Ancienne Belgique

7:00 pm SOUNDTRACK BY: Awesome Tapes From Africa (US)Behind Awesome Tapes From Africa you'll find Brooklyn inhabitant and music-ethnologist Brian Shimkovitz. His out-of-hand hobby: collecting (often r...

Read more

7:00 pm SOUNDTRACK BY: Awesome Tapes From Africa (US)
Behind Awesome Tapes From Africa you'll find Brooklyn inhabitant and music-ethnologist Brian Shimkovitz. His out-of-hand hobby: collecting (often rare) cassettes of African music. He then digitalises them to share with the world on his immensely popular blog Awesome Tapes From Africa. Lately, Shimkovitz also heads out on the road bearing laptop and cassettes to share the music he loves with even more people. We saw him at work last year at All Tomorrow’s Parties, where he made quite an impression. Alors on danse!

8:30 pm Sarah Ferri (BE)
Alongside Drums Are For Parades and Jan Swerts, singer songwriter Sarah Ferri is one of the three Artist In Residence that AB has taken under its wing this year. AB fell first for her impressive and versatile voice. Ferri easily surfs from demure songs to gipsy, jazz, swing or bossa nova. You could call it a reflection of the composition of her blood: the contrast between the ‘Mysterious North’ (Belgian mother) and the ‘Fiery South’ (Italian father). Radio 1 fell for her too: "Unmistakable talent. What a voice! Without pretence and with heaps of natural charm. Timeless class is what we call that.” DJ/producer Sven Van Hees himself even drew an international comparison: "Strongly reminds me of vocalists in the style of Ane Brun, Emiliana Torrini and Joni Mitchell.” Too right!


9:45 pm Imany (FR)
They remind one of both Tracy Chapman and Billie Holiday. Yet she still has her own personality and heavenly voice. Put yourself in her shoes: She opened impressively for Ben L’Oncle Soul in AB. She played at prestigious festival Jazz Montreux, sold out the famous Parisian jazz club New Morning and is soon to appear in La Cigale. What's more: in France her debut ‘The Shape Of A Broken Heart’ adorns the Top 3 in the iTunes charts, in the good company of Adele and Ben Harper. Imany lived and worked in New York as model for a while but was born and bred in France. That's also where she recorded her debut with renowned musicians and performers like Biolay, Keziah Jones and Souad Massi. She cites influences like the previously mentioned Tracy Chapman and Billie Holiday as well as Sade, Etta James, Indie.Arie, Bob Marley, Nina Simone and Carmen Mcrae too. Hats off to her.

Sarah Ferri plays "On my own" AB Session from ancienne belgique on Vimeo.