In April and May, the Belgian scene becomes electrified

Located in one of the most beautiful venues in Belgium, the Botanique, the “chanté course” which stretches from April to the end of May is the perfect opportunity to take a short tour of the Belgian scene, which is rising, very eclectic or... .rock-electric. Daniel Hélin, Cloé, Jeronimo, Arolde. So many new names that could enchant your dreams one day...

(B2) Not quite a festival, not really a stage school, the “Parcours chanté”, sixth of the name, intends to show the public what is best done today outside the paths traced “in concrete by big industry”. “ Alongside big industry there are a lot of artists coming in through alternative and independent routes that are creating a very professional culture. We bet on a creation that we hear little on the radios, which benefit from little promotion on the part of record companies, are directly linked to a field ”. explains Paul-Henri Wouters, head of programming. And we have to admit it, “ There is a French-speaking sensitivity, towards more personal projects. While the more Anglo-Saxon culture is more sensitive to more format projectsés”. The forty artists present thus share, if not a language, at least their own originality. French people of course, more or less known (Charlelie, Burgalat, Danyel Waro, Coralie Clément, Dionysos, Rhinocérôse..), a slew of talented musicians from the south (the Beninese Angélique Kidjo, the Cuban Maria Ochoa or the mixed Brazilian-German-Dutch, Zuco 103), and a good pinch local artists from Wallonia and Brussels. And There you go !

The idea of ​​the Parcours comes from the Francophonie. “ Friendships with people from Quebec who showed a way of celebrating in French song, texts from the music of personalitieses. ” continues Paul-Henri Wouters. “It's true that there is a Quebec model, of vitality, linked, I don't know, to winter perhaps, to linguistic isolation. This kind of style, historical, that we know well, with the public, a lot of human warmth. I had never seen in Belgium such spontaneity, in the public, such an approach”. Thus in 1997, the Parcours chanté started its first edition, in the classic form of a festival event. Four days of music, with a bit of Québécois, Swiss and French. But very quickly, the very “quota” formula reached its limits. “We didn't want to limit ourselves to the artists available that day. And so we designed a project, more organic, more fluid, and perhaps less pretentious which wants, above all, to listen to “germinations” which hatch, which grow. ” And imbued with a lyricism, Paul-Henri Wouters concludes “ In fact, rather than pulling up a plant at all costs, we decided to settle on spring, we look at what grows and we let it exist where it is, even if it takes two months. "

And it works!

Over the years, the course has if not launched, at least propelled or consolidated artists. The first concert of M. “was here”. Rhinoceroses also. For the teeming Walloon and Brussels scene, above all, the Parcours chanté represents an incomparable launching pad or expression area. Innovative artists like Daniel Helin so passed this scene. Hélin could be to Belgian music what Higelin brought to French song a few years ago. He produces texts of a rare poetry, experiments with sounds of classical music, blues, rock, conceives his commitment as a natural fact for a “guy” who reflects on the world. “ Long live Chiapas, to death Dallas ! ” But refuses for all that to see himself as the standard-bearer of any movement. Because his world is above all that of music. In his second album "Les Bulles" are songs made of bittersweet irony that flourish when reading the texts.

The rising generation

Among this rising generation, how not to give in to the “Tales from my skyscraper” of Clovers Cloe. Melody, where each instrument, double bass, piano, violin, drums, guitar, express themselves, confront each other, alternating tension and energy. With the added bonus of a few small experimental "tweaks" to the sampler. Texts, in English most of the time, which resonate with personal reflections “I wish I was born in another century who knows, I fucked up my dark ideas, I am looking all around”. Everything leaves a flower of emotion in the mouth. “I have a lot of fascination for people's lives,” explains Cloé. “These tales from my skyscraper are like a series of timeless stories that take place in the city. When you look at a building at night, squares of light in front of my room, you have the impression of an aquarium, and of human lives where everyone lives their story, and there is nothing that communicates between these apartments”. When the city falls asleep, “at 2-3 a.m.”, continues Cloé, “I go up to my attic” or “go down” to my cellar, to fill in its sheets with notes and words and restore these feelings above all ” . As a result, in his songs, “There are a lot of dreams. Love too. “More than a dawn” tells the story of a person who says to himself “I stay, I don't stay” and finally she stays”. And disenchantments... like this young girl who admits being born in the wrong time, Cloé peut-être.

In a more stripped down style, but just as rebellious, the song d'Arolde intends to draw you to the other side of the mirror, in a universe where the ambiguity of dreams and the difficulty of reality mingle. Always faithful to the libertarian spirit claimed by her former group, the Brochettes, Zoé, the singer who now exercises her talents in solidarity, surprises with new songs that she interprets in a disconcerting way. Noël Godin, known as le Gloupier, by profession a tartar, adores the one who was a chorister for Maurane for a while (at the Olympia in 1999)... And indeed, there is something really personal in his songs, a unique way of express things. Raised in a toy store, now living in a disused train station lost in the middle of the countryside, Arolde-Zoé sings of love and friendship — “your best friend dropped everything for a little English rooster”. But also the school trauma, the revolt of women — “Tremblez” —, and her rejection of the institutional world. Her refrain “I love my bed so much. I spend my afternoons there. I will never go to work” is not insignificant. His leitmotif “destabilize the world economy, eliminate money, live happily” is his way of life. However, Arolde does not forget that she is an artist. His show created for the Parcours Chanté - and which will be found at the Spa Francofolies in July is both playful and magical. Between a limonaire, a “giant” barrel organ made for the occasion, and a small electronic box, the artist who claims his “ignorance of music theory” presents a show that is as visual as it is musical. Where other artists confine themselves to their sole vocal performance, Zoé plays shadow puppets that move and plays of colors that come alive around her. A real cartoon character.

