At the start of what we hopefully will refer to as the long hot festivalsummer of 2024, ArtistCongratz would like to zoom in on a colourful artist named Joran Kunde.
Born and raised in Ghent, with roots in Kameroun, this rapper, producer and multi instrument player combines hip hop elements with contemporary jazz, funk and afro-beats🎶.
With a debut called “Dandelion”, we are almost immediately triggered to find out more about the story behind an extraordinary album, named after what we all tend to refer to as…weeds.
Kunde: Dandelion.🌼 The little fluffy flower you can blow the seeds from, felt like a metaphor to me. Throughout the years I thought about it visually several times.
I remember being very fond of these flowers when I was little. I loved to blow on them, to see them “float”. But I also remember a woman telling me: “Don’t blow on those, they spread weeds.” They turned out to be unwanted flowers. At least for most people. I didn’t see them that way.
“In between Belgium and Kameroun”
Kunde: Growing up in Belgium while having roots somewhere else had its challenges, like anywhere else.You have to kind of adapt to some kinds of climate to flourish.
So I began to see the dandelion as this metaphor. Feeling like a little seed, blown through the winds of time, looking for a place to sprout, grow and flourish. At the same time being labeled “an unwanted flower”.
Joran Kunde
The trigger for the album actually came from going back to Kameroun where part of my roots are. Far far away, like seeds of Dandelion, flown with the wind.
I don’t think people should be bound to geography, migration is a natural process. In my core as a human being I believe that all humans on this planet originally come from Africa somehow. Dandelion is a way to reflect all this…
Kunde about his concert in Ancienne Belgique on March 27th: Surreal and fantastic…it’s crazy to perform at such an iconic location and opening for icons like Amadou & Maryam. This was the second time we played in AB. Six months prior we did one show in AB-club. Being able to play for the first time in the main hall for more than 1500 people felt awesome.About his collaboration with singer songwriter Helena Casella:
AC witnessed her live at TAZ 2023. Kunde: I played the day before her…
AC: sorry we missed that…are you working together regularly?
Kunde: I am actually working on a second album. I’m still figuring out how the music will work but I already have one song with her. Fun fact: we recorded it the same date we recorded
“You should know” on which Helena features. After a session of three hours, we felt the inspiration and made something from scratch. We both felt that this was not a one time thing…
Never before the controverse was so omnipresent at the worlds most legendary music festival. The ESC of Malmö is one for the historybooks. How symbolical this Switzerland win. Although neutrality no longer seems of this world when innocent children are paying the price.
But it should be about the music. United by Music is not a hollow sentence. It’s a way of life. For artists and audiences worldwide 🌍From Europe to Australia 🎶🇪🇺🇦🇺
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A great song with a message should always win. 🥇 Congratz on a flawless, ground-, border-, award-🙈and code breaking performance finding a 🆕 «Nemo»🤜🏆🤛
Special Congratz to my contemporaries Malin Åkerman & Petra Mede👸🏼👸🏻🇸🇪, ultimate professionals, presenting and hosting this 68th edition of the Eurovision Song Contest in difficult circumstances 👏🎙️🎧📻🎶Dear Malin, Petra, On a slightly smaller scale;) but nonetheless extremely fun- we’re definitely colleagues;), (picture taken yesterday in the studio of our local radiostation 🎙️whilst me (also in white;)) presenting and co-hosting a Eurovision parade throughout history 🎶 Which felt amazing, so I can only imagine what it must feel like to actually host the Eurovision Song Contest 💭🥰😍Also Special Congratz to this years runner up Croatia🇭🇷and No 3 La Douce France 🇫🇷, our personal favourites« Finding Nemo next level »
What if a living statue falls for a real one? Sounds like an instant recipe for a universal fairytale doesn’t it? A unique lovestory pairing new to ancient times. A fine filmmaker makes it come true on the big screen in “Hearts of Stone”.
Scene 🎬 from “Hearts of Stone”, shot in this beautiful park in metropolis Antwerp
Step into the mind of director Tom Van Avermaet. Inventive, extremely creative and perfectionist upon till The End-credits of his brainchildren🎞.
And yes most certainly his name should ring more than one bell. A previous short film of his, called “Death of A Shadow”, featuring another Belgian pride- and joy in cinema; Matthias Schoenaerts, was nominated for an Oscar in 2013.
