Pias news – Whispering sons announces new album ‘The great calm’
WHISPERING SONS ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM “THE GREAT CALM”

OUT ON 23 FEBRUARY 2024 VIA [PIAS] RECORDINGS
NEW TRACK 'COLD CITY' OUT NOW
Whispering Sons - Cold City (Official Video) - YouTube

06.03.2024 — 4AD, DIKSMUIDE
17.03.2024 — CACTUS CLUB, BRUGES
20.03.2024 — BOTANIQUE, BRUSSELS
22.03.2024 — DE ROMA, ANTWERP
23.03.2024 — REFLEKTOR, LIÈGE

Belgian five-piece Whispering Sons announce their new album The Great Calm, out on February 23, 2024 via [PIAS] Recordings.
They share the brooding Cold City, another tastemaker for the new album and something completely different from the almost joyous first single The Talker.
Cold City is as icy as its title suggests. Describing a desire so unattainable, it feels like a nostalgic song, albeit a nostalgia for something that doesn’t even exist yet. “We settled on the form pretty quickly”, singer Fenne Kuppens explains, “the real challenge was to find the right sounds to carry the feeing of the song.” By layering synth upon synth and adding lots of texture, Whispering Sons created a song that’s small and fragile, but very rich in atmosphere.
The video for Cold City is another chapter of the short film ‘Balm (After Violence)’ which saw its premiere at the Film Fest Ghent and at Left Of The Dial in Rotterdam with a special screening and live performance.

Following the dark, expansive power of 2018’s Image and 2021’s minimal Several Others, Whispering Sons’ third album The Great Calm represents a reimagining and rethinking, though this growth has produced a series of songs that are still defiantly and uniquely true to the group.
To start with Whispering Sons are a five-piece once again. Original drummer Sander Pelsmaekers had to drop out of playing music after suffering nerve damage (and even took the role of the group's tour manager in the interim) but is now able to return on synths. Bassist Tuur Vandeborne has moved over to the drum stool, while the band’s long-term engineer — an experienced producer in his own right — Bert Vliegen has joined on bass. Guitarist and songwriter Kobe Lijnen and vocalist and lyricist Fenne Kuppens retain their roles, but they too have adapted and evolved their approaches for The Great Calm.
Yet while this might all seem like upheaval from the outside, for the band these changing currents have in fact led them to an artistic place that feels comfortably their own.

“I think the most important thing about us is that we met as a group of friends and started the band,” notes Kuppens, “this is something that came out of a love for music and an eagerness to play together. And now we’re 10 years further. Not that much has really changed. The dynamics are always the same. We're very close to each other, we’re very good friends, so to switch things around was easy.”

Yet making this new record felt different in a way that has pleased and inspired its creators.
Recorded in four weeks — two in the Audioworkx studio near Eindhoven, Holland, before being finished at the start of 2023 using a homemade set-up on Vlieland, a small Dutch island just off the North Sea coast — the power, energy and beauty behind The Great Calm’s making is etched through the heart of each of its 12 songs.
The insides of a car gutted by fire, which adorn the album’s cover chimes with The Great Calm’s wider sense of renewal. In fact, the photograph by Belgium-born, Australian-based artist Wouter Van de Voorde was selected by Kuppens who art-directed the record while she was in the middle of writing album opener ‘Standstill’.

“He showed me this picture and I knew I really wanted to do something with it because at that time I was writing a song about a car and driving through your childhood memories, driving through the past,” she explains. “When I saw this burned-out car, it just clicked again, like the moment with the poetry.”

And the creative connection to Glück went deeper still, with the poet — inadvertently —  helping to name the album.
“There was just one verse where she wrote about the great calm and I was like, ‘wow!’ It felt very cinematic,” Kuppens adds. “I like the sense of grandeur in a phrase like The Great Calm. It just really describes what the characters in the songs are striving for, this sense of peace and calmness, but it's also something that's probably non-existent too because it sounds too much like a dream. It’s just too big a concept and I find that scale funny but in a serious way. So it fits the album because everything is about moving forward. The record is more hopeful, there’s more beauty in it. Our last album was very dark and always very destructive. I guess this one is still a bit destructive, but there's hope in that destruction.”

