BINAIR 01

Binair 01▾


Binair01 is a music platform located in Ghent, Belgium, striving for more music diversity and an increased attention for under exposed music origins and influences. The organization was founded in 2012, aiming to fill a vast gap in the Flemish musical spectrum. It expanded ever since to a collective of music lovers discovering and selecting dance music from all over the world without any borders or format restrictions, as an essential addition to the limited Anglo-Saxon pop music in the mainstream Flemish media.

cares about music▾

diversity▾.


Music in Flanders is stuck behind imaginary linguistic and cultural barriers. National public radio broadcast neglects all music styles, origins and influences which do not match the narrowly defined music specifications, thus making the diversity of the first group almost endless and very interesting. The differentiation of music is equally evolving with our multicultural society. The music offered to the broad public domain should be just as diverse, and following demographic trends rather than economical compulsive logics. We try to get this balance in check pledging the conviction that diversity is a vital condition in all evolutions, including musical development.

We offer▾


The music we discover in Belgium, in neighbor countries or at the other side of the planet, is shared on social media and streaming services such as Deezer, Spotify and Soundcloud.
The selected music must not only beat the hell out of people’s dancing feet, it must also have real radio capabilities. With this selection of highly inflammable content we build amazing parties, from small dj-set editions to big productions with a line-up of several live bands. Generally we organize 5 events a year in the nicest venues Ghent has to offer: De Centrale and Kunstencentrum Vooruit. We invite bands to our stage playing music that doesn’t fit into most national radio formats, but are sometimes famous in other parts of the world and popular in their home countries. Besides these international big fishes, we keep an eye on local, Belgian talent. We offer these bands and their music a stage, and give an audience of melomaniacs and dance addicts the opportunity to hear and experience what radio leaves uncovered.

quality▾


If not quality but the lack of airplay is the reason why not being programmed in the regular circuit, we consider this mechanism an increasing and vicious bleakness of the musical landscape. The music outside the range of the conventional media is mostly valuable, both for a social and artistic reason. Artists coloring outside the lines of a radio format often tend to innovative crossovers, and mutual influences lead more than perhaps to new music trends and evolutions with interesting music-technical features and fresh rhythm variations.

dance music▾


The music we collect is carefully selected on its dance pedigree and complexity of influences and variety of rhythms. Dancing is the very core of our events. It is not wobbling on endless repeating beats. It’s not waiting till the dj drops a radio hit with a recognizable tune to suddenly go wild. It isn’t shining in front of a photographer’s lens with your whitest teeth either. It’s just dancing, unconditional dancing without any restrictive barriers. Our parties and concerts are never too crowded to even get a chance to start moving. We keep the dance floor enjoyable and give your shoes all the space they need. So dance, dance, otherwise we are lost.

neglected by mainstream media▾.


Most dance music played on the radio is focusing on catchy tunes rather than rich rhythms. Mid-Western Europe lost in bits and pieces the art of dancing together. The responsibility of public media in gathering people as a layered but cohesive society can’t be underestimated. It must represent all its members, in all its cultural, demographic and linguistic differentiations. This need is even enforced by the recent phenomenon of open, global music traffic thanks to virtual and physical migrations. Contrary to this evolution, the music diversity provided by broadcast mainstream media is decreasing and exclusively focusing on a 1% part of economically dominant music.






PEOPLE

Collaborators & volunteers

The events organized by binair01 wouldn’t be possible without the help of many volunteers.
For each event 10 to 40 people are working hard on spreading the promo stuff, getting the production right, serving drinks and selling tickets.

We are always looking for motivated people to join the organization or to volunteer on one of our events. If you want to jump in, just write us at vrijwilligers@binair01.be.



 
Board Members

 

Olivier Roegiest

Founding member, music selection, band scouting, production, resident dj

Olivier is one of the founding members of binair01. He’s responsible for the overall functioning and production, and selects the playlist music and the live bands being programmed.
As an architect and an urbanist he’s fascinated by the complexity and diversity of the urban fabric whose identity is subtly influenced by new music tendencies, and in the meantime questioning its imaginary cultural borders. As a devoted music addict he carefully built up an ever expanding valuable collection of non-exposed dance music treasures by years of research in all quarters of our planet. He combines this knowledge with traditional club mixing techniques gained throughout a long career as a party dj.

The sum of classic beatmatching and unconventional dance tunes makes him a party dj producing a unique sound, developed under the pseudonym mnsr zér0, resident at binair01.

His sets are surprising blends of greasy balkan with a crazy gipsy wink, super tight electric cumbiabeats on eclectic afrolatinoriffs, hot Spanish nuevo flamenco melting on übercooled Scandinavian swinghip-hop, rumba Catalána versus African clubzouk, contagious ska infecting French jazz manouche, solid reggaetón devouring fragile tango, Arabian raps clashing with uptempo klezmer. His mixes always feature an exciting variety of rhythms and are a real relief for people addicted to dancing and searching for challenges beyond the simple beats of shallow radio hit music.

olivier.roegiest@binair01.be
www.facebook.com/binair01.mnsrzero
0478 28 73 23



 

Vincent Sels

Production, Coordination

Vincent's 10 years experience playing in a band himself and organizing a couple of small festivals has taught him the ropes of event production - both on stage, as well as behind the scenes.

