Jens Bouttery (°1988, Oostduinkerke, Belgium) is a drummer, composer & producer based in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. After his education as a jazzdrummer at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, he got involved in the Free Jazz scene of Belgium. Now he’s working in a wide range of disciplines from music to film, theatre & dance work internationally. The drumset is his home base but he became a multi-instrumentalist throughout the years, curious for other input, unpolished mastery or DIY-builds for instruments. His artistic universe converges around exploring freedom within compositional performance structures. Live drums, orchestral works, experimental sound design, pop songs, underground dance or even metal music are an inspiration to his work. All musical styles are a possible influence as long as they have a natural connection to the core of the work and as long as they create a unique organic world that suits the project.
He played in numerous band formations such as Winchovski, Jef Neve, Sandy (w. Lander Gyselinck), Blue Monday People, Llop, Nicolas Kummert. Bouttery was invited as a studio drummer on albums for Warhaus, Admiral Freebee, Karim Gharbi et al. Jens also mixed albums for Lennart Heyndels and produced albums for Hendrik Lasure, Lisa Verbelen, Annelinde Bruijs and Urland. Together with Benjamin Sauzereau, he created the Brussels label ~suite. With his own band Jens Maurits Orchestra and colleague Daan Milius, he created multiple concert performances inspired by philosophical and scientific input. He transcribed interviews into music for their project The Dubtapes for which they received the Toots Thielemans Jazz Award. Jens is currently playing with Meral Polat, Thunderblender, Les Chroniques de l’Inutile and his own popduo Hi Hawaii.
Jens has created unique music concepts for international theatre performances such as We’ll Do It Ourselves, Superleuk maar voortaan zonder mij or Square/Praça with long time collaborator and actors collective Wunderbaum. In Square/Praça, Jens creates music with a wireless trigger system he designed for his shoes; with his footsteps and a customized remote control he can play music by simply walking around in public space. He also worked with Naomi Velissariou, Ivo Dimchev, Circus Treurdier, Club Guy & Roni and BOG.. With Urland he is a member of the theatrical band Death.DEF for which he co-composed a blend of doom metal and opera music with Jimi Zoet.
Original music for film he has created, include Misschien Later and Maarten Van Severen: Addicted to Every Possibility by Moon Blaisse, Allegory of the Jam Jar and The Day The Dogs Disappeared by Boris Kuijpers & Ruth Mellaerts, L’Homme Inconnu and Dag Vreemde Man by Anthony Schatteman. For the latter he received the “Grand Prix pour la meilleure creation musicale” at the International Film Festival of Aubagne. Jens scored for feature film Stop Acting Now by Wunderbaum/Mijke de Jong and for WTC: A Love Story and WTC: A Never-ending Love Story by Lietje Bauwens & Wouter De Raeve. His most recent work for film is called The Imaginary Friend, a Virtual Reality Experience by Steye Hallema. The experience had its world premiere at the 'Venice Immersive' Programme and is currently traveling festivals around the world.
Photo: Tom Leentjes
Production
Function
Music composition