Feeërieën 2019: Welcome in our musical outdoor wünderkammer

Welcome to the now 16th edition of our magical annual outdoor festival: the Feeërieën! We rather proudly open our musical wünderkammer again this year and it buzzes, surprises, moves, connects and amazes. At what other festival would you find, all in one go: hyperkinetic footwork from Chicago, uplifting disco-funk from Somalia, Turkish psychedelica, a stunning soprano voice, an Ethiopian harpist who plays the ‘King David’s Harp’, a male choir that summons the vibe of Kurt Weill, and a dash of vivid Afro-American poetry? Indeed!

Dez Mona feat. GoneWest Choir (be)

All was quiet around singer Gregory Frateur and his band Dez Mona for a while there, but the release of album ‘Book of Many’ earlier this year changed all that – YAY! Humo sang its praises right away and referred to classics like ‘Spirit Of Eden’ and ‘Laughing Stock’ by Talk Talk. Focus Knack pulled out several superlatives after their concert at the Botanique in Brussels: ‘**** … Weemoedig en warmbloedig …Passioneel en meeslepend.’ and also: ‘Het accordeonfenomeen Roel Van Camp (DAAU) is misschien wel het geheime wapen van de groep. Zijn fraaie solo's stuwen de luisterliederen van Dez Mona afwisselend in de richting van Brel, Weill en Argentijnse tango.’

For this ‘Book of Many’ tour, aside from Roel Van Camp, Frateur has surrounded himself with guitarist Sjoerd Bruil, pianist/guitarist Tom Pintens (Het Zesde Metaal) and – Yay, again – the four-member GoneWest Choir as well.

Innerwoud & Astrid Stockman (be)

Innerwoud (with three previous visits to our stage, no unknown to AB) is still the alter-ego of contra-bass player Pieter-Jan Van Assche in which he enriches his subtle drones and dark soundscapes with neoclassical elements. Astrid Stockman is in turn blessed with a superb soprano voice and has often been seen on prestigious stages like La Monnaie/De Munt and BOZAR. Together they have created the outright impressive ‘Haven’, about which De Morgen wrote: ‘Op ‘Haven’ verstrengelt de unheimliche stem van sopraan Astrid Stockman zich met de dreigende contrabas en industriële soundscapes van Innerwoud.’

The composition ‘Elegy IV’ even reminds us of ‘Distant Sky’ from Nick Caves ‘Skeleton Tree’ (in part, due to the starring role of Danish soprano Else Torp). That’s what we call: a compliment. We even read somewhere that: ‘Astrid Stockman's sublime soprano singing makes us travel through deeply touching moods, between stifled mourning, overwhelming torment and meditative contemplation.’

At the request of AB, especially for the Feeërieën, the duo has been working on new material that will be presented on this evening.