What better way to find out more about the making of his newest production than to ask the director himself…
Tom: I’ve always been fascinated by living statues. I knew they were out there. Acting and pretending to be statues. It made me think about what their world would or could be like. Turned out their community was slightly different from what I imagined.
AC: How’s that?
Tom: I always wanted to do something with living statues in film. But not quite sure yet about the kind of story I should tell about them. I guess I had more of a naïve kind of view on their world to begin with.
Maybe I saw them less as professionals and more like this kind of imaginary community.
In my world living statues would be people that long for a time that isn’t there anymore or maybe never was. Some sort of imagined past…and going back to this imaginary past that maybe never existed.” So I decided to use that by telling…a love story. Baseline: “Living statue falls in love with a real statue.” Which kind of made sense to me instantly.
This particular scene was also shot in Antwerp (Handelsbeurs)
AC: So Hearts of Stone turns out to be a modern fairytale 📽…
Tom: That’s kind of how the story came to be…but I also wanted to talk about modern loneliness. A lot in the movie is also about cell phones and social media. How do we communicate with each other.
The more (digital) opportunities we have to communicate with each other the less we’re able to communicate with each other in real life.
Tom Van Avermaet
AC: You want to hold a mirror to society ?
Tom: That might be too big of a word. SomehowI wanted to explore that particular feeling/issue through this story. More about why it seems easier or more difficult to be able to talk to someone.
It’s like the character says in the film. “Is it easier to talk to someone on the other side of the world than to talk to someone who’s next to you?”
That’s quite of an interesting, modern kind of dynamic, which we’re still trying to explore with social media. The impact it has on our lives and how we live through our devices in a way.
And taking that or pushing it to the extreme.
When the statue comes to life in the movie, the viewer gets an idea of what’s it like to be a statue and how they might feel in general.
In one particular scene, when the real statue (Jessica Barden) actually comes to life, she starts looking for her friend (played by Noomi Rapace) almost immediately. The light and the aura around the statue character are striking.
“Directing like a visual artist 🖼️”
AC: You manage to create this kind of rarely seen universe. We are curious about your journey in cinematography.Without breaking the spell, could you tell us how you create these striking visual effects ?
Tom: As you know film is always a collaborative art so we try to work with good people. I was lucky to do that with all my films. With talented cinematographers who were able to understand the kind of idea or vision I wanted to come to life. From “visual vision” to post production.
You shoot the image in a certain style. We chose to shoot with anamorphic lenses. Lot’s of films are shot on spherical lenses. Anamorphic is more a wide angle format. It’s the first time I did that.
I love to have a wide angle in all my films. Sort of like a painting style…🖼️ I always feel that an image can convey a lot of emotions.
Tom Van Avermaet
Tom: I’ve always been drawn to cinematography which has a very painterly style. I’ll aways try to frame the shot (emoji painting) that way as well… kind of an artistic point of view on the image. I always feel that an image can convey a lot of emotions.
Tom: In all my films so far, I’ve worked with a different cinematographer. This time I worked with DOP Hans Bruch jr. Hearts Of Stone is our first collab.
Which is not like a deliberate choice but the people I work with are usually in high demand so…You have to pick when the actors are available, not when the cinematographers are. Unfortunately…🙂
But I was lucky to find a new collaborator on this. And still be able to create the same kind of feel I like to give through my other films🎥🎞️.
Talking to Director Tom at Victor Café near Bozar Brussels, (wide-angle-shot :))
Let’s shed some light on the latest project of a remarkable Swiss composer-storyteller based in Brussels. To ArtistCongratz he comes across far from scary… nevertheless the music we are talking about is called “Unheimlich” (scary in German but meaning much more) The third album written by Camille-Alban Spreng’s ODIL is the first one ft. Nina Kortekaas.
Triggered to know the story behind it, we had an inspiring chat with Camille 🎙️
Camille Alban Spreng: Unheimlich is a funny word actually. It doesn’t have any real translation, in English nor French. The basic idea of the album is trying to translate this word into music. It describes a feeling you might know and yet sometimes you might not be able to grasp it. Very strange.
AC: Something mysterious, unexplainable?
