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!

Nérija (with members of KOKOROKO, Maisha, Nubya Garcia …)

AB organised a unique two-dayer last year to mark the release of Gilles Peterson’s ‘We out Here’, an album that (under the auspices of Shabaka Hutchings) captured the innovative spirit of the London jazz scene. Not only Moses Boyd (but also Maisha, Theon Cross, Joe Armon-Jones and Nubya Garcia) made a huge impression in the AB Club at the time. This collector was not only a document of the times but, barely a year later, turned out to have had great predictive power. Pretty much every act on it had a breakthrough, delivered an excellent debut album, and attracted a remarkably young audience. All good reasons to wholeheartedly go for jazz in AB this autumn.

The kick-off will take place at the Feeërieën with the (quasi) all female supergroup Nérija. They’ve only one EP – simply titled ‘Nérija EP’ – to their name, but pretty much every member of the group has had a large(er) scale breakthrough since the release in 2016. Various members play with the likes of KOKOROKO, Maisha, SEED Ensemble or (in the case of Nubya Garcia) in her own right. Noteworthy: their debut will be released this year on Domino Recording, which also houses good folk like Arctic Monkeys, Fat White Family, Jon Hopkins and Four Tet. Wanna bet that you’ll soon fall for their John Coltrane and Pharoah Sanders impregnated sound too?

Tenesha The Wordsmith (us)

AB has held the superb and progressive album ‘Black Noise 2084’ (by Italian producer DJ Khalab) close to its heart over the past year. With its nifty mix of global sounds, afro-futuristic beats and jazz, the album is a textbook example of how unfettered music really can be. Aside from guest musicians like Theon Cross and Shabaka Hutchings, it was the spoken word passages by Tenesha The Wordsmith that really grabbed our attention.

The two turned out to be labelmates on On The Corner Records (see too: Dengue Dengue Dengue, Penya, …). The label is acclaimed by Gilles Peterson and each release receives superb, colourfully designed covers by artist Victoria Topping. Tenesha The Wordsmith is from Oakland and says of herself: ‘I am a poet, writer, model and actress. Basically I wanna be Gordon Parks when I grow up!’ Her ‘powerful poetry is filled with art, music and romance set to inventive hip-hop grooves.’ Her debut ‘Peacocks and Other Savage Beasts’ is soon to be released. Especially for the Feeërieën, she’s coming over all the way from Oakland, California, US.