Liège drummer Antoine Pierre with VAAGUE at Eurosonic 2025. Photo Siese Veenstra
For the layout, put photo VAAGUE at the opening.
Friday January 17, 12:20 a.m. Liégeois Antoine Pierre takes the stage of the AA Theater, a cultural space from another age, in Groningen, combining cutting-edge programming and parish activities. Drummer of the jazz band Taxiwars launched by Tom Barman (dEUS) and saxophonist Robin Verheyen, Antoine Pierre multiplies solo projects. On this freezing night, he presents “Oktopus Mekaniks”, the first album from his baby VAAGUE released on October 24 digitally and available on vinyl on the Flak Records label this February 22.
VAAGUE is an impressive drum kit and clever software called Sensory Percussion which generates sampled sounds live. An unwritten pact between acoustics and electronics. A fiery fusion of human virtuosity and the impulse of samples. Antoine Pierre’s science of rhythm, his inspired and energetic playing, his spirit of adventure and his communicative smile bring everyone into agreement. A couple of students from the University of Groningen dance in front of us. Alongside us, festival programmers looking like hipsters (beard, hat, blasé look of someone who has seen it all) encode precious data into the “box” on their iPhone 16 Pro.VAAGUE, Belgium”. In forty minutes, the Liège artist made us forget the humid mist and the north wind to take us on