Camille: You could say that yes. Actually the term was invented by Sigmund Freud to describe the feeling when something comes from your subconsciousness. The right to your subconsciousness is triggered by something you see or hear. You know what is happening but at the same time it feels very strange…a little bit like a déjà vu or even a premonition.
AC: How do you start to translate something like this into music?
Camille: Fascinated by the work of the great American poet Allen Ginsberg from the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s, I wanted to bring a kind of hommage to his writing.✍️ His work also has this kind of strangeness, weirdness to it. And at the same time it’s deeply rooted into our daily life.
As I was writing 🎼, thesetwo ideas were living at the same time. There are actually a lot of links between the poetry of Ginsberg and this captivating word I wanted to translate into music. Our mission with Nina is to make all this more accessible through the songs.🎵
ArtistCongratz 🔝 selection surely includes “Daily Wonder”
Camille: That’s a funny one. It’s a ballad and a long mellow song. The only one on the album. The first idea of this song was to adapt a Ginsberg-poem but in the end I chose another direction and wrote the lyrics myself. The idea behind the song ? What if we could see everything in the world and witness the daily life of whom ever…or looking at the daily life of an animal or a plant for instance.🌱
AC: A mysterious animal actually features on the cover of your album…
Camille: That’s exactly what I wanted… somewhat unheimlich…🐾 …just so you know, it’s actually a dalmation;)
Want to witness some «🎶Unheimlich🎵» manoeuvres first hand? ODIL is playing live this Friday February 23 @Rataplan – Borgerhout/Antwerp https://www.rataplanvzw.be/e/odil
Halfway through Belgian music week ArtistCongratz would like to shed some more spotlight 🔛our national music scene. Once more lots of international potential is detected🎶🙌
After ESNS, the annual awardceremony in the Dutchspeaking part of Belgium is on our schedule. They are called The MIA’s, short for Music Industry Awards. This year they were held in Antwerp. Organized by vi.be (supporting our Belgian music scene💪🎼) and national channel VRT.
Join us for some captivating images of absolute highlights⤵️ during the show:
After last years “natural high” on top of the Atomium in Brussels by Oscar & The Wolf, meet this year’s showstarter: Gustaph, border breaking performer/creator in 2023. “Because of you” keeps inspiring audiences and artists, The song turns out as one of the most successful Belgian entries of the Eurovision Song Contest. (Picture by Jokko/VRT)Meet multi-talent Pommelien Thys, hot in Flanders because of her own unique artistic approach. Besides acting in different series, writing her own songs and performing them with panache, she also designs her own ecofriendly, conscious 🌱fashion 🔛 stage. She wins no less than five Music Industry Awards. CONGRATZ indeed Pommelien! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆 (pic by Jokko/VRT)Pommelien in concert 🎵 💃🩰The MIA “Breakthrough of 2023” goes to thankful “nominee-along-such-talented-fellow-artists” Aron Blommaert. Nicely presented by Miss Loena Hendrickx, European Champion, our national pride in Figureskating 🥇⛸️ (pic by Jokko/VRT)And this long braided multi-awarded beauty waltzes through lalaland and “Different Waters📀” by the name of Coely, our international hip hop pride. She was handed her prize by a famous Belgian goofy influencer called Average Rob⤵️🦸🏻(pic by Jokko/VRT)
Average Rob; not quite that average where Marvel’s characters are concerned
And this is Portlands Jenthe Pironet (best alternative 🎸) on the left, alongside Metejoor, also nominated in different categories🙌🎵🎶Jenthe also wins the award for the most heartwarming speech, dedicating his prize to medical science and care ❤️🩹 (pic by Jokko/VRT)Rapper winner Brihang definitely has a heart for all things going wrong in the world 🌎 ⬇️ “make music not war & cease all fires.” Hear his Peace pleas(e)🎶 ✌️(pic by Jokko/VRT)Another moving moment highlighting the ceremony. All time Flemish audience favourite Hugo Sigal dedicates his award for best (Flemish) popular to his late partner on and off stage Nicole, who sadly passed away too soon. (pic by Jokko/VRT)A lifetime of folky music is crowned🤴🏻🎶. With lyrics involving all our daily concerns like bread 🥖, spoons 🥄 and… WiFi of course. Bart Peeters gets his special award by another national icon Raymond van het Groenewoud. (pic by Jokko/VRT)CONGRATZ to all winners and nominees 🙌, check all of them 🔛 https://mias.vrt.be (pic by Jokko/VRT)
Kate Ryan, iconic artist who also defended our colours at Eurovision back in 2006 🇧🇪 remember her famous knee move while bringing her now-evergreen “Je t’adore”🎵♥️ https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3JHnre0q3ow
And this far-from-freaky-fellow I interviewed more than a decade ago with his band Freaky Age. Cheers to Lenny Crabbé👋🥂, son of Luc Crabbé (Telstar/Betty Goes Green)
Meet Lenny number two :), also a very gifted musician
And this must be the most famous soundman🎤in Flanders. In the picture a lot but always his likable self. Whom everybody knows simply by his first name: Pascal.
