PAGANFEST MMXXV announcement Alestorm, Ensiferum, Týr,  Heidevolk & Elvenking

Paganfest is back after 10 years!
PAGANFEST MMXXV
ALESTORM - ENSIFERUM - TÝR - HEIDEVOLK – ELVENKING
Paganfest returns after 10 years with the strongest line-up (Alestorm, Ensiferum, Týr,  Heidevolk & Elvenking) and the most and biggest shows ever!

Created by RTN-Touring (Rock The Nation) between 2008-2015 with seven editions in Europe and two more in the USA, Paganfest was the most successful festival tour of the pagan & folk metal scene. Since Paganfest was put on hiatus, many fans and bands have been asking for the next edition.

Now the time has come: Paganfest is coming back with a blast, in legendary venues all over Europe and UK!

Paganfest has been an important part of many bands’ history - it helped to grow many of your favourite bands to headliner status over the years. Five of these bands have now teamed up to raise the Paganfest flag again, so let’s drink from a horn (not from a can)!

Tickets and more information at www.paganfest.live
https://www.facebook.com/Paganfest/

Jan 09 - Groningen, Netherlands @ Oosterpoort
Jan 20 - Brussels, Belgium @ Ancienne Belgique
Jan 26 - Liege, Belgium @ OM

ALESTORM translates:
“Ahoy, ye scallywags and metal-hearted marauders! After a decade lost at sea, Paganfest be returnin' with a thunderous roar, boastin' the mightiest crew o' bands ever to sail the seven stages! With Alestorm, Ensiferum, Týr, Heidevolk, and Elvenking at the helm, this here voyage be the grandest and most raucous yet!
Back in the days of yore, between 2008 and 2015, RTN-Touring (that be Rock The Nation, ye landlubbers) unleashed seven legendary editions across Europe and two more in the treacherous waters of the USA. Paganfest, the most triumphant festival tour of the pagan and folk metal scene, set sail and captured the hearts o’ metalheads far and wide. But alas, the festival was cast into the abyss, leavin' fans and bands alike yearnin' for its return.
But hoist the colors and mark yer maps, for the time has come to weigh anchor once more! Paganfest be blastin' back into port with a vengeance, conquerin' legendary venues all across Europe and the UK!
This here festival be a vital chapter in the tales of many a band’s rise to glory, helpin’ to transform 'em from humble deckhands to mighty headliners. Now, five o’ these intrepid bands be joinin' forces to hoist the Paganfest flag high once again. So grab yer horns o’ ale (and toss aside them landlubberly cans), and prepare to set sail on the wildest, most metal journey o’ yer life! Arrr!”
ENSIFERUM are special guests on the Paganfest MMXXV tour with their brand new record "Winter Storm" coming 18th October 2024). Petri Lindroos sent a short message to the fans:
“I'm so happy to announce Paganfest returning after 10 full years. It's gonna' be a great package with Alestorm, Ensiferum, Týr, Heidevolk and Elvenking. Coming in January - February 2025. See you at the shows!”
Sami Hinkka adds: “New album, new year, old friends! We are super excited to join forces with the metal scene’s finest: Alestorm, Týr , Heidevolk and Elvenking. This tour will make it to the history books! Grab your swords, drinking horns and bottles of rum, because Paganfest is back!”
TÝR as a cornerstone of the Paganfest history has a highlighted position now on Paganfest MMXXV - Heri Joensen talks about the recent news around the band:

“PAGANFEST returns at a very opportune time!
Our latest album, Battle Ballads, came in April this year. We’ve been on tour in North America, and we have played some fests in Europe this summer. Battle Ballads comes with a line-up change. Hans Hammer steps in on guitar for Terji Skibenæs. Our current line-up is the strongest we have had.
Paganfest will be the perfect opportunity for us to play some new bangers, as well as our ancient heathen hits, for our fans on the continent.
Paganfest used to be a reoccuring theme for us, and on those tours we met many of the bands we know and are friends with today, and Paganfest introduced us to a lot of new people around Europe and North America.
It’s a powerful and nostalgic feeling to see the Paganfest banner again.
This can only be good! So get your tickets now, and we’ll see you somewhere in Europe this winter, for Paganfest MMXXV”