1. Standstill
2. Walking, Flying
3. Cold City
4. Dragging
5. Something Good
6. Still, Disappearing
7. The Talker
8. Balm (After Violence)
9. Poor Girl
10. Loose Ends
11. Oceanic
12. Try Me Again

Even voorstellen - Porcelain id releases 'Adam Come Home'

Unday records news - It is a song about a delicate balance of domesticity and tenderness against a backdrop of absolute fear and anxiety.

Porcelain id is the pseudonym under which Hubert Tuyishime (they/them/their) has been unleashing unique songs since 2020. Emerged in recent years as one of the promising talents on the Belgian scene, they won the renowned Sound Track competition, built a solid live reputation and Porcelain id was called a folk singer for new times national newspaper De Morgen. With the crushing debut album ‘Bibi:1’ due on Unday Records on February 16, Porcelain id seem to be on the way to conquering a place all their own, far away from formats and the beaten path.

Porcelain id - Adam Coming Home (Official Video) - YouTube

Adam Coming Home is the second track we get to share from the debut album produced by Youniss Ahamad. The album leans more toward abstraction, experimentation, and electronics but never feels detached and still builds on the core of Porcelain id.

Here are Porcelain id’s thoughts on the track:
“Adam... is in a fascinating place on the album for me. It's one of only two singles closest to the previous EP, echoes of the past with the novelty of Youniss' menacing sound and Aram's light-hearted strings underneath. Its melodies interweave feelings of being in between, something I knew well while writing.

"I remember the days we spent together in my girlfriend's little dorm room as spring turned to summer while she was pregnant. It was a time full of challenges as we adjusted to this new chapter of life while I feverishly tried to hold on to the bittersweet ending of the last. I had just graduated from art school. It was a delicate balance of domesticity and tenderness against a backdrop of absolute fear and anxiety. It painted a poignant picture of a time when I was both the best and worst of myself."

Watch the video featuring Porcelain id and their girlfriend Marie-Fleur Valckx.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3UlYTwazSwo&feature=youtu.be

PORCELAIN ID ON TOUR
Nov 15 ● Fifty Lab Festival, Brussels
Jan 17 ● Eurosonic, Groningen
Apr 18 ● Motel Mozaïque, Rotterdam 

4AD, Diksmuide - events 2023
We blijven staan voor een straf, uitdagend en duurzaam programma. En ondertussen, hou het veilig: voor elkaar, voor jezelf en voor een toekomst waar we terug samen kunnen genieten van muziek.

di 14.11.2023 Compact Disk Dummies (try-out)
vr 17.11.2023 Antwerp Gipsy-Ska Orkestra + Gaïsha
za 25.11.2023 UFOMAMMUT, Quails
wo 29.11.2023 Great lake swimmers, Picastro
za 02.12.2023 Joachim Badenhorst’s Zero Years Kid, Attentio attention
vr 15.12.2023 Wolvennest, Dudsekop
za 16.12.2023 The Buttshakers, Mahina
2024
za 06.01.2024 Takeover 4: Villa Bota
vr 12.01.2023 Noa Lee (try-out), TJE
za 20.01.2024 Henk Rijckaert – Apocalyps (try-out)
vr 26.01.2024 Belpop Bonanza Superstar (try-out)
za 03.02.2024 Skating Polly
do 15.02.2024 Het Zesde Metaal (try-out)
woe 21.02.2024 The Bony King Of Nowhere (try-out)
vr 01.03.2024 The Ex
wo 06.03.2024 Whispering Sons (try-out)
za 09.03.2024 Isaac Roux (try-out) , Christian Kjellvander
za 04.05.2024 Togo All Stars

