Sander De Keere

NEW ALBUM ‘THE MANUAL STOP’ [Pre-order here]
release on 23 October, 2026 on Phantom Limb

Brussels composer and organist Sander De Keere debuts on Phantom Limb with evocative, elegant new works for solo church organ The Manual Stop, mosaicking patterns of minimalism, IDM, electronic, and sacred music with utmost symbiosis and reverence for the instrument.

Recorded entirely on a centuries-old Contius baroque organ at the historic St. Catharina Church in the town of Wondelgem (Ghent, Belgium), The Manual Stop is described by Sander De Keere as “an homage to the organ’s ancient craftsmanship and sonic experiment in itself.” While remaining in keen veneration to the instrument, its heritage, and its spiritual gravitas, De Keere’s works employ the church organ as the centrepiece of a broad compositional superstructure coloured by the influence of many contrasting musics.

De Keere references mid-century minimalism, early sacred music, classical avant-garde, and experimental electronic music in his search for “landscapes that challenge expectations of what a pipe organ can be.” The combination - singular even in a well occupied space - yields a record that inverts the familiar, the church organ here playing the role of antique synthesiser. “As I play the organ, its 1,765 pipes click, swell and pulse like analog circuitry from a time before electricity,” De Keere writes.

The album is the product of weeks of night-time sessions in the church, where De Keere was given the freedom to play deep into the night. “You feel the music through your whole body,” he reveals. “It’s incredibly physical. Each register holds a sonic character, and combining them becomes a kind of alchemy.”