Paganfest MMXXV is the first EU tour for the latest HEIDEVOLK album  “Wederkeer”. Bandboss and bassist Rowan Roodbaert comments:
“We are beyond excited to announce our return to the legendary Paganfest, world’s premier folk and pagan metal mega tour! As veterans of multiple Pagan and Heidenfests, this festival holds a special place in Heidevolk’s history. We can’t wait to hit the road again and join forces with our friends in this killer line-up!
The return of Paganfest perfectly echoes the spirit of our latest album, Wederkeer (which means "return" or "revive"). We’ll be bringing you the very best of our latest songs along with classic bangers that take you deep into Heidevolk’s legacy.
Those who’ve experienced Paganfest before know this is a celebration you can’t afford to miss. Get ready for a night of raised horns, heavy music, and a unique heathen happening that unites old and new fans of the genre.
Brace yourselves friends, for the Pagan Metal Brotherhood is on the rise!”
Last, but not least - as there are no fillers just killers on Paganfest MMXXV - ELVENKING, who were sorely missed by the community from the previous editions, are finally here!
The Italian pagans are releasing their brand new album “Reader of the Runes - Luna” (the grandiose final chapter of the RotR trilogy) right before the festival tour:
“Paganfest is where Elvenking fits perfectly . We always looked at the old festival line ups in the past and felt it would be the perfect package to tour with one day, both musically and conceptually. Finally we can be part of the resurrected brand and cannot be more excited . All other bands have participated in several editions of the tour and even if we are mostly opening the concerts, it will be amazing to be part of this. Our new album , last chapter  of the “Reader of the Runes” trilogy, is 100 % done and ready to be released so it will be great to play songs from this huge story plus some of our classics under the banner of Paganfest all over Europe . May the winds blow fair at your backs….”

Even voorstellen - Being Dead - “EELS”

27/09 (bayonet/konkurrent)
end June 24 “Firefighters” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EAWYWG64l7I
end July 24 “Van goes” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S650YFB45Ho
end Aug 24 “Nightvision” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a2PAcMREq7A

Being Dead — the Austin, TX-based duo consisting of Falcon Bitch and Shmoofy — announces its new album, EELS, out September 27th on Bayonet, lead single/video “Firefighters,” and a fall headline tour. Being Dead’s records are mosaics, technicolor incantations, each song its own self-contained little universe. And while the dreamlike EELS probes further into the depths of the duo Being Dead’s psyche, it is, most importantly, a 16-track record that is genuinely unpredictable from one track to the next. It’s a joyous and unexpected trip helmed by two true-blue freak bitch besties holed up in a lil’ house in the heart of Austin, Texas.

When Horses Would Run, Being Dead’s “glorious and timeless” (Gorilla vs. Bear) debut record released in 2023, took years to release. The final product was excellent and expertly polished, at odds with the live rowdiness they’d cultivated a reputation for throughout Austin and beyond across seven years of being a band. For the next one, they knew they’d have to do things differently. They decamped to Los Angeles for two weeks to record with GRAMMY-winning producer John Congleton, writing songs for the record until days before they left. The radical shift in process was welcome - a good balance and a challenge, Congleton helping them find new ways to work and helping peel back the layers on the core of their songwriting. Being Dead has grown from a duo to a trio live, including bassist Nicole Roman-Johnston who also co-wrote and recorded bass and vocals on several album tracks.

The resulting EELS is a darker record, tapped more into the devilishness within. It’s a more raucous, rougher ride sonically. There’s heartbreak, excitement, enchantment, dancing – we move through it all at a high-octane pace. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy never want to do the same thing twice on any song, and they don’t. This is never more apparent than on lead single, “Firefighters,” which might be the first of its kind told from the perspective of a Dalmatian who is overworked at their fire station. The pummeling, distorted garage rock ripper’s accompanying video by director URZULKA “came together through a group hallucination.” The band adds, “We love marbles and outdoor play and decided to get it on video for y'all. Making this was like creating an intricate handshake with all your buddies—riddled with inside jokes and giggles.”

There are a number of different origin stories for Being Dead floating around on the internet, most of which are immortalized in various press pieces they’ve done across the last seven years of being a band, and there will likely be more. Falcon Bitch and Smoofy deliver each story with a wink, inviting you in on the joke. Maybe they were actually born from a giant egg left in a meteoric crater, or they’re undercover on earth from an alien universe. Something about their music suggests it’s a dispatch from both the future and the past – vocal harmonies that sound like they’re reverberating in a medieval church to surfy guitar lines, weirdo-punky cacophonies erupting into chaos. There’s the sense that these are two people who are strangers to all that is banal - there is always fun to be had, a little mischievous magic waiting around the corner, if you know how to find or make it.

