Born in Antwerp, Belgium, guitarist, a committed performer of the music of today. In addition to a master degree in Guitar Performance at the conservatory of Ghent, where he studied with Tom Pauwels, he received a second master degree in Contemporary Performance Practice from the Manhattan School of Music in New York City, where he studied with David Starobin and Mark Stewart. To help him realize this program he received a fellowship from the Belgian American Educational Foundation.

As a soloist he released his first solo-album Give My Regards to 116th Street on the New York label Carrier Records in February 2015, receiving critical acclaim in “The Wire” magazine (Issue 374, April 2015). In 2017, he created the solo project No [more] Pussyfooting with live arrangements of music by Brian Eno and Robert Fripp, which he toured extensively in several international festivals and venues. He also forms the guitar duo Oh Mensch with Matthias Koole, with whom he was a fellow at the Akademie Schloss Solitude in Stuttgart.

Kobe is currently pursuing a PhD in the arts at the Conservatory of Antwerp, focusing on the music of Anthony Braxton. His research resulted in the acclaimed solo album Ghost Trance Solos (ATD10, 2020) and the double LP Ghost Trance Septet (eNR105, 2022). With his Ghost Trance Septet he performed double bill concerts with Anthony Braxton at Rainy Days Festival in Luxembourg and deSingel in Antwerp.

Kobe is a founding member of the electric guitar-quartet Zwerm, and, from 2011 to 2021, a member of the Nadar Ensemble. As a freelance guitarist he performed with several groups and ensembles such as the Ictus ensemble in Brussels, ensembles 2E2M and Multilatérale in Paris, and in New York with the Wet Ink Ensemble, Talea and in a tour celebrating Helmut Lachenmann’s 75th birthday with Ensemble Signal.

In the past years Kobe has played concerts all over the world, both as a soloist, in chamber music formation and large ensemble. He played in festivals like Ruhrtriënale, the Bang on a Can Marathon, The Holland Festival, MaerzMusik, Rewire, Tzlil Meudcan, Brisbane Festival, FILE-Sao Paulo, HCMF Huddersfield, Donaueschinger Tage für Neue Musik and the Darmstadt Summer Course for New Music, where he was awarded a Stipend Prize in 2010.

In addition to his releases on Carrier Records, All That Dust and El Negocito Records, Kobe Van Cauwenberghe can also be heard on Time Goes By (Zwerm), Psi Label, New World Records, Bridge records, Seminal Records and on Mode Records with a CD/DVD dedicated to the music of Helmut Lachenmann.