daau

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”.

DAAU @ Philharmonie Haarlem, this Saturday

admin — Mon, 05 Sep 2011 19:22:43 +0000

Just a friendly reminder:

DAAU will play the Stad als Podium festival in the Dutch town of Haarlem next Saturday. Stage time is 22.45 and the venue will be the beautiful Philharmonie of Haarlem. Be there. And when it’s done, you can hop over to Patronaat to see Battles. Should be a good night out!

“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.

Interview about setting up Radical Duke

admin — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:38:45 +0000

From the “better late then never” department, I wanted to mention this interview from last autumn that Han, Simon and Hannes did for Poppunt Magazine, a free music mag from Flanders aimed at fans as much as the industry and the media itself.

The thing is different from your regular interview as it touches on various steps the band have taken to survive in the music industry. All of which were everything but commonplace when Radical Duke started up in 2002, such as directly selling merchandise through the website or offering up live recordings for purchase directly after the show.

And furthermore, in this interview Simon takes the opportunity to clear up with one long-running misunderstanding. Apparently, it is not exactly true that DAAU have a classical music background as such – at least they say they didn’t have formal classical training. I promise I’ll stop spreading that lie from now on

You can read the full interview online (by way of a Flash viewer, and in Dutch), on the Poppunt site. It’s magazine number 45.

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.

DAAU con Alma Flamenca recordings from 1999 online

admin — Mon, 21 Feb 2011 21:20:26 +0000

Nothing is too obscure to pop up on youtube after a while. Here’s proof! Now, some eleven years after the fact, some recordings of a live performance of DAAU with Alma Flamenca have been posted on youtube. The recordings were made on April 13, 1999 at the Halles de Schaerbeek in Brussels, during a time when the two bands played together regularly. Alma Flamenca is a (you guessed it…) Flamenco band from Ronda, Spain, and the story goes that DAAU met them while in town for concerts and recording sessions. That was 1998.

This one is pretty special because I had always known about DAAU playing with Alma Flamenca but had never actually heard what it sounded like – except for a really short excerpt that turned up on the “Ghost Tracks” album, the Alma Flamenca project seemed pretty much lost to time. Until now!

Thanks to Joaquin Orillo from Alma Flamenca, who uploaded this rarity, we can now listen to two full songs that were recorded at a live show in Brussels in 1999.

“Como el Agua” stays in traditional Flamenco waters for a while before taking an unexpected, anarchistic twist towards the end. It’s worth listening to. By the way, this is the song that was used, in a different version, on the “Ghost Tracks” CD.

Here is the second song, “Con Tomate”. I can’t tell the line-up precisely, but there’s cajón, lots of strings, possibly two accordeons, and that particular style of singing that… well, you either love it or you hate it. The song also pops up in another part of the band history – it was taken up again four years later as an instrumental re-arrangement in the collaboration with Troissoeur.

DAAU in Genk & Tournai, this week

admin — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 12:47:29 +0000

Nice poster for this weekend’s d’Hiverrock festival in Tournai, which includes a set by DAAU on Saturday.

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.)

Partie de chasse

admin — Sun, 09 Jan 2011 20:48:45 +0000

Thanks to Partie de chasse, here’s an exclusive DAAU recording from their concert in Liège last October. Some photos from the same gig are here.

Daau impro by partie de chasse