EELS Tracklist

1. Godzilla Rises
2. Van Goes
3. Blanket of my Bone
4. Problems
5. Firefighters
6. Dragons II
7. Nightvision
8. Gazing At Footwear
9. Big Bovine
10. Storybook Bay
11. Ballerina
12. Rock n’ Roll Hurts
13. Love Machine
14. I Was A Tunnel
15. Goodnight
16. Lilypad Lane

La Maison culturelle d’Ath – Musique events 2024 - 2025
AKAR COLLECTIF
VE.04.10
Palace
20h (60′)
Dès 14 ans
De 6 à 15€
Musique du monde

Le projet est né lors du festival Afropolitan 2021… Et ce qui devait être un événement ponctuel est devenu quelque chose de plus grand. AKAR c’est l’Europe, AKAR c’est l’Afrique, AKAR c’est la génération X et Y.
AKAR est composé de 4 artistes, français, belges, blancs, noirs… Un homme et trois femmes.
Shama Bongo jongle, transporte avec sa voix et sa parfaite maîtrise. Sarah Carlier voyage entre sa voix, sa guitare et son ordinateur. Rokia Bamba joue avec les sons du quotidien, le bruit ambiant de la ville ou de la nature. Ben Richard défie par sa façon de jouer avec les sens, ce que nous entendons, ce que nous voyons.
Ils utilisent des dialectes différents, mais parlent la même langue : la musique.
À une époque où le dialogue entre les cultures et les différences devient de moins en moins évident, naturel, le message qu’ils veulent faire passer est qu’au-delà de toutes les choses qui les rendent différents, il y a toujours quelque chose qui les rapproche, qui leur permet de se comprendre.
Le nom AKAR englobe toute cette humanité et a donc plusieurs significations, dans plusieurs langues et même sur plusieurs continents… Il signifie RACINE en soudanais, malais et indonésien, VOLONTÉ en hongrois, FLUX en turc, et DÉRANGER, AGITER et RENDRE TABOU en hébreu.
Une production UBU. Avec Sarah Carlier vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, electronics - Shama Bongo vocals, electronics - Ben Richard VJing, electronics, Dj - Rokia Bamba electronics, Dj Archives : AfricaMuseum www.africamuseum.be
Avec le soutien des Tournées Art et Vie et du Service des Arts de la Scène de la Province de Hainaut.

LA PLUS BELLE CHANSON DU MONDE
VE.14.02
Palace
20h (75′)
Dès 12 ans
De 6 à 15€
Concert-spectacle
Pour vous, quelle est la plus belle chanson du monde ? Quel souvenir vous rappelle-t-elle ? Marie Lecomte a collecté celles de plusieurs personnes et raconte leurs tranches de vie… Et pour finir en beauté : soirée karaoké au bar !
« J’ai toujours adoré les histoires que les chansons racontent et j’ai toujours adoré les histoires des gens. Ce concert-spectacle réunit les deux. »
Une chanson vous trotte dans la tête et des souvenirs, des sentiments, des odeurs, des images débarquent sans crier gare. Une rengaine, un couplet ou deux, inusables, ont le pouvoir de vous accompagner des années durant, de vous donner la pêche ou de vous remuer les tripes…
Pour Marie Lecomte, les chansons et les musiques sont intimement liées à des moments de vie. Voilà pourquoi elle s’est lancée dans ce projet : raconter l’histoire de la chanson préférée de quelqu’un, l’interpréter sur scène avec deux musiciens.
« Il y a les chansons à soi, mais aussi les chansons d’un groupe d’amis, sans oublier les chansons “de couple” : ceux qui se lèvent quand un certain morceau démarre et s’écrient : c’est notre chanson ! La chanson est une manière de parler de soi et nous permet de recueillir des paroles intimes sans brusquer les confidences. »
Avec Éric Bribosia, Yannick Dupont et Marie Lecomte – Scénographie Bertrand Nodet – Costumes Julie Leyder – Direction technique Benoît Pelé – Assistanat Johanne Pastor – Conseillère dramaturgique Marie Henry – Œil extérieur Vincent Hennebicq – Administration Céline Pourveur – Teaser et captation Dimitri Tuttle – Communication François Schulz – Diffusion La Charge du Rhinocéros.
Avec le soutien des Tournées Art et Vie et du Service des Arts de la Scène de la Province de Hainaut.