And last but not least a selfie 🤳 with these multitalented ladies, pianist/designer Tylaine (in the middle) and singer Zohra🎶🎤How about a red wall instead of the regular carpet… Don’t you just love this quote from «The Voice»? An absolute work of art adorning this wall of the locker room @ music lab Trix Antwerp Thank you VRT, TRIX, Sportpalace & VI.Be for including ArtistCongratz 🎶
Quittersday today? Not where the Artists in our spotlight are concerned!
But first things first. ArtistCongratz wishes all of you fine readers a Happy healthy Creative 2024 with lots of fascinating and inspiring blogposts regarding talented people in different artforms.
Before we are headed North to spot & congratulate rising talent 🎵at ESNS in the Netherlands next week, what better place to kick off our year/Belgian presidency than in the very heart of Europe.
Did you know that the European Parliament regularly organises art-exhibitions in their office buildings?
Last Tuesday we rediscovered artworks of a unique artist we interviewed before in 2022. (Picture by Dorothy Declerck)
Place to be? The Spinelli building in Brussels, where MEP Beatrice Covassi hosted this remarkable exhibition with the characteristic narrative paintings of Antoine Waterkeyn⤵️ inspired by “antiheroes” throughout history.
Biblical inspiration with Samson Et DalilaA talk with MEP Beatrice Covassi & the artist Napoleon revisited by Antoine WaterkeynSpecial thanks to interior designer Dorothy for the spot 🔛picture(s)
It’s D-Day for Baloji and his first feature film Augure. In cinema’s across Belgium this November 15th.
Just last month, Augure was presented at Filmfest Ghent in the official selection, following Cannes in Spring.
Augure, being the French word for omen, tells the story of exactly that.
A small omen to the members of The Academy perhaps ? A good one.
Our filmmakers won’t budge. Once more presenting a fine opportunity to “Oscarize” a filmgem by a multitalented Belgian artist.
Omen To Be Continued
ArtistCongratz
Director Baloji and his main cast at the Belgian premiere of Augure/Omen at this years 50th edition of Filmfest Ghent
Four characters, considered witches or wizards by their families and communities, see their paths cross in a magical-realist Congo. Only through mutual aid and reconciliation can they escape the curse that rests on them. Cast: Lucie Debay, Marc Zinga, Eliane Umuhire
Half a century of iconic festivalmoments in international cinema on Belgian soil. This calls for a special celebration. ArtistCongratz’ cue to make Filmfest Ghent’s image- and soundwizards shine even more this year✨
2023 will enter history as the 50th edition opened by Holly, selected in Venice just last September, and the fifth feature film, directed by Fien Troch.
Once again this Belgian talent makes us watch more closely into the sometimes harsh world youngsters have to deal with.
From 22 November Holly will play in cinemas in Belgium
Be sure not to miss our next post, zooming in on the creative process of Fien and her crew/cast as well as the amazing course of the film so far.
But first we’d like to focus on two other impressive productions.
One is likely to become Oscarnominated in 2024, called “Past Lives”, by Celine Song. This story about childhood sweethearts frozen in time will touch many (broken) hearts.
The other is the first VR experience at Filmfest Ghent. “Floating with spirits” will submerge you into a universe in and out of this world. Created by the Colombian-Belgian director Juanita Onzaga, featuring…her audience.
By placing the viewer in the middle of her film, he becomes part of it.
While she whispers the story as if she doesn’t want to bother the spirits, she makes them dance around, one with nature.
