Belgium - Brussels

 So we arrive in the capital of Belgium, Brussels or Bruxelles or Brussel, the bilingual capital of Europe.  Like most capital cities it is a big melting pot of cultures, which is reflected in the local music scene, so we'll be hearing music styles from all over the world here.

We start with my favourite band here, Jaune Toujours.  Their style has been described as mestiza, a blend of salsa, Latin, ska, Balkan and punk.  The term they use for their style is Europeana, as opposed to Americana.  They sing in French, Flemish and English.  This song called La Bruxellois is from their 2009 album Kolektiv:

Here's another nice ska number from their 2018 album Europeana called Save Le Monde.  It's a beautiful day to save the world... :)

The Ångströmers is a cluster of sound artists and musicians around the Brussels record label Ångström.  In their latest collaboration they have teamed up with Haitian 6-piece band Chouk Bwa where Afro-Caribbean Voodoo polyrhythms meet bass-weight dub electronics.  An explosive mix, mostly recorded in Brussels, their album Vodou Alé came out in May.  This is the title track from the album:

Brussels other claim to fame is that with some 40 Gnawa musicians living in the city it takes the claim as Gnawa capital of Europe.  Jola is a project to bring most of them together to record an album, which was released in March as Jola - Hidden Gnawa Music in Brussels, which is available on Bandcamp.  In Moroccon dialect 'Jola' means tour is the term for an essential step in a musician's initiation to the tagnawit (the way of the Gnawa).  The launch concert for the album got cancelled, because of the Covid pandemic, but instead they recorded some of the musicians in their homes.  On the album the sound is of course a lot fuller with the musicians playing together rather than solo with plenty percussion:

Five-piece hybrid jazz combo Black Flower piloted by saxophonist and flutist Nathan Daems mixes Ethio-jazz and oriental sounds with afrobeat and dub.  In 2016 they spent 2 days in a studio mixing a largely improvised album called Ghost Radio, which was initially released as a limited run on vinyl.  It sold out fast and they have recently re-released the vinyl as well as a digital download version.  Here's a track from that album called Ray:

Also inspired by Ethio-jazz is 6-piece combo Azmari, who were created in 2015 fusing it with psychgroove, funk and dub.  Azmari, meaning one who praises in Amharic, is the term for an Ethiopian singer/musician equivalent to a European bard or a West African griot.  They only appear to have one EP so far called Ekera released in 2019. Here's the hypnotic opening track to the EP called Dolmuş:

Finally, Refugees for Refugees and is an ensemble of 10 accomplished musicians, displaced by wars and political instability, who got stranded in Brussels and formed a band under the guidance of Belgian Tristan Driessens.  The musicians hail from Syria, Tibet, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan.  Their music is all about breaking boundaries and represents all their respective cultures along the historic southern Silk Road.  It's a beautiful and varied collection of songs and well worth supporting.  Their second album, released in 2019, is called Amina and here is the title track from it:

I hope you enjoyed our international tour of Brussels.  As usual you follow my virtual journey on my Tripline map.

France - Hauts-de-France & Normandie

Typical half timbered houses in Rouen, Normandy

The first sight most travellers from Britain arriving by boat in France is the port city of Calais in the Hauts-de-France region, which until recently was the site of the infamous Calais Jungle refugee camp, where many refugees waited for their chance, legally or illegally, to hop over the channel for a better life or to be reunited with family members.  At its height the jungle accommodated over 8000 people in squalid conditions, before it was dismantled in October 2016.  In September 2015 a group of international musicians travelled over from Britain to find musicians inside the camp to collaborate with resulting in the recording of The Calais Sessions which featured musicians from Syria, Afghanistan, Romania, Mexico, Kuwait, Kurdistan, Ethiopia, Eritrea and other places.  Proceeds from the sale of the album go to help the refugees, so you can buy it on their bandcamp page for maximum effect.  Here's a track called Kandahar from the album:

Going onto something a bit more traditional, many people may not realise that this part of France was historically part of Flanders, and Flemish is still spoken by some there.  Hence also names like Dunkirk, which sounds odd in French, but means church in the dunes in Flemish.  This is where traditional folk duo Raymond Declerck and André Rouzet, known as Bart en Klerktje come from.  I don't know much about them, except that they recorded a couple of albums in the 1980's, including a live album recorded in Bruges, Belgium in 1981, which includes this little drinking song called Drinke Liedje:

Folk and Dance band Zlabya started off in 2007 in Lille taking influences from Klezmer, Irish and Romani music and blending them into some Jazz fusion. In 2017 they released a live album to celebrate their 10th anniversary and this tune is taken from it called La Pégreuse:

Normandy doesn't seem to treasure its traditional music in the same way as some other parts of France for some reason.  The only thing I could unearth was a collection of traditional songs from Normandy by singer/songwriter and hurdy gurdy player Jean-François Dutertre, who was born in Paris, but to Norman parents.  Apart from other albums of traditional material from various parts of France, he released the album Chansons Traditionelles de Normandie in 2001 as part of a series called Musique Du Monde.  I've scoured the internet to find a copy of the album, but without success.  Here's a song called Le Passage du Bois:

 This is it for today.  As usual you can follow my virtual trip on my tripline map.  Next up will be some Celtic stuff from Brittany.

England - London Part II

Continuing our exploration of the multi-faceted music scene of London we encounter record producer and guitarist Simon Emmerson.  After a life changing trip to Senegal to produce 3 tracks for Afro pop-star Baaba Maal, he felt similarities between African and Celtic music and went on to found the Afro Celt Sound System in 1995.  This is a track from their 2018 album Flight called Sanctus:

Simon Emmerson was also one of the main organisers of The Imagined Village, a collaborative work from many roots musicians intended to produce modern folk music.  They produced a self-titled album in 2007, from which this song is taken, where Emmerson plays the bouzouki and featuring Billy Bragg on guest vocals: John Barleycorn: 

London based music collective Kefaya based around Giuliano Modarelli and Al MacSween collaborates with musicians from all over the world, including the UK, Italy, Cuba, India, Spain, Kurdistan and Afghanistan.  The result can sometimes be a confusing mix of styles as on their 2016 debut album Radio International, which includes a rendition of Bella Ciao alongside classical Indian, Flamenco, Maghreb sounds and electronica.  Their second album with Afghan pop singer Elaha Soroor called Songs of Our Mothers released in 2019 is a bit more focussed.  Their name means 'enough' in Arabic and is used to describe the grassroots liberation movement in Egypt which lead to the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011.  This is a song off the second album called Charsi:

Folk musician and fiddler Peter Knight left Steeleye Span in 2013 to forge a career mostly with his band Gigspanner.  He is way more than just a fiddler, but is a classically trained violin virtuoso as is demonstrated on this tune called The Water is Wide, which features on his 2011 live album Doors at Eight:

Folk band Blowzabella was formed in 1978 in Whitechapel, East London who play bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and an array of acoustic instruments to produce a driving, drone-based sound influenced by English and European folk.   Here's a song from their 2018 album Two Score called Adam Was A Poacher:

Folk singer/songwriter and fiddler Nancy Kerr was born in Plaistow, East London, but has since moved to Sheffield.  She has been impressively productive both on her own and as part of numerous collaborations since her emergence in the early 1990's.  This a song from her 2016 album Instar called Gingerbread:

I think we'll leave it there for today and spend a 3rd day in London as to not overwhelm you all.  As usual you can follow my virtual trip on my tripline map.