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Sarah once again asked @frederik_van_melle to creep up on another innocent author-in-residence (although that could be debated) to satisfy @passaporta’s appetite for engaging conversations on literature.
Sorry, not sorry.
Expect the finished video portrait of Mattias Timander (SE) in the coming days. Prepare to have your literary interest deepened yet again.
Who spotted the Accordion in the first picture?
Yes. We know your kind.
This week. Different years. Same band. 30 years on stage. Brussels based. Jaune Toujours.
Some weeks are built from roads. Service stations. Festival tents. Backstage couches. Union squares. Protest marches. Tiny dressing rooms with half-eaten sandwiches and folded bicycles leaning against walls.
2000 Brussels. NAKBA remembrance. Parcours d’Artistes. Music in public spaces, where conversations already existed before the first note.
2001 Deurne. Heerlen. Crossing borders like it’s the most natural thing in the world.
2005 Hayange. Festival du Gueulard. Dust in the air. Drummers photographing photographers.
2006 Radio Transit days. Leuven. Brussels. Microphones travelling from one solidarity event to another.
2009 Germany roads. Bielefeld. Jena. Kasablanca backstage. Tour van windows. Sound desks glowing in the dark. Gig posters taped to venue walls.
2012–2013 Afrobelbeat years. Gangbé Brass Band crossings. Torhout horns blazing. Stages getting louder and wider.
2017 Trump Not Welcome. Aarschot. Brussels. Music stepping directly into the street.
2019 Climate marches. Crowds carrying banners. Bands carrying amplifiers. Everybody trying to make enough noise for the future to hear.
2020 Lockdown Cheer Up sessions. Playing outside elderly homes. Distance between musicians. Connection anyway.
2021 Sauvons les Marais Wiels. Another public space worth defending.
2022 Koopkracht protests. Brass section facing the crowd like a moving alarm bell.
2023 Jam-in Jette. Still gathering. Still dancing. Still showing up.
Some weeks leave behind recordings. Some leave behind flyers. Some leave behind almost nothing except the memory of people standing together for a little while.
Still travelling. Still carrying the songs from city to city. Still believing public space can belong to everyone.
This week. Different years. Same band. 30 years on stage. Brussels based. Jaune Toujours.
Some weeks smell like train stations, wet cables, backstage coffee and spring rain.
1998 Botanique. Press conference season. Before the gig comes the talking.
1999 Gérardmer. French newspaper clippings. Road signs pointing south.
2000–2001 Ancienne Belgique. Mano Mundo. Radio waves and festival mud.
2005 London. Oxford. BBC studios humming quietly before the red light turns on. Sound engineers leaning over consoles like aircraft pilots. Oxford Folk Festival. Packed cellar bar. Crowd dancing underground like a boiler about to burst.>
2009 Fnac gigs. Songs squeezed between bookshelves and passing shoppers.
2011–2012 Rochefort. Brugge. Afrobelbeat days with Gangbé Brass Band. Brussels brass meeting Beninese rhythms halfway in the air.
2014 Airbag Festival again. Sharing the spotlight with Ik en den Theo. Same airbag, different squeeze.
2020 Lockdown streams. Concerts through lenses and fibre cables. Tiny rooms becoming temporary stages again.
2019 ViaVelo Palestina. Music standing where solidarity stands.
2024 Another kind of set entirely: the filming of Dimanche. Flags. Urban wasteland. Carnaval energy spilling across concrete.
Different cities. Different rooms. Same pulse. Still travelling. Still recording. Still building little worlds wherever we land.
This week. Different years. Same band. 30 years on stage. Brussels based. Jaune Toujours.
Some weeks carry history in broad daylight. 5 May. 8 May. Liberation. Memory. Resistance.
Music played in public spaces, for people standing together.
1999–2005 Gent. Brussels. Deurne. Ath. Sint-Gillis. Small stages, city squares, cultural centres. Brass, accordions, movement.