LES FRANGINES
VE.11.04
Palace
20h (90’)
Dès 12 ans
De 20 à 35€
Chanson française
Après une tournée de plus de 100 dates et un premier album « disque de platine », Les Frangines sont de retour sur la scène belge avec leur nouvel album. Porteuses d’une jeunesse pleine d’espoir, elles amènent une fraîcheur et des ondes positives qui font du bien !
Les Frangines, c’est l’histoire d’une rencontre entre deux jeunes filles : Anne et Jacinthe. Nées de parents différents mais bercées par les mêmes mélodies, ces sœurs de cœur assument une filiation avec des artistes de la nouvelle scène pop-folk comme Boulevard des Airs, Vianney, Passenger, Lumineers, Cocoon…
Les Frangines sont aujourd’hui de retour avec un nouveau single Notes.
Ce titre, co-écrit avec Sylvain Duthu (Boulevard des Airs), décrit ces tâches quotidiennes qui nous assomment et invite à reprendre sa vie en main en prenant du temps pour soi.
« Le côté convivial de leur musique, qui véhicule un message humain, porteur d’espoir, empathique et rassembleur à l'image de leur dernier single, Ensemble. » RTBF
« Un tsunami de positivisme ! » Le Soir MAG
Avec Anne Coste et Jacinthe Madelin - Un concert Progress Booking

 PRINTEMPS MUSICAL DE SILLY
JUST VOX
SA.07.06
Palace
20h (75′)
Dès 10 ans
De 6 à 15€
Chant a cappella
Fans de voix pures, ce concert a cappella est pour vous ! Pas d’instrument, juste quatre voix et un beatboxer aux univers distincts qui se rassemblent pour n’en former plus qu’un.
Leur spécialité est surtout de réinventer, par des arrangements originaux, des chansons de tous genres et vous offrir ainsi un répertoire inédit. Avec leur énergie, ces chanteurs vous font voyager à travers les époques et les styles et vous embarquent dans un tourbillon de musique et d’harmonies, avec une touche d’humour. Redécouvrez les grands standards pop comme vous ne les avez jamais entendus !
La voix offre de nombreuses alternatives de sons. Les quatre chanteurs explorent le potentiel de leur timbre et ne sont pas seulement des voix, mais aussi des guitares, des basses, des trompettes, des claviers. Leurs cordes vocales deviennent ainsi un véritable orchestre et offrent un moment musical totalement à part. Leur beatboxer complète cet orchestre vocal. Le beatboxing est une forme de percussion vocale impliquant principalement l’art de produire des battements de batterie, du rythme, des sons musicaux et des bruitages sonores en utilisant la bouche, les lèvres, la langue et la voix.
Voix Valentine U, Oriane Simon, Véronique Schotte et Philippe Lombet – Beatbox BigBen - Son Yves Schotte – Lumière Gabi Demoitelle.
Une coproduction de Just Vox et de La Ferme ! Productions.

www.maisonculturelledath.be

Even voorstellen - Dana Gavanski - Late Slap

Dana Gavanski - Late Slap 05/04
(full time hobby/konkurrent)
single jan 24 "How To Feel Uncomfortable" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HmT5SrNNEZM
single febr 24 “let them row” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E36SB3DQZEg
single maart 24 "ears were growing” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXZqCD9Xp4Y + “song for rachel” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCvsab_FWG8

Aug 24 ‘Ought To Feel’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBH9EyskznU

LIVE 09-11 Botanique, Brussels

Following the release of 2022’s When It Comes, Dana Gavanski returns with her third album LATE SLAP, due for release 5th April 2024. Streaming now is the album opener, How To Feel Uncomfortable, which is matched perfectly with a disturbing and visually stunning video, directed by Ella Margolin.

There’s a party in Dana Gavanski’s head and everyone’s invited - well, kind of.  Late Slap, Gavanski’s third album, gives voice to the highs and lows of the mindscape in all its joys and terrors, injecting some much-needed playfulness into the process of writing about emotionally hard things. “The album holds together the seemingly disparate aspects of my character that I have sometimes tried to repress,” says Dana. “With this album I’m letting them into the room, celebrating them for all their strangeness - a strangeness which I think we all, on some level, share.”

