Russia in 1920: the artistic and social revolution are flourishing but the bewilderment is total when Stalin’s merciless trials start. The lyrics in this musical theatre show consist of a literal transcription of the final minutes in the trial of Fyodor Bukharin interwoven with extracts from the work of Daniil Harms, another victim of Stalin’s terror. William Kentridge is responsible for the animated film and the directing, and François Sarhan, whose fantastic L’Nfer was performed at the Kaaitheater earlier in the season, wrote the music.

The Swiss duo comprising Dominik Scherrer and Christoph Hefti works in the fields of music, film and fashion (Christoph is a member of Dries Van Noten’s creative team). They together make up the art-pop combo Taxi Val Mentek. They perform a frivolous electro-vaudeville concert, halfway between cabaret and video art.

The Continental Superstar exhibition at the Musée du Cinquantenaire consists of a display of four big dance organs from the early 20th century. The new technology developed by the brothers Tony and Frank Decap has transformed these old café organs into a high-tech ensemble of computer-controlled organ units. Together with a group of live musicians, the composer Walter Hus will explore the extremes of these new possibilities in compositions where stirring techno beats alternate with experimental soundscapes.

Q-O2, the Brussels workshop for experimental music and sound art, is presenting a double concert at Performatik. Michael Vorfeld’s Light Bulb Music is an audio-visual performance working with sounds generated by the use of different light bulbs and actuating electric devices. Pierre Berthet makes a piece for a ‘chamber orchestra’ of ‘expirateurs’ (reversed vacuum cleaners).

L’Nfer by the young French composer François Sarhan is a concert, musical theatre, a radio play, live radio, beat poetry, new music and post-rock. Ictus’ instrumentation is very much in the rock style and switches with astounding ease from pop to modern classics and spoken word.

The European Saxophone Ensemble (ESE) is brand-new. It is made up of twelve young musicians from various countries in Europe. The number of musicians playing reflects all types of saxophones (sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass). The aim of the ensemble is to break down the borders separating various musical styles: classical, improvisation, avant-jazz and traditional music go hand in hand here.

Four acts make up a musical rollercoaster that whisks you through a multitude of styles.

In Repeater, the German choreographer Martin Nachbar, once a student at PARTS and a dancer with Les Ballets C. De la B., shares the stage with his father. They explore the father-son relationship. Bo Wiget is a cellist, improviser, performer, composer and anti-nationalist. That’s what it says on his home page. And he is a father too. Massarbeit (‘made to measure’) is Wiget’s first music and dance performance.

With Steve Reich Evening (2007) Rosas dedicates an evening to the American minimalist Steve Reich. Since the beginning of her career Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker has developed an intens relationship with his work. Starting from the minimal – a single choreographic phrase – both De Keersmaeker and Reich succeed in creating a complex and intriguing structure by means of expanding declinations.

In this programme, BL!NDMAN and Champ d’Action pay tribute to the American composer James Tenney, who died in 2006. His work was spectral even before the term was invented and will be performed alongside the compositions of Gérard Grisey and Giacinto Scelsi, two excellent European spectralists, and Eric Sleichim and Serge Verstockt.

First edition of a series of ten evenings open to the public spread over two theatre seasons, intended to help stimulate thinking on a livable future. Prepare yourself for a wondrous combination of performing arts, mathematics, biology and demography, tastefully seasoned with a good pinch of live radio and online media.