Han Bennink (75) on LGW: "Working hard and hoping the highlight is still to come."

World-renowned Dutch drummer Han Bennink celebrates at the Utrecht Le Guess Who Festival (LGW) his 75th birthday and the 50th anniversary of his ICP Orchestra. Time for a chat with a diligent worker.

All over the world, Han Bennink is famous. And for him, that whole world is his playground, literally. Bennink starts drumming at an early age. Pots and pans form his drums, curtain rods serve as sticks. Meanwhile, the 75-year-old jubilarian is considered one of the most diverse and playful drummers in the world.

Pen or rubber band

Bennink is anything but shy and explores the possibilities offered by every surface while improvising. So drumming on the floor, chairs, his own body. A pen you drop on the table can be a start. So is a rubber band that shoots away. As far as Bennink is concerned, call it Dada or Fluxus, but what matters to him is the simplicity you fill in. Searching for the resulting arc of tension creates a difficult voyage of discovery that continues to intrigue him immensely.

Mee-making

On the occasion of Bennink's 75th birthday, at the invitation of Utrecht's Le Guess Who? Festival, he will put together a programme full of friends and like-minded people; without pigeonholes, with musicians who are evenly matched. Where many a curator will sit in the front row themselves, Bennink will play along as much as possible. What would you have thought? So: besides concerts with Keiji Haino and Thurston Moore, with Terrie Ex and Peter Brötzmann, Bennink is also celebrating the 50th anniversary of his ICP Orchestra: the big exclamation mark behind a jam-packed festival-in-the-festival.

No milestone

Meningeene would call such a double anniversary a monumental moment. If not Han Bennink when the drummer replies from Colombia where he is on tour: "It does a lot to me, but it doesn't feel like a milestone at all." After all, that could mean dwelling on something. Bennink carries on; always moving forward, without resting on his laurels.

Bravely persevering

Forward, then, is the motto for Bennink. Even after sixty years as a performing drummer, he does not know the origin of the sacred fire that stays ahead of him: "If I knew that, I would write a book so you could read from page to page what it's about. But since I don't know that myself, I just keep bravely persisting."

Work in progress

Tireless work, in which Bennink does not seem to know satisfaction. Nor does a concept like "finished" come within reach: "It's never good enough." And that applies not only to his concerts: "I'm still a work in progress." Moving on, then, because on the horizon perhaps a point where everything falls together after all? Well, Bennink does not engage in such a grand vista. He keeps it personal and relative: "The high point will hopefully come."

Resounding result

Bennink, in his typical matter of factly way out: "The sublime does not consist only of music at all." The much-playing drummer's life consists of much more than the time he spends in music. Bennink mentions travelling, hanging out and waiting in airports alone: "It's just hard work." That labour is all under one roof: "It all hinges on sounding results."

Total amateur

You have a full and rich weekend just from Bennink's programme at Le Guess Who? As a visitor, that is. Let alone if you play in all those concerts. Bennink, however, cannot wait. In an earlier interview, he called himself "a total amateur"; that remark refers as much to how he sees himself as a work-in-progress as to his enthusiastic enthusiasm.

Because Bennink "runs - of course! - hot" for his programme. As if his career so far has been the warm-up. Grandstanding may be his reputation, Bennink is grateful without diva traits: "I have been offered the chance to have a selection of my favourite improvisers play and I am very happy about that. The absolute favourite is and remains the ICP Orchestra." And then again and still that doubt, not wavering, but still: "I hope as many people as possible come to see it."