“Floating with Spirits” is an absolute must-experience
Augustijn Vermandere. His name sounds like a clock in Flanders.
With his father being one of our most treasured troubadours, Willems youngest son is making his own way quite successfully as a musician and singersongwriter.
ArtistCongratz is keen to find out more about his latest album Vier, which is West Flemish dialect for “Fire” as well as Dutch for “Celebrate” and “Four”.
So Vier is like Celebrating Four times with Fire!
Augustijn presenting his latest album live at De Grote Post in Ostend
AC: Congratz on your new album Augustijn! Nice opportunity to compare West Flemish and English with you, being a native singer songwriter.
Augustijn: Thanks! Actually I think there are similarities between the two. Being close to England might have something to do with it. Probably also our history of always tending to adapt ourselves. Belgians in general, West Flemings even more.
So it seems rather logic that foreign words pop up in our dialects. Mostly in spoken language.
I actually read that the whole coastal area of Europe has more English sounding words in their vocabulary than the inland area does. So I guess we must be connected somehow.
How do you come across this “phenomenon” while writing lyrics ?
On my new album, there’s this song called Bucketlist. An English word but often used here as well. Searching for a West Flemish “translation”, there seemed to be no good alternative.
I realised that “bucket list” actually sounds really Flemish. So I used it.
AC: How about Bulldozer 🎶
Augustijn: (laughs) indeed, another English word incorporated in Belgium. And Vier…
Nice talk in Augustijn’s hometown Ostend
AC: Any plans to cross our borders?
Augustijn: It’s not really my ambition but you never know… Icelanders also have a very strange sounding language practically no one else understands. But no one seems to mind that in the rest of Europe. People like it eventhough no one understands. Why should West Flemish be any different (laughs).
Augustijn rocks 🎸🥁
AC: The song Steenkerke on Vier bathes in pure nostalgia…
Augustijn: A little village, there’s nothing there but still it’s my whole world. At least it used to be as a kid. This is a nostalgic song sung by my five year old self about the place I grew up in. Near historic monuments that go back to World War I. Like a military cemetery, where both English en Belgian soldiers are buried. This was one of our favourite places where we used to play a lot. There’s this beautiful lawn. Always very quiet…
AC: You also sing about catching sticklebacks in the canal with a “seule”. And in your album’s artwork we can actually see pictures of you as a toddler. Were you already into music back then?
Augustijn: They bought me a violin when I was four years old but I don’t recall playing it (laughs). But music was always present in the house in many forms with instruments all around. I started by some piano and guitar…
By the way a “seule” is actually a bucket where we would collect the fish in.
AC: Great, one more West-Flemish word learnt, to check off on our… bucket-list.
🎵🎶🔥4️⃣🥳 open call; find out which song refers to epic lyrics written by Augustijn’s father Willem 🛣
During but also in between interviews ArtistCongratz likes to share star quality in all forms, shapes and sizes. From stages with views to stadiums to queue.
Let’s focus on who your editor saw shining these past few weeks: From gloring young new talent to poetic mega-stars in mediastorms.
King Baudoin Stadium 🏟 August 4th, 2023; Rammstein lands along with piano duo Abélard 🎹 playing their own Sonne-version ☀️🌞see video 2 👇Abelard introducing Rammsteins Sonne by AbelardWhat are the odds? On my way to join my friends in the audience, coming across this member of an Estonian rockband, seeking promotion 🎶✍️Www.californiacondormusic.comtania_gh_ram 🎶mstein-Kick off The King Baudoin-stadium turns into a smokey music factory
But before this hard core poetry from Germany we witnessed somewhat softer kinds in Ostend at the annual coastfestival Theater Aan Zee 🌊 🎭🎵
Helena Casella in concert at “Theater Aan Zee 2023” in Cafékoer Ostend Funky soul by Helena Casella🎤⬇️⤵️
Theater Aan Zee is like a cross road where shores, music & theatre meet through all kinds of art. How about this universal tale that tells the moving story of… human sheep in between worlds.⤵️
The Sheep Song, a mustsee cross over play produced by Toneelhuis & FC-Bergman, a Belgian company which received a Silver Lion at Venice Biennale just last June https://www.toneelhuis.be/en/⤵️Or this production 4.48 by The Roovers outside at sunset
ArtistCongratz 