INFOS
Workshops - info site
Zomerkampen
hallo Sound Track!
Poppunt en de livesector organiseren samen een gloednieuw podium- en kansenparcours voor artiesten met talent en ambitie. Band, singer-songwriter, MC, soloact of liveproducer? Met Sound Track geven we je de gelegenheid om een versnelling hoger te schakelen. Sign up & laat je horen

http://www.4ad.be

Viernulvier, Gent – ‘Smells like circus’, januari 2024
SMELLS LIKE CIRCUS slaat zijn tenten weer op in Gent voor een zevende editie. Van 16 t.e.m. 20 januari '24 worden circusconventies in vraag gesteld met een programma vol circus, performance, muziek, dans, theater en talks.

Het festival jongleert met de grenzen van het hedendaagse circus en zoomt dit jaar in op de figuur van de clown.

SMELLS LIKE CIRCUS is een festival van VIERNULVIER en Miramiro, i.s.m. CAMPO, KOPERGIETERY, Circuscentrum en Cultuurcentrum Evergem en presenteert op verschillende Gentse locaties werk van oa. not standing/Alexander Vantournhout, Inbal Ben Heim, Micha Goldberg, Valentina Barone, Laura Murphy, Kurt Demey & Hans Beckers en veel meer.

Enkele hoogtepunten
Als een echt podiumbeest jongleert Sandrine Juglair (FR) met genderrepresentaties in een heerlijke ode aan de vrijheid.Clichés worden overboord gegooid in een maf universum van burlesk, acrobatie en cabaret
vr 19.01, 20:00 ● za 20.01, 19:00
Minard Schouwburg

Jongleerlegende Wes Peden (SE/US) keert terug met een rollercoaster show die de theatrale regels buigt en verdraait, in een set van opblaasbare structuren en electrobeats gecomponeerd uit achtbaangeluiden. Hou je vast voor de rit van je leven
vr 19 & za 20.01, 21:00
De Vooruit Theaterzaal

Hans Beckers (BE) en Kurt Demey (BE) vinden elkaar in het gebruik van natuurelementen, de zoektocht naar een magische beleving en interacties met en tussen het publiek.
do 18.01, 20:00 ● vr 19.01, 20:00 ● za 20.01, 15:00 & 20:00
De Expeditie

Programma SMELLS LIKE CIRCUS 2024 | VIERNULVIER

Metal Blade releases
06-10-23 Capra – Errors (single ‘human commodity’, ‘silana’)
10-10-23 Entheos – The interior wilderness (drumcorps remix)
10-10-23 Mercyful fate – In the shadows, time into the unknown and 9 (repress classical albums)
W.E.B. – single “Necrology of hel’
Allegaeon – Inhumation
Lifesick – Love and other lies EP (single ‘Rude awakening’)
Rivers of nihil – Hellbirds (single)
20-10-23 War curse – Confession (singles: Miracle broker’, ‘the convoy’)
20-10-23 Cirith Ungol – Dark parade (single ‘Looking glass’)
W.E.B. – Into hell fire we burn EP
Cattle Decapitations – Solastalgia (video)
27-10-23 Sorcerer – Reign of the reaper (single ‘Morning star’)
27-10-23 Endseeker – Global worming (single ‘violence is gold’ – single ‘hell is here’)
31-10-23 Oddism – With the white tiger
03-11-23 Morne – Engraved with pain
03-11-23 King diamond – Masquerade of madness
03-11-23 200 stab wounds – Slave to the scalpel
03-11-23 Mercyful Fate – Melissa (40Y)
nov 23 A-Z - release ‘Sometimes’
2024
26-01-24 Whitechapel – Live in the valley
16-02-24 – Slayer – 40Y, Show no mercy
23-02-24 Job for a cowboy – Moon healer (single ‘the forever rot’)
08-03-24 Gost – Prophecy

