Peter Vermeersch

Peter Vermeersch (born 1959, Waregem) is the main character in X-Legged Sally, A Group and the Flat Earth Society. He is also a composer of classical and other music, most of which is performed by the Flat Earth Society.

As a producer he was largely responsible for the sound of dEUS' first album, Worst Case Scenario. As such, he is one of the godfathers of the Belgian music scene. He has also produced Think Of One's first album, Juggernaut.

His formal training include architecture and urbanization, and a modern art course. Fortunately for us, he soon got involved with music and started composing. In the eighties and early nineties, Vermeersch was part of the post-modern classical ensembles Union and Maximalist, who composed and performed music for dance productions by Rosas and Ultima Vez. He was also a member of The Simpletones and Kamagurka en the Vlaamse Primitieven. Among his first compositions is part of the music for the dance production Rosas danst Rosas (1983).

When Vermeersch grew tired of the constraints imposed by sheet music, he started his own ensemble X-Legged Sally. Their music was based on jazz and improvisations, and their influences reach very far. In a way, XLS was the last Belgian prog-rock band. In another way, it was the first band of the Belgian scene. Many X-Legged Sally compositions were originally soundtracks to dance performances.

Peter continued composing classical music: he composed an opera De Oplosbare Vis/The Soluble Fish, and a piece for a Frank Zappa tribute called 'The Purple Cucumber'. In 1996 he wrote an oratorio Music Hall on texts by poet Paul van Ostaijen.

In 1997, X-Legged Sally split up. New bands were formed, first A Group which was soon followed by the Flat Earth Society. Currently, A Group is inactive, but it is unclear whether they have split or are just 'resting.'

As a composer, Peter continues to write music for theatre plays: Weg (1998), Larf (1999) and Charms (2000). For the Flat Earth Society, he wrote the music for the movie Minoes.

He also continues to write classical music: the FES Anthem was first called October Music and composed for the Harelbeke Wind Band. He has composed music for the Flemish Radio Orchestra, and in 2002 the Spiegel String Quarter asked him to write a string quartet, which he called 's Nachts Brede Opklaringen.

Somewhere in 2002, Peter is going to work on a project with dEUS' Tom Barman and techno musician CJ Bolland. The project is called Magnus.

Peter is also writing an opera, Heliogabal, to be performed by the Flat Earth Society. The first performance will be on a German festival, somewhere in 2003.

 Discography

It's not very easy to get a full discography of Peters solo work, as it is so diverse. Sometimes his works are performed by others. This is the best I can come up with, for now. I haven't included the works performed by other bands on this site, so look at the pages of Flat Earth Society, Maximalist, A Group and X-Legged Sally too.

• Rosas danst Rosas (1983)
• Immer das Selbe Gelogen (1991)
• Music Hall (1996)
• De Oplosbare Vis (1996)
• An obscure compilation of the string quartets by Walpurgis (1996)
• Weg (1999)
• Charms (2000)

 Compositions

This is a difficult list, of course, so don't assume it to be complete! Some of these projects are a complete mystery to me. I just stole this list from the official page so I think it's more or less complete.

17 june 2002
© Steven Van Impe
mail webmaster