Samuel Ber

Samuel Ber (1995) is a Belgian drummer, composer and improviser.

With his projects Pentadox, Malaby/Dumoulin/Ber, the new duo with guitarist Todd Neufeld, and the interdisciplinary and entirely improvised performance Scaphandres Party, he seeks creative ways to access a state of collective flow where individual voices, concepts and realities coexist and merge.

He plays with KARTET, Benoît Delbecq & The Multiplexers, Michaël Attias European Quartet, Susanne Abbuehl, Laurent Blondiau’s Mâäk & MikMâäk, Bo Van Der Werf’s Mantra Magnets, Soet Kempeneer’s Dream Tree, Richard Bonnet and Sol Léna—Schroll’s Der Baum trio; and has performed with Petter Eldh, Otis Sandsjö, Matt Mitchell, Eve Risser, Lotte Anker, Guillaume Orti, Marc Ducret, Magic Malik, Antonin-Tri Hoang, Sylvaine Hélary, Matthieu Michel, Kris Defoort, Nicolas Thys,...

With Pentadox, Samuel Ber has created a unique vehicle that gives free rein to his creativity. The ensemble has been focusing on long-term exploration of ideas about composition, improvisation and interaction and navigation for some years now. Since its birth in 2015 during a residency in Brussels’ Jazz Station, Pentadox has been mixing elements of jazz, classical, avant-garde, improvised, electronic and contemporary music and has been regularly creating alternative ensembles by inviting other artists, engendering adventurous collaborations which each time reshape the musical vision of these artists. After having released two albums (the second one on the Belgian WERF label), today Pentadox continues its investigations, both focusing on the trio and inviting interdisciplinary artists. It shouldn’t be a surprise, then, that Pentadox has proven successful and their talent has been recognized in competitions and via awards. After a residency in Jazz Station in 2015, the group was selected as the Belgian finalist of the B-Jazz International Contest 2016. Since then, they’ve played, amongst others, at BOZAR, Leuven Jazz Festival, Klara in deSingel and Mithra Jazz à Liège. Their continued efforts were also rewarded in July 2018 by receiving the award for Young Jazz Talent at the Ghent Jazz Festival. In 2020 they were in the finals of the Avignon jazz festival. In June 2022 the Pentadox (trio) recorded a new album during a residency at Sounds Jazz Club, Brussels, to be released soon.

He will be performing solo in interaction with an art installation from NYC-based interdisciplinary artist Ezra Masch during the opening week-end of BOZAR in September ’23.

He has been commissioned to write a piece for Belgian contemporary classical ensemble Styx + Dave Douglas, Bruno Vansina and Pierre Vervloesem, to be premiered in BOZAR in December ’23.

He has performed in BOZAR, Jazz Middelheim, Gent Jazz, Leuven Jazz, Klara in DeSingel, Flagey, Handelsbeurs, Botanique, Brosella, Mithra Jazz Liège, Pierre BoulezSaal Berlin, Jazzdor Strasbourg and Berlin, Tremplin Jazz Avignon and in the US, Asia and North-Africa.