2002 Foire! Halles de Schaerbeek. Waiting on stage before the noise begins.
2007–2015 Liberation festivals in the Netherlands. The road north. Songs crossing borders easily.
2012 Afrobelbeat. Gangbé Brass Band from Benin. Brussels rhythms meeting West African brass. Another language added to the conversation.
2017 Steenrock. Music against detention centres. Crowds listening under open skies.
2020 Lockdown Cheer Up Sessions. Playing outside elderly homes. Distance measured in meters, connection measured differently.
2022–2023 Labadoux. Dworp. Festivals, clubs, village rooms. Still gathering people into one moving body.
2024 Breendonk. 8 May movement. Playing music on ground marked by history. And back in Laken: Vertigo taking shape in the studio, with family, friends, cats, dictionaries and backing vocals all drifting into the songs.
And today, another kind of celebration. Union wins the cup. The supporters sing along to the Jaune Toujours anthem again. Brussels echoing in full voice. Different places. Same week, stretched across time. We don’t archive the past. We carry it. Still playing. Still moving. Still open to the next room.
3'Ain performed new material from their upcoming album "Unland" last sunday at Living Room Music Festival organised by Muziekpublique
Hey, DJ, leave the kids alone!
(afterparty @ikendentheo Jelle-cup Sint-Pieters-Leeuw)
In (the outskirts of) Bruges…
End of April we played the first of 2 concerts for the very cosy festival Uitwijken at Kruisabele, Brugge, with some nice spring days peeping around the corner…
Good times!
Photos 1, 2, 4, 5 & 6 by Beer Vanhoutte
This week. Different years. Same band. 30 years on stage. Brussels based. Jaune Toujours.
Some weeks are made of many small stages. End of April. Beginning of May. Labour Day. Rooms, streets, festivals, gatherings.
2000 Meerbeke. Hometown air. First circles.
2001–2003 Waregem. Lochristi. Brussels. Leuven. Vught. Public squares. Cultural centres. Songs moving through people.
2002 Foire! Heusden-Zolder. Light, objects, sound. The stage stretches.
2004–2011 Liège. Kassel. Delft. München. Brussels. From festivals to street corners. Same energy, different walls.
2014–2019 Antwerp. Grimbergen. Brussels. Sit-Nick. I Love May. Music where people meet.
2020 Everything shifts. Balconies in Laken. Hospital courtyards in Ukkel. Sidewalk sessions. A father and son sharing a song. Distance, but still connection. Some shows cancelled. Others appear on the spot.
2023–2024 Back in Laken. Writing. Recording. Vertigo taking shape.
Many places. Same impulse. To play. To gather. To keep the line open.
Different places. Same week, stretched across time. We don’t archive the past. We carry it. Still playing. Still moving. Still open to the next room.
This week. Different years. Same band. 30 years on stage. Brussels based. Jaune Toujours.
Some weeks are roads. Backstage corridors. Italian sunlight. Van seats that remember everything.
1998 Brussels. Irisfeesten. The city already listening.
2001–2004 Belgium, Netherlands. Clubs, cultural centres. Songs learning how to travel.
2006 Bonn. Harmonie. Guestbooks signed, sweat still drying.
2007 Italy. Varese. Milano. Vercelli. Trumpets in parks. Chess on terraces. Fruit pie backstage. A speeding ticket as souvenir.
2009 Köln. Another room, same pulse.
2016 Brussels. Music on the streets. Sound as statement.
2019 Albertina. Afterwork, but never after energy.
2020 Balconies. The world paused. Music leaned out the window.
2024 Choux Box Studio. A new voice enters. Next generation on the mic. Vertigo takes another breath.
2025 Belsele. Encore in the crowd. No distance left.
From sidewalks to stages. From radio silence to shared air.
Different places. Same week, stretched across time. We don’t archive the past. We carry it. Still playing. Still moving. Still open to the next room.