Feeërieën: Naima Joris + JFDR x Kieran Brunt x Benjamin Glorieux

From 22 to 26 August, you can again count on AB’s free summer festival Feeërieën for a musical smorgasbord. In 2022, we’ll again be alighting at the extremely attractive location Gare Maritime, on the Tour & Taxis site (Rue Picard 3, 1000 Brussels).

This year, Feeërieën is taking on an extra dimension with the AB summer terrace: a programme of fringe activities and workshops.

8:00 PM: JFDR x KIERAN BRUNT x BENJAMIN GLORIEUX present ‘The End of Infinity’ (ISL/GBR/BEL)

‘The End of Infinity’ is a unique collaboration between Icelandic singer-songwriter/producer Jófríður Ákadóttir (JFDR), British singer/composer Kieran Brunt and Belgian cellist/composer Benjamin Glorieux. This international triumvirate enters into a collective adventure, in search of connections between classical music and electronica.

The search for exactly that musical symbiosis is not so surprising. JFDR has already worked previously with Ólafur Arnalds, while Benjamin Glorieux injected Bach’s famous cello suites with electronica, and Kieran Brunt has appeared aside the likes of Nils Frahm, Jónsi and Anna von Hausswolff. With ‘The End of Infinity’, the trio presents a song cycle with themes such as endlessness, uncertainty, life and death.

This production was kicked off in the prestigious South Bank Centre and was made possible in part by the B-Classic Festival Van Vlaanderen with the support of Liveurope.

Picture: Annika Wallis

9:30 PM: NAIMA JORIS PLAYS DANIEL JOHNSTON (BEL)

An Oor quote that can count and is spot on: “Soms hoor je van die stemmen die de tijd even stil zetten en je tot op het bot beroeren. Mimi Parker (Low) kan dat, Melanie De Biasio, maar dus ook Naima Joris.” We’d like to add musical outsider Daniel Johnston to that list too. Naima Joris became an instant fan herself after seeing the gripping documentary ‘The Devil And Daniel Johnston’. “Zijn gevoelige zieltje heeft me aangetrokken. Door hem heb ik geleerd om eerlijk te schrijven”, says Joris.

Her admiration resulted in an outright arresting Daniel Johnston tribute of songs that touched her personally. And they then touch us. Listen to the stripped back/stunning versions of ‘Story Of An Artist’, ‘Poor You’ or ‘Cold Hard World’ and your breath catches in your throat. Naima’s mesmerising voice cuts straight to the bone and her versions are amongst the best Johnston interpretations ever. Live, she even outclasses – and we measure our words carefully – Daniel Johnston himself. Amen.

Picture: Lien Peters

A Liveurope concert:

The first pan-European initiative supporting concert venues in their efforts to promote emerging European music.