Flanders today
arts
MARCH 14, 2012
Too many roads
WEEK IN ARTS & CULTURE
We’ve been waiting 14 years, but De Held has finally finished his first album Christophe Verbiest
© Yu Chen & Jo Jacobs
F
ourteen years ago, Jo Jacobs set himself a goal. “For the first time in my life,” he admits. The then 27-year-old musician from Hasselt wanted to write, in 12 months, 10 songs in Dutch. “I succeeded, though I cheated a bit: Some of them had no words.” The future looked bright, and Jacobs got some gigs. Next, he needed a stage name. “A friend of mine made a flyer on which she called me De Held (“the hero”). I thought she was exaggerating, but the only alternative I had was De Eenmanszaak (“the sole proprietor”). Admittedly, not as catchy as De Held, so I decided to keep that. I never got round to changing it.” Jacobs (pictured) did get around
to contacting Wouter Van Belle, one of Flanders’ top producers. But he wasn’t happy with the result of their collaboration. “I was sounding contorted; it wasn’t the real me,” he explains. He doesn’t blame Van Belle. “It took me years to realise what the problem was: I had too many possibilities. Wouter has a huge studio, and I was lost there.” Later, Jacobs tried once more to record his songs but again wasn’t satisfied. “By then I was extremely fixated on my early demo recordings. I was trying to recreate the atmosphere I thought was present in them, but to no avail.” By then another idea was camping out in the back of Jacobs’ brain, too: “It’s all the fault of my guitar.”
The quest for the perfect guitar “I bought and resold different guitars, but I was never quite happy with them,” muses Jacobs. “I was unemployed by then and enrolled in a training programme for guitar construction. I built five guitars, but none of them satisfied me. I was desperate.”
In the end, he recorded his debut album De Held with a guitar he’s been playing for 20 years. And he’s satisfied. The catalyst was producer Gaëtan Vandewoude, frontman of Flemish band Isbells (who have just released a new album themselves, see below). “One of the first things he said when we started working was: ‘It’s not about the guitar you play.’ I nearly had a heart attack. He was right, in end.” What he meant was: It’s not about the guitar, but about the songs, and the ones Jacobs presents on De Held are all little gems; musically and lyrically understated, they get under your skin. His lyrics are rarely cheerful, but his sweet melodies prevent the ditties from becoming too melancholy. It’s not easy for Jacobs to put his finger on what changed in the ensuing 14 years, but he points to one of Vandewoude’s strengths. “He never went along with my doubts and always stayed calm. It made me trust him fully, which is quite exceptional for me. It’s very difficult for me to give people my confidence.” So at 40, some things seem to have changed in Jacobs’ life. For the better.
Stoalin’ • Zeal Three years ago, Gaëtan Vandewoude, a veteran of the Leuven independent music scene, wouldn’t in his wildest dreams have imagined that the first album of his new band Isbells would become a gold record. But it did, and deservedly so. Isbells’ second CD, Stoalin’ – a made-up word – is a continuation of their mesmerising folk pop, with Vandewoude’s angelic voice at its heart. Alternately subdued in a melancholy way and cheerfully catchy, it’s a varied album with 10 excellent songs. Music for all seasons and every moment of the day. Releases on 26 March ``www.myspace.com/isbellstheband
The Hickey Underworld I’m under the House, I’mDying • PIAS On the eve of the final of Humo’s Rock Rally, the World Cup of Flanders’ music competitions, former laureate The Hickey
``www.kinepolis.be/musical
The Staatliche Kunsthalle in the southern German city of Baden-Baden is hosting a sitespecific installation by Jan De Cock in which the young Flemish artist literally changes the landscape of the white rooms of the museum, turning them into splintered units, with no beginning and no end. Each unit is linked to moments in the life of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, suggesting the persistent romantic yearning for an idealised by-gone era. De Cock has previously staged solo shows in London’s Tate Modern and New York’s MoMA. ``www.kunsthalle-baden-baden.de
18 March 19.30 Chambre d’Amis Terbeek 91, Sint-Truiden www.deheld.be
New music Isbells
Cinema chain Kinepolis this month launches Musical in the Cinema, a series of screenings of high-definition digital recordings of Broadway musicals, direct from New York. The series joins Kinepolis’ ongoing Opera in the Cinema, Ballet in the Cinema and Theater in the Cinema programmes. Unlike those, however, the Broadway productions are not beamed in live via satellite but are rather recordings of current productions. The first of the monthly shows, on 16 March, is Jekyll and Hyde, which will screen in Kinepolis cinemas in Antwerp, Brussels and Ghent.
Flemish beer brewer Palm has launched the UrbanCrafts. tv website for young people to discover new technologies, gadgets and apps. New videos will be posted three times a week, in which the host Leesa will demonstrate new or innovative tech-related tools from her studio or in the field with special guests. The programmes can also be found on Telenet’s digital channel 44. ``www.urbancrafts.tv
Underworld release their second album, I’m under the House, I’m Dying. The Antwerp foursome still mix mean guitars, thunderous drums and primal screams into sordid, guttural songs that draw on noisy rock, proto-grunge and heavy metal. But when they drop the pace, in the haunting “Martian’s Cave”, they sound even more dangerous. All in all, not an album for delicate ears. ``www.thehickeyunderworld.com
Zita Swoon Group
Wait for Me • Crammed A bluesy guitar and an African thumb piano intertwine in the first bars of the opening track of Wait for Me, and it’s clear that, this time around, Zita Swoon Group will take the listener on a very special musical trip. The band of Antwerpenaar Stef Kamil Carlens (or SKC, as he’s known to his friends) teams up with musicians from Burkina Faso (Awa Démé and Mamadou Diabaté Kibi). It’s a marriage made in heaven: warmblooded songs that are at once typically SKC and respectfully African. What’s more, they’re
played with loads of gusto. ``www.zitaswoongroup.be
Sioen
Sioen • Kabron “I’m gonna shuffle your feet / I’m gonna make you believe / That there’s a devil in me / I’m gonna dance you / To a bad, bad world” In the first verses of the opening track “Bad Bad World”, Ghent piano man and singer (Frederik) Sioen maps out his plans with his fifth album. The songs are more up-tempo than before; they’re radiant, and they sparkle – contemporary pop music aimed uncompromisingly at the mainstream. There are also some beautiful ballads in “Make It Real” and “Please Hold Me in Your Arms”. All in all, Sioen is not a complete makeover, but it’s still a bold change of direction.
sound magician of Einstürzende Neubauten. But her songs are much more melodic and openminded than those of Germany’s most famous experimental rock band. Van der Aa is a multiinstrumentalist – she played almost everything herself – but her claim to fame is the violin. Though it seldom sounds like your average violin, since Van der Aa uses loads of effects to alter its sound. I was sure I heard an electric guitar in some of the songs, but there’s none on the album. A highly impressive debut! ``www.liesavanderaa.be
Brussels illustrator Philippe Debognie has won the first-ever Duvel Collection competition. Flemish brewer Duval Moorgat put out a call for entries to decorate a Duvel beer glass and received 850 responses from countries selected to participate: the UK, Belgium, France and the Netherlands. Members of the public voted for their favourite designs, and then a jury whittled down to three the top 20 winners from each country. Debognie’s design (pictured) was announced the winner in a ceremony in Paris earlier this month. The glass will be in retail outlets beginning in June.
``www.sioen.net
Liesa Van der Aa
Troops • Louisa’s Daughter Flemish singer Liesa Van der Aa went to Berlin to record her first album Troops (pictured right) with Boris Wilsdorf, the
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