Open’er Festival 2024 – 3 July till 6 July 2024, Gdynia - Dua Lipa will headline Open’er 2024

We are thrilled to announce that global superstar Dua Lipa will headline Open’er Festival powered by Orange on July 4th, 2024 in Gdynia

Dua Lipa is undoubtedly one of the most important female artists in the world. Since her self-titled debut (2017), through Future Nostalgia (2020), up to today, her music has been streamed over 38 billion times.  Her second album Future Nostalgia reached the top of the charts in the UK, Spain, Portugal and Australia among others, surpassing 18 billion streams and spawning huge international hits like "Don't Start Now," "Physical" and "Levitating." Dua has won 3 Grammy Awards, earning two more nominations this year thanks to the success of "Dance the Night" from the movie Barbie. All this is happening as we await the next chapter of her career, foreshadowed by the phenomenal new track "Houdini." "A lot of this album was written in those joyous moments of absolute chaos and how I moved through the world with lightness and optimism of whatever the outcome may be", said Dua. Her words sound like the essence of the Open'er vibe, and we can't be more excited to see her in Gdynia on July 4th, on the Orange Main Stage. It's going to be an amazing show!

www.opener.pl

FKP Scorpio concert - Will Linley speelt op 14 februari 2024 in Charlatan, Gent

De jonge zanger Will Linley speelt op 14 februari in Charlatan, Gent. De debuutsingle ‘miss me (when you’re gone)’ ging viraal op TikTok met meer dan vier miljoen views voor de officiële release en katapulteerde zo de Zuid-Afrikaan naar de top van de muzikale beloftes.
Een carrière in de muziekwereld was een droom voor Will Linley, die opgroeide in een muzikale familie. Zijn nummer ‘miss me (when you’re gone)’ schreef hij vanuit een persoonlijke ervaring en is een openbaring van universele emoties na een moeilijke break-up. De video herbergt tegelijk een positiviteit die eigen is aan de muzikant uit Kaapstad. Hij werkte voor de clip samen met regisseur Abongwe Booi, een Zuid-Afrikaanse connectie die hij wil doortrekken in de rest van zijn muziek.
Will Linley slaagt er in om herkenbare gevoelens van de Gen Z-generatie om te zetten in catchy melodieën die je zo meeneuriet. Zelf noemt hij het ‘happy sad pop music’, waarbij hij zich niet laat beperken door een specifieke vibe of genre. Zijn EP ‘kill all my feelings’ verzamelde al miljoenen streams op Spotify. Ideale muziek om mee te brullen tijdens een roadtrip, mee te snikken op je slaapkamer of gezellig samen met je lief of bestie te ontdekken op Valentijnsdag in Charlatan (Gent).

www.fkpscorpio.be

Even voorstellen - J Mascis – ‘What do we do now’ 02/02/24 (sub pop/konkurrent)

“can’t believe we're here” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOgibRJxp8g&t=1s

What Do We Do Now is the fifth solo album from Dinosaur Jr.'s J Mascis, following a diverse career outside the seminal alternative band: the side-project J Mascis + The Fog led to studio collaborations with Kevin Shields and Guided By Voices' Bob Pollard, and live accompaniment from longtime friend Mike Watt, plus ungodly riff-offs with The Stooges guitarist Ron Asheton. Mascis also formed the doom-metal band Witchand played his first love, the drums. With such a varied oeuvre, it is no surprise that What Do We Do Now is as stunning as previous records, if not more so. A serendipitous songwriting approach blossomed, in which the revolutionary guitarist accidentally constructed a full band-styled album, his purposely simple acoustic sketches becoming full-on tracks due to his pull towards the drums. Semi-ethereal post-core gold arrived, fleshed out by Ken Maiuri's (who appeared on the last J Mascis record, Elastic Days) evocative keys. Steel guitarist Matthew Dunn also appears, enhancing a supremely masterful album to even greater heights.