FolkWorld Live Review 02/02 by
Christian Moll
In 2002 I have had already for the third time the pleasure to start my festival season already in january with the excellent festival of Tilburg in the Netherlands. It is great to have also a festival spot in the dark time of the year...
First
on was a special duo of Renaud-Garcia Fons (double bass) & Jean Louis Matinier
(accordeon), they presented a mix of fresh instrumental music mostly of south
western European origin with influences of among others Jazz and classical music.
Nice to see masters of their instruments.
Next on was again a duo, but of a totally different kind - Jan Màri Carlòtti
(voice and guitar) sings songs in a troubadic style. He looks like a man from
southern France - he hails from the Languedoc - and sings ancient songs in the
occitanian language, a language that is still spoken in some regions of southern
France, northwestern Italy and northeastern Spain. His musical partner is Michel
Marre, he plays brass instruments trumpet, tuba and sax in a quite free jazzy
style. The two form a very unconventional duo presenting Troubadour music with
Jazz.
Cathrine Delasalle is a French chanson singer, as she is living at the moment
in Bruges in Belgium her band at this festival provided a mixture of the core
of the young Belgian scene and France. She has a fine voice and her band is
stunning. You could feel the influence of Wouter Vandeabele (of Olla Vogala
and Ambrozijn fame) in the music of the band. There were a good 10 musicians
on stage presenting a very powerful backing of Cathrin, the music had strong
influence of France (of course), Belgium, but also world music and Jazz...
The
last band of La Maison Francaise was again a totally different affair: Bratsch
playing gypsy music with strong influence of southern and eastern Europe - as
a special guest they had invited the Begian singer and accordionist Piet Maris
(Jaune Toujour, Mek Jek). It worked very well and it gave their concert a special
note...
Friday evening was a good start for a great fetival, but there was still more
to come....
Traditionally (yes -I think, as it is the third festival you can call it a
tradition) the saturday is the Celtic night of the festival - this year it was
focussed on Irish and Galician music (although one of the bands playing Irish
music is hailing from England, and one of the Galician bands is based in Brussels
in Belgium).
The evening was presented by the Dutch singer Dagny van der Loo - and she has
had a special idea: she introduced the acts together with some friends with
short a capella songs... a special form way to act as a MC...
Ialma
are Galician girls living in Brussels, they sing in the typical tradition of
strong female voice accompanied by the pandereita. But Ialma is not 'just' a
capella singing and percussion, they brought along a full backing band. If you
like the very strong female voices of Galicia you have to look to Belgium to
find an excellent band in this tradition....
If you like flutes and whistles, and Irish music - then surely you know Flook.
Sarah Allan (flutes, whistles and accordeon) and Brian Finnegan (flutes and
whistles) form the melody half of this great band. The sound is completed by
the 'rhythm section' of Ed Boyd (guitar) and John Joe Kelly (bodhrán).
Their music is stunning - you find breathtaking combinations of flutes and whistles.
They do know how to act with their instruments...
Galicia has a wealth of gaita (the Galician bagpipe) players - Susana Seivane
is one of them. She is getting international better known. Besides playing very
well the gaita, she has started to do also some singing of Galician songs. Susana
is the focal point of her band consisting of accordeon, drums and percussion,
bass, guitar and bouzouki.
Last band of the evening was the Irish party band Kila - these mad musicians
are knowing well how to bring their audiance into ecstase. They play trancy
music with stong Irish roots, but with many other influences (e.g. african singing
style - used with gaelic songs...
And
if this was not enough dancing for you, you could stay and dance to some folk
dance DJs: DJ Wizards Celtic Dance Beats and DJ Simon Emmerson (of Afrocelt
Sound System).
Sunday's theme is always 'New Folk Adventure' - and here is the place where
you surely find some bands new to you. My two new favorites were the 'Deux Accords
Diront' from Belgium and 'Debout sur le Zinc' from France. Of course there where
more great bands on sunday, but my other favourite bands I have seen before.
Especially for the concept of the sundy a huge thanks to the organizers - it
is for me always a great pleasure to see some new folkbands, and when they come
from all over Europe it is even better. Thank you!
I do not mention all bands that where playing on sunday, just some highlights...