Joined in the spring of 2017, Vincent takes care of general preparations and communication. On the evenings of the parties, if he's not busy coordinating or helping behind the bar, you can probably find him dancing right in front of the DJ booth.

vincent@binair01.be
www.facebook.com/vincent.sels
0472 96 82 23



 
Useful Information

 

Juridical form

Binair01 is a non-profit organization
(vzw, BE0844 598 103)


Contact

binair01@binair01.be
Begijnhoflaan 121, B-9000 Gent>
09 233 80 23




HISTORY

Where does the name binair01 come from?

Binair01 starts in 2010 as a once-only party organized among friends for friends of friends. It emerges as a 2011 new year’s party, carrying the name of the date itself: 010111. Still it was clear from the very beginning it wouldn’t be a party like any other. The motivation is shared among all the 350 friends of friends who had the time of their life: the music played at this very first event is strangely enough familiar and accessible in the meantime, yet exotic and quite exceptional . As one of the attendees mentions, the surprising and eclectic mix of quality dance music without borders or restrictions is very refreshing and complementary to the conventional club scene. The friends’ surprise party turns out to be a very urgent matter of absolute necessity, demanded by many unsatisfied music- and dance lovers. The team decides to bring it on, and names the music organization after their first improvised attempt: the binary number of the date it took place. Binair01 sharpens its mission to being a music platform for music influences outside the range of the national radio stations in the Flemish part of Belgium. It formulates the ambition of taking this music out of its enforced niche position by bringing it to the surface where it belongs: to a broad and diverse public, with events in mainstream beautiful cultural venues. This very specific aim is perceived as natural and logical, but strangely enough quite unique.

The clear choice to avoid stereotypes and clichés is also reflected in rejecting subcultures, mixing and combining a huge amount of music styles, and the particular interest in crossing far edged genres. Combining a pair of different bits produces an endless variety of unique elements, explaining another signification behind the cryptic “binair01”.

The success of the unique concept was the ever present drive behind the extending organization. In 2012, the first live production took place in Kunstencentrum Vooruit, Ghent’s main concert venue. From local bands it quickly went to internationally renowned musicians, autonomous productions were complemented with different partnerships such as coproductions with De Centrale, an amazing intercultural music centre in Gent. The original crew changed slightly to a more professional lay-out and was extended with people from inside the music production scene.

It is the ambition of binair01 not necessarily to grow even more in public numbers at its events, but in the first place to increase the range of its message in Flanders. In the cause of music richness and its socio-cultural effects we believe it is absolutely necessary to change the monotonous music landscape of our specifically extremely varied region. To reach this goal, we want more people to access the music we select, we want to give a first Belgian stage to more artists, we want to collaborate with mainstream media in order to give impulses to slow evolutions, and we want to behave as an open production house where new initiatives and combinations of music with other disciplines are welcome.





PARTNERS

We are constantly looking for local partners who share our philosophy. The following brands and companies are actually some of our most loyal sponsors or partners. All of them match our mission of creating an urban environment which is sustainable and durable, driven by creative concepts which increase life quality and embrace the variety and layered complexity of our cities.



 

Tasty World


Tasty World is our royal veggie burger delivery service since years. Thanks to their catering, our volunteers never turn hungry.

In Ghent, Tasty World created a new concept in offering a varied choice of vegetarian burgers and smoothies. Their philosophy is to create a solid basis for what’s utterly important in our demanding society: a physical and mental balance thanks to healthy and tasty food. They emphasize the quality of their ingredients and the freshness of the in-house prepared food. Their environmental consciousness is high and they only use bio-degradable waste.

Check them out at on their website or in their restaurants at Hoogpoort 1 and Walpoortstraat 38 in Ghent.



 

Lekker Gec


Lekker Gec delivers the exquisite meals for our musicians and guests. Thanks to their catering, the performances on our stages are outstanding.

Lekker Gec is a bio-vegetarian restaurant. A cooperative company supported by a joyful team. The core of business is not only the preparation of nice food with respect for the environment, but also their social engagement. In their kitchen they train people in need of a re-orientation in order to get a new chance on the labor market.

Lucky for us, they recently launched a delivery and catering service, aiming an increased awareness that healthy food can be honest and tasty for a broad public. Check them out at on their website or in their restaurant at K. Maria Hendrikaplein 6, just in front of the main train station Ghent Sint-Pieters.



 

Bioplanet


Bioplanet is our home supermarket. They offer us all the stuff we need backstage, from crackers and fruit to spoil cast and crew, to soap for washing their plates. Thanks to them, we never run short on cookies with plenty of tea for twenty.

Bio-Planet wants their customers to enjoy life in a healthier and more conscious way, thanks to the tasty, complete and reliable assortment of organic products. Bio-Planet is a unique concept, as a separate supermarket selling only organic food and ecological non-food products. Their second aim is to consume the least possible energy. Some of the Bioplanet stores are passive buildings. For our events we go shopping in the main Gent Bioplanet store located at Drongensesteenweg 134, and appreciate the quality and variety of the products and the ever friendly crew. Highly recommended!