Belgistan, a small autonomous portable state in Oriental Belgium (the only country in the world that makes home visits) brings you its marching band. Following triumphant national success, this fabulous orchestra of five brass and two percussionists invites you to discover the marvels of Belgistani music!
Bewitching dances, savage rhythms and mysterious hypnotic melodies … Belgistan’s folk traditions will equally delight Balkan or Arab music lovers, diehard jazz fiends and anybody who loves exuberantly good music.
The Fanfare’s seven musicians are also members of an
improvising collective and the rock group Orange Kazoo, so their swinging
brassy effervescence springs from a pool of common experience. Their plethoric
range plethora of instruments – including soprano, alto and baritone saxes,
trumpet, euphonium, derbouka, karkabas, guembri and tapan – opens up an
extraordinary world of eccentric excursions from traditional gypsy songs to
euphoric Romany or oriental compositions. The tone is festive, bouncing, a
whirling trance dance … even Kusturica wouldn’t resist!
The Belgistanis’ recent work history includes tours with the Ogres de Barback in 2004 and 2005, an album with Néry in 2007 (EMI France, produced by “M” a.k.a. Mathieu Chédid) and more than a bit of musical pyromania in various French festivals, not to mention a few detours in Quebec, the USA and China.They came home to record their new album “Musiques et danses du Belgistan”, released in June 2009 on the French label IRFAN (founded by the Ogres de Barback). The release was followed by a tour taking in France, Spain, Italy, Canada and the USA.
