daau » new animals

Some notes about DAAU versus GEM in Gent

admin — Sun, 30 Oct 2011 12:31:09 +0000

Seven Brazilians and four Belgians shared the stage last Thursday at Vooruit in Gent. The world debut performance of Fernando Sardo’s GEM meeting DAAU. With apparently only little rehearsal beforehand, the musicians pulled off a great 50 minute set as part of the Europalia Brasil festival. Quite a unique performance it was. One song of GEM started the set. One long song by DAAU followed, and I did not recognize it- must be a brand-new one! Then both bands together for two songs that flowed freely from experimental soundscapes to a re-worked section of “Drieslagstelsel 5″.

thanks to Bas for the picture

It seems there will be only one concert of this project, next Friday in Antwerpen. If you’re around, go see them.

Check Cobra for a live video live song of the concert ( which spares me the description of GEM’s unique custom-built instruments – you can just see for yourself…) I can’t seem to embed it here in this page, so you’ll just have to click on the link and select “Sprookjes” !

Starkeeper

admin — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 11:14:19 +0000

Starkeeper is a new band from Antwerp that features Buni and Simon playing together on a record for the first time since I don’t know when. The band’s debut EP is now available on itunes (http://itunes.apple.com/be/album/elle-brace-yourself-ep-single/id473789466?).

And hey, that looks a lot like the skyline of Berlin on the cover… !

Here is the official video clip for “Elle”.

“L’Hiver dernier” / “Last Winter”

admin — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 20:05:29 +0000

DAAU have recorded a soundtrack to the feature film “L’Hiver dernier” , or “Last Winter” as it will be known outside of Francophonic territories. According to Gentlemanagement, DAAU composed 40 minutes of new music specifically for the movie, of which 25 are going to be used in it.

Directed and written by John Shank, the movie tells the story of a farmer fighting against the threat of losing his entire existence after a fire ravages his farm. (Guess there just had to be some connection to animals!) It’s not yet known when the movie will be out in theatres, MDB says it’s currently in post-production. Any news will be posted here!

This is the fourth time DAAU have supplied the soundtrack to a movie. The other three I know of are:

Our Daily Bread, which was of course extensively toured with a live soundtrack,
Archipel’s Nitrate, which I’ve never even seen,
and Practical Pistol Shooting, which I’ve never seen either but a DVD should be on its way to me.

So this one is the first full-length feature film that DAAU has worked on, as far as I know.

Here’s the pages at IMDB and the movie’s blog. Some screens from the shooting at Flickr.

A new project lurking around the corner…

admin — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 16:03:06 +0000

When DAAU played at the Duif church in Amsterdam last month, it might have been the conclusion of their “Shepherd’s Dream” tour. We don’t know for sure, but at present no concerts are officially announced until September.

But there are a few postings around the net that suggest that DAAU will return to the stage this fall to play some concerts with GEM – that is short for Grupo experimental de Música. GEM is coming over to Antwerp for a residency at the Singel and possibly some recordings with DAAU. The press text promises an amalgam of Brazilian and Belgian folk music, and points out that Fernando Sardo builds his own instruments and installations with unusual materials.

Now I’m thinking that a collaboration between these guys and DAAU could lead to something quite interesting – and possibly even more demanding of the average music listener than Shepherd’s Dream. Will we see the Anarchists move up to the avantgarde of experimental noise music? The answer probably won’t be given until autumn, when the collaborative project plays two festival dates in Gent and Antwerp. I’ll try to be there.

Dates according to toutpartout:

* 10/09/11: Stad als Podium, Philharmonie Haarlem (NL) (DAAU)

* 27/10/11: Vooruit – Gent (B) (Europalia Brasil) – Ferdando Sardo’s GEM vs. DAAU

* 04/11/11: Vamos Brasil! @ De Singel – Antwerpen (B) – Ferdando Sardo’s GEM vs. DAAU

Watch a video of GEM performing live below.

Buni with Winther & Simon with Sir Ian

admin — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:02:51 +0000

I recently came across this new band from Antwerp called Winther. Fronted by singer Wolfram Ghesquière, the band also includes bassist Dries Laheye and Frederik Meulyzer on drums – and DAAU founding member Buni Lenski on violin. Indeed, that is unmistakably Buni on the promo pictures, which make it clear that the band picked their name for a good reason…

The music could be described as calm, laid-back, soulful and slightly melancholic pop, with the occasional touch of weirdness. More of that, please, and maybe a little less restraint..

You can stream a couple of songs at the band’s vi.be site, or view a couple of videos – starting with Buni keeping his fingers warm on a winter day in Belgium.