Opening the concert already at 3 pm Troisseur and their guest percussionist
Satoshi Takeishi presented highly individual folk music made in Belgium. The
three brothers (not sisters 
as
the name would suggest) Vanvinckenroye: Edwin (fiddle), Joris (double bass)
and Rein (accordeon and guitar) together with Peter Thys (string instruments
and percussion) have developed their very own style - the addition of the Japanese
Jazz Percussionist Satoshi Takeishi is fitting very well into their sound...
I mentioned already above the Belgian duo Deux Accords Diront as a new favorite
of mine. Two girls playing the diatonic accordeon, they do not sing, and they
do not play any other instrument - and their music and performance is absolutely
stunning. They can capture the attention of their audience. On the one hand
it seems as if they would be the only two persons in the whole hall - because
the interaction between them is so strong; on the other hand the audience always
gets involved in the show. Brilliant. Watch out for them - you will find soon
an interview with them in this mag...
Next highlight of the sunday was the French band Debout sur le Zinc. Wow what
a band - if you like modern European music with many influences, you should
give them a listen, better even go and see them live. Debout sur le Zinc are
seven Fench guys playing among others guitar, accordeon, double bass, fiddle,
banjo, klarinet, drums and they have two quite different singers. Their music
is based in France and has many influences of different music styles and traditons
of other regions. Their show is stunning - hopefully they will get a bigger
attention in the European folk music scene, they are definetly worth it.
Règis Gizavo is based in Paris, but his roots are in Madagaskar. Règis
is a very strong musician, he plays the accordeon and he sings - as a 'backing
band' he has David Mirandon playing drums and percussion. Together they have
an extremely full and fresh sound. Règis is an outstanding performer,
he has found his own way of arranging the music and presents it in a very powerfull
way. If you close your eyes, you often would think that there must be a whole
band on stage.
Next band on is a totally different story. Besh o droM hailing from Hungary,
they play often very fast jazzy and modern music rooted in their tradition.
This music is to fall into trance. Besh o droM have an extensive brass section
often dominating their sound. But inbetween all these fast instrumentals they
do some slower songs... A great totally different act.
To
round the sunday concert up, the last band of the day is, as the first, from
Belgium. In FolkWorld's article about them we called them the tip of the Flemish
Iceberg. Lais are surely the best know folk band from Belgium. The three girls
have magic voice, and they have a great band - although at some points the music
is a bit too "listener friendly". Neverthelesss they are absolutely
stunning and an appropriate end of another great festival in Tilburg.
And one last thing - I found it really amazing - it seems that the local shops wanted to support the festival, there were quite few shops decorated with accordion players (see foto below)... Somehow mostly clowns with accordion - if this was just because of the carnival two weeks later? - I do not think so...
And for all those who have not been there (the others do know this information
already and will surely come again...) here a bit of information to attent the
next edition of the Tilburg International Folk Festival. The fourth edition
will take place from 22nd to 26th January 2003. The country they focus at will
be Italy... 
I
am looking forward to it, as some of my favorite bands come Italy e.g. BEV (best
album in 1999, included in the 10 best live acts of 2000 of the FolkWorld Top
10), La Lionetta and Accordeon Master Ricardo Tesi from northern Italy, Spaccanapoli
(third best album of 2000 in the FolkWorld) from Napoli and the more southern
Rosapaeda (best album of 2001 in FolkWorld Top 10) and Zoe (best live act in
2001 in the FolkWorld Top 10). I am looking forward to see the choice of the
Tilburg festival - I am sure it will be outstanding, as always.
See you all in January 2003 in Tilburg!
Further infos available at the Tilburg Festival homepage http://www.folkfestival.nl
Foto credit: All photos by The Mollis taken at Tilburg International Folk Festival 2002: (1) Cathrin Delasalle & Une Anche Passe (with Wouter Vandenabele); (2) Bratsch with Piet Maris; (3) Susana Seivane; (4) Ialma; (5) Sarah Allan of Flook; (6) Troisseur; (7) Debout sur le Zinc; (8) Regis Gizavo, (9) Deux Accords Diront; (10) Clown with accordion - photo by Tom Keller
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