Having (literally) lost her voice during the writing of her previous album, When It Comes, Late Slap finds Dana in magisterial mode, displaying a newfound confidence and energy—in both her writing and singing—borne, paradoxically, from embracing feelings of discomfort. “I realized,” says Dana, “that in order to become stronger I needed to get used to being uncomfortable.” It’s appropriate, then, that the album opens with ‘How to Feel Uncomfortable,’ a quick sonic punch of a song, which bemoans the growing distances between people in the digital landscapes where we spend so much time wandering aimlessly: “stand too close, face in your phone/ it’s scrambling your mind/ tired of your zombie glow/soaking up your eyes.”. The song attests to the difficulty of sitting with yourself, in boredom, insecurity and indecision—and the important emotional and spiritual rewards of doing so. Or, as Susan Sontag, a major influence on the album, puts it in "Regarding the Pain of Others: “It is passivity that dulls feeling. The states described as apathy, moral or emotional anaesthesia, are full of feelings; the feelings are rage and frustration…”

In the writing of Late Slap, Gavanski swapped out the familiar for the new, training herself to use Logic Pro rather than just her usual guitar-and-voice approach. If composing somewhat neo-Luddite anthems on a Macbook seems a little contradictory, well, that’s kind of the point: “21st century life is so full of contradictions and headfucks that it can be hard to do anything with conviction—you could cynic your way out of doing or believing anything.” Initially overwhelmed by its seemingly limitless possibilities, Dana began to create demos and collages of small sound worlds across various influences, at times orchestral pop, art rock and new wave, again embracing difference and variety. “Whenever I’m stuck in a certain way of working, it helps to try something new, to challenge myself in a different way. Like when you learn a new instrument: you’re excited by it and less concerned with perfection.”

Gavanski fleshed out the demos with her band before taking the album—and the band—to Mike Lindsay (Tunng, LUMP)at MESS, the producer’s studio in Margate. The five-piece, which includes Gavanski’s fellow co-producer James Howard (Rozi Plain, Alabaster dePlume), tracked the record over five days. “I knew Mike could help me find the range of sound I was looking for; he has an amazing attention to sonic detail and we’ve worked well together on previous records.” Lindsay acquired a Yamaha DX7 synth at Dana’s request just for the album, and they used it to conjure an atmosphere of digital warmth that recalls the Beverly Glenn-Copeland’s meditative masterpiece Keyboard Fantasies.

But the Gavanski mind-party has a varied playlist.  ‘Ears Were Growing,’ for example, encapsulates the eighties zeal of Talking Heads or Klaus Nomi, pitching fantasy against reality through a playful lyric about negative self-talk, the domestic interior, and their way of creating a kind of Stockholm Syndrome equal parts comfort and fear. The line “take me to the cinema/ I want to inhabit the actress!” testifies to Dana’s appreciation for the theatrical and the cinematic. She cites the influence of golden age Hollywood star Gena Rowlands, whose portrayal of an aging theatre actor in Opening Night leads to a frightening loss of self and a dark, sobering transformation: “Gena manages to express so many feelings just through her face. She’s strikingly beautiful in a classic Hollywood way but she’s not scared to look silly and childish. She makes me laugh and cry at the same time—there’s something transformative in going over the top.”

Some tracks take a less in-your-face approach (it takes all sorts to make a memorable party). ‘Ribbon,’ a tender song about the recent loss of a childhood friend, looks at the world through the lens of grief, marvelling at the way the familiar suddenly loses its meaning and shape: “To face the rays all saddled in silence/How do I rearrange my room/ the walls are a shell/That’s opened too soon/ I can’t manage it from here.” The gently propulsive ‘Song for Rachel’ approaches the same subject matter from another angle, finding release in the simple, straight-to-the-point chorus refrain of “Cause’ you’re gone/ it’s just that I’m lost/ and I don’t know how to feel.” Not knowing how to feel, Gavanski shows us, is as valid and important a feeling as any other.

Late Slap’s unsettling artwork places the album themes in plain sight, Gavanski’s ambiguous, animated expression and screened-out black eyes bearing witness to what might be a revolving exhibition of contradictory images: cute play-fighting kittens giving way to pictures of suffering and war, golden hours dissolving into lost hours never to be reclaimed. But Late Slap is also what its title suggests—a sudden jolt, a shock to the system that seeks to reconnect with the messy flesh-and-thought humanity of simply being human. The album’s tension between cynicism and trust, openness and despair, melodrama and silliness, ultimately invites the listeners in (throw your coat on the bed over there, stranger). It welcomes you at the door and beckons you to find tenderness in a world doing its best to desensitize us.

LATE SLAP track list

1. How To Feel Uncomfortable
2. Let Them Row
3. Late Slap
4. Ears Were Growing
5. Singular Coincidence
6. Song For Rachel
7. Eye On Love
8. Ribbon
9. Dark Side
10. Reiteration