An early gig by only Wolfram & Buni at Antwerp’s Salle Jeanne. Buni singing back-up through the violin microphone is a great sight.

But there’s more! At the recent gig in Rotterdam, Simon Lenski also played with Sir Ian, formerly of Mono. Youtube evidence below. (For the record, Simon didn’t play the cello parts on Sir Ian’s album Apathology – those were by Milena Eva, who is on the left.)

A new year’s update

admin — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:48:32 +0000

To kick off the new year, one good piece of news is that DAAU has been nominated for a MIA in the ‘best artwork’ category, obviously for the lovely packaging of the “Shepherd’s Dream” album. And rightfully so. “MIA” is short for the Flamish Music Industry Awards and the award ceremony is taking place right now.

The touring continues relentlessly early on in the year, with concerts around Belgium and the Netherlands starting in Eeklo next week.

And lastly, a very happy new year to all of you! Here’s to a lot more good music in 2011.

Archipels Nitrate

admin — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 10:58:26 +0000

DAAU have contributed to the film soundtrack “Archipels nitrate” by Claudio Pazienza. The film actually seems to have been released in 2009, only that I’ve completely failed to mention it here! Shame on me. After a few showings at film festivals around the world, it was shown on ARTE earlier this year, but of course I’ve managed to completely miss that.

The Arenberg in Antwerp has a nice write-up about the film in French and Dutch. doku-arts.de also has an English text which says:

‘Silent planets. Planets on which life expectancy is measured in seconds… How long does an image last?’ Made for the 70th anniversary of the Cinémathèque Royale in Belgium (now named Cinematek), Claudio Pazienza’s Archipels Nitrate offers a unique and poetic tour through a film collection. An homage to its representative personalities and its pioneering curator, Jacques Ledoux, this personal selection of moments is a reflection upon the physical and psychological ephemerality of the moving image. ‘Sometimes intact, sometimes scratched, faded, almost erased. Images by the thousands that run wildly, uncontrollably, into my mind’.

Pazienza’s superb cinematic essay compiles magnificent clips of many beautifully restored films, from the early Lumière pictures (1896) to a short film by Belgium filmmaker Olivier Smolders (1997). The film is a distillation of the history of film, mixing documentary footage with moments from the great directors of cinema, from Chaplin to Fassbinder. By combining scenes from disparate times, Pazienza poses questions such as ‘Why are these images so embedded, and why do they trigger others?’

With a splendid musical score that includes compositions by John Cage, Béla Bartok, Georg Friedrich Händel, Morton Feldman, and DAAU (Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung), Archipels Nitrate is a fascinating investigation into the memories of cinema itself. Winner of the Grand Prix, Montreal Film Festival on Art.

No word on whether the band contributed original music, or whether there will be a DVD release or any more showings.

Living room techno

admin — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 17:25:49 +0000

There is an article and interview with DAAU in today’s De Standaard.

Avid followers of this site will not find too much new information there, but it is a nice read. The idea of listening to a concert while lying down on a mattress appeals to me…

“shepherd’s dream” reviews

admin — Fri, 02 Apr 2010 23:36:55 +0000

Updated May 4th

Reviews of the new album are starting to come in, and I’ll link to them as they become available online. They are mostly very favorable, and rightly so !

kwadratuur.be (3.5/5 stars)
darkentries.be (8/10 stars)
rifraf has a review on page 22. Again the free music mag gives a very favorable review to the extent of associating DAAU with contemporary composers and even going so far as to label them a crossing between Eleni Karaindrou en Nino Rota (!).
cuttingedge.be, 4/5 stars
psychemusic.org, 4 stars
The New Music Review, 4 stars

Feel free to send me more if you come across them…

Short interview

admin — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:32:21 +0000

A short interview with Han about The Shepherd’s Dream, on occasion of the Kleppersfestival in Antwerp:

Het is een plaat waarin we de stilte en de traagheid opzoeken. Waarin we met kleine details in onze sound het verhaal proberen te vertellen. Meer dan in volume of snelheid. We proberen het echt subtiel aan te pakken. (…)

We zijn gewoon zonder vooropgezet plan gedurende enkele maanden muziek beginnen maken in improvatiesessies. Die muziek had volgens ons iets pastoraal. Het heeft bijna een naïef utopisch karakter waarin we een idyllisch landschap proberen te creëren. De pastorale muziek zoals Beethoven’s Pastorale is ook een beetje inspiratie geweest.

Which translates roughly to the following: The band were aiming at a quieter, slower sound and looking for a way to relate a story through variation of small details rather than volume or tempo. The music has the character of an almost utopian, idyllic landscape.

Quite an apt characterization of the album’s mood, which I like more every time I listen to it (& so does everybody else I’ve played it to).