"Mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground."
Subbacultcha! and Ancienne Belgique launch a unique festival ‘The Sound Of The Belgian Underground’. On 26 January 2014 the Belgian cultural platform presents ten national acts from the alternative circuit together on stage at the AB in Brussels. A fine headliner has now been added, with the unique reunion of Belgian cult-band Pas de Deux!
You probably know them best, or only, from the song Rendez-Vous, the Belgian entry for the Eurovision Song Festival in 1983 and the very first song sent to air by Studio Brussel.
But Pas de Deux was (and is) much more than that one song and, aside from that one commercial foray, a real cult-band from the underground. That's what we'd like to reinstate now, 30 years later.
The band was established 1982 by Walter Verdin, Dett Peyskens & Hilde Van Roy and made minimal electronic new wave with the assistance of rhythm box, synths, percussion and a sporadic brass section. Entirely in the Belgian tradition, there was also a surrealistic edge to the band... whereby the lyrics sometimes consisted of one word (the fantastic Cardiocleptomanie), or sometimes of complete nonsensical language (Mani Meme).
In its brief existence, the band released a number of impressive singles (that now collect many hits on YouTube with the fine video clips by video artist Verdin), the EP Des Tailles, and a number of releases in Spain, The Netherlands and Germany. After a number of intense months, the trio decided that maybe they had had enough and then all went their separate ways (although the American label Minimal Wave did release a compilation album in 2011 that provided a fine overview of the output of this unique Belgian band).
Fast forward to 2013: While searching for a worthy ‘main act’ for the first edition of The Sound Of The Belgian Underground, the first name to fall was Pas de Deux. Contact was made, heads got put together, and after a bit of emailing it became apparent that the omens were good and that, after the many reunion and interview requests of the past (annually for Eurosong), this time the band is ready to make music together again.
We are certainly convinced that their unique show will top off an already exciting evening full of music from the Belgian underground.
Pas de deux are:
Walter Verdin
Hilde Van Roy
Dett Peyskens
Anno 2014, complemented by:
Karen Willems (Inwolves, Yuko, Zita Swoon Group, Delvaux)
Kevin Strauwen (True Zebra)
Ward Dupan (Low Vertical, Inwolves)
