD/Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst - Berliner Künstlerprogramm (German Academic Exchange Service - Artists-in-Berlin Programme). The balance of my 15 year old love/hate relationship with the town gradually turned over to the love side during these months. It was great to be able to think only of music during that time.

Not only could I do concerts in Berlin with my groups MLA 7, MLA Blek and ML DD 4, but I also had the opportunity to have a lot of meetings with musicians living in Berlin. Since all my groups called ML some-thing, these meetings were called MLBB after Berliner Begegnungen - Berlin Encounters.

This trio record is one of those fruitful encounters. For a period in my life which was musically and humanly extremely rich, I express my greatest thanks to FMP, DAAD and the Berlin musicians. Danke Jost, Danke Dagmar, Danke Dieter, Danke FMP, Danke DAAD (für die persönliche Hilfe insbesondere Barbara, Helga und Ingrid), Danke Wolfgang, Peter, Bernhard, Thomas, Nick, Klaus, Franz, Friedemann, Andreas, Thomas, Manfred, Sven and too many name them all.

In my opinion the work of FMP and DAAD is extremely important for both improvised music and Berlin as a center for that kind of music.

If anything could be done to continue their work, it should be done.

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