On the rock side in French, you must surely make a detour via Yel. There aren't really many artists from the flat country who cultivate English sounds and dare to sing in French. In “Sagesse et ivresse”, the title of their first album, these four Walloons from Louvain-la-Neuve, a university town if ever there was one, use simple texts. Is this a nod to Godard? But their New Wave, “Sit down, listen to me. I see things you don't see. ” could illustrate one of the master's films. While the “I am in” — “ I live in the middle of the banks. From all sides caught adrift. My shadow, delay 10 seconds delays your wavelengths. Uncertain of new trends. I trust between two movements. ” could sound the reminder of a generation. “ I didn't kill my father or don't remember. I did not touch my mother. Come on, let's not talk about it anymore ! ... Our bodies on their knees, who would still want my head? ”. They occupy the stage with a good dose of madness. Their rock is spontaneous, incisive and melodic.

a new tribe, pop-electro, the Hutois

In another vein, more pop and electro, you have to go watch the Hutois. Not a new Indian tribe, but several groups native to Huy, a small town near Liège, brought together under the “Anorak Supersport” label. Their music is not uniform. And that's what makes the charm of this new coat. Crystal Palace, which has nothing to do with the British football club! Mixed and mastered at the Rising Sun by Rudy Coclet, Arno's faithful sound engineer, Raphaël Grignet's latest album "Poptronic" is full of pop and electronics. Pop by his songs and electronic by his influences, some of which are to be found on the side of New Order.

At Pink Satellite, it's another matter, two. Olivier composed, Cédric "deejayait". After the final of the Circuit Competition, the album "Electrolidays In Levitation" was released at the end of 2001, an album as unifying as the duo's dj sets, intended for dancefloor addicts and cocooning alike. But the duo is appreciable in concert, as much by the quality of its house as by the warmth of the atmospheres that it manages to instill, the air of nothing. (pinksatellite.anotherlight.com).

Finally the one we prefer, and who should enchant you with his rocktournelles, Jérôme Mardaga and his "eternal little group" (a bass player and a drummer). When Jeronimo appears, the skull not well furnished, holding his guitar with a slightly left hand, we could say a French singer (sorry! French-speaking) moreover. And no ! This Belgian discovery, Jérôme Mardaga by his real name, has simple rock - with drums and five-string bass - intelligible (which is rare) and... cheerful. Just like his texts. Relentlessly occupying his machines to liven up songs in French rich in acid humor and caustic remarks, he talks about all those little things that make life what it is: tragic, beautiful, funny, ugly and more. … We also find there all the musical influences with which the artist was confronted (Velvet, U2, John Barry, My Bloody valentine,…). Because if Jeronimo has a specialty, “very sad” stories like “My wife is cheating on me” or “I'm afraid of the Americans” (a cover, in French please, of Bowie), they are told with a such amiable derision that smiles often surface. When Jeronimo regrets “the eternal little group, which will never be big, because they are too concerned about doing well”, the subject, a tad autobiographical, is more ironic and critical... Like this “Sarah”, met “Quite by chance, on my wedding day. My marriage is ruined, thank you Sarah”.... To be read in the first or second degree.

Nicolas Gros-Verheyde (in Brussels) for RFi Music

> Until May 23. At Botanical, in Brussels. Information tickets: 00 322 218 3732.

(inter) In May, the party was...

• The sung course is also a party. For a week, every evening at the beginning of May, a “special party” will come to the greenhouses of “Bota”. In a very special atmosphere, lounge, soft lights, and retro music specially selected to make people dream, dance, love... From Puerto Rico to Cuba, samba and salsa from the 30s to the 60s (Saturday May 4) until the Magnetic songs: remember these sounds straight out of the machines offered by Jean-Michel Jarre or Vangelis (Friday May 10), via Gadjo-Zingaro: tubas, trumpets, violins, guitars and bass drums... Gypsy music in all its splendor, from Hungary to Romania via Bulgaria (Sunday May 5), Cha Cha Cha and Charleston just like in the good old days, with characters as famous as Joséphine Baker or Gershwin (Monday May 6), the tac-tac-tic of the gendarme, Ali-baba, etc... who does not remember those pieces that only Bourvil, Fernandel or Maurice Chevalier knew how to handle with humor (Tuesday May 7), Carnival, to the tunes of Gilles de Binche and other carnival fanfares (Wednesday May 8), or Botellon, which means: the party before the party! Luis Mariano, Francis Lopez or a Guetary (Thursday May 9)