Belgium - Antwerp and Around

 From Brussels we are heading north towards the province of Antwerp, starting at the town of Turnhout, near the Dutch border.  I'm not sure where the folk duo or quartet Naragonia are actually based, but one of the founders, Toon van Mierlo seems to come from Turnhout originally.  He started out together with Pascale Rubens as a folk duo in 2003.  As a quartet they perform a distinct repertoire of instrumental folk music.  This is a lively and danceable track from their 2018 album Mira called Lapwings - Crossbills

Fiddle player Anouk Sanczuk also grew up in Turnhout and she has her fingers in many pies around the Belgian and Dutch music scenes.  She plays anything from jazz to Gipsy, from classical to folk.  Together with guitarist Florian de Schepper she forms the Duo de Schepper - Sanczuk, where they explore a mixture of these styles, inspired by folk tunes from around Europe without loosing the Flemish roots.  Here is the title track from their 2019 album Port de Taipana:

Folk singer Wannes van de Velde (1937-2008) was a bit of a legend in the Belgian folk scene and was awarded honorary citizenship of the port city of Antwerp.  He grew up near the city's red light district and just around the corner of the Museum Vleeshuis, which is dedicated to the history of the local music.  I should make a point of visiting the museum on my next visit, rather than my usual frustrating visit to the traffic jams on the Antwerp ring road.  Anyway I digress, Wannes sang mostly in his local Flemish dialect and this is a song from his 1969 album Laat de Mensen Dansen (Leth the People Dance) called Zwijg Me van de Vlaamse Kwestie (Keep Me Silent About the Flemish Issue):

And since it was Saint Nicolas Day yesterday (6 December is when Santa Claus visits children in most of Europe) we are moving west to the small Flemish town of Sint Niklaas, where we encounter 5-piece folk band Hidrae, who have just released their debut album Hydraulic.  They play a lively balfolk with traditional instruments including the Flemish bagpipes and hurdy gurdy.  This is a tune called Plage de l'Amitié:

This is it from around Antwerp for today, next we'll head further west in to Flanders.  As usual you can follow my virtual wanderings on my Tripline map.