Belgium - Towards Gent

 Heading down to the small town of Gooik in the province of Brabant we meet the Garriau family consisting of father Paul (hurdy-gurdy/guitar), son Koen (saxophone) and daughter Greet (Diatonic accordion/vocals), who formed the heart of folk group Fluxus from 1996-2006 as well as run regular workshops on traditional music in Gooik.  Much of their music is rather hard to get hold of these days, but their 2001 album N.O.Ë. is still available.  Their folk is a bit Jazz infused at times with Koen's sax, mostly their own material and sung in Flemish by Greet.  This is a song from the album called Dag en Nacht (Day and Night):

Just down the road is the small town of Haaltert, which is home to the Wildboar record label, which was started by members of the Flemish folk rock band Kadril.  They formed in 1976 around the Libbrecht brothers Erwin (guitar & bouzouki), Peter (fiddle) and Harlind (mandolin & cimbal).  They are the oldest Flemish folk band still active.  The name Kadril is Flemish bastardization of Quadrille, an old salon dance.  In 2004 they released an album called La Paloma Negra in collaboration with Galician folk band Alumea, which features songs in Spanish, Galician and in Flemish.  Here's song called De Spanjaard in Gent (The Spaniard in Gent):

Spilar is a new folk band formed around the voices of sister and brother Eva and Maarten Decombel and accompanied on strings and keyboards by Ward Dhoore and Jeroen Geerinck, who also run the record label Studio Trad, which is based in Erpe in East Flanders.  The material on their debut album Stormweere is a mixture of own compositions and traditional material, all sung in the West Flanders dialect.  They have even come up with a Flemish translation to the Jacques Brel classic, 'Pourquoi faut-il que les hommes s'ennuient' (Why do men have to get bored), which they call Pertank, which is the Flemish version of Pourtant, meaning Yet:

And finally another family affair with the aforementioned Ward Dhoore and his 2 brothers Hartwin and Koen, who form the instrumental folk band Trio Dhoore, based in Gent.  They have been performing together since 2010 and their latest album musically tells the story of August, an 18th century Flemish fisherman, who survived 33 dangerous journeys between Belgium and Iceland to feed his family.  The instrumentation is comprised of diatonic accordion, hurdy-gurdy and guitar, complemented with some electronic effects.  Here's a tune from the album called Poldervuur:

That's it for today.  We'll explore Gent further next time and the rest of Flanders.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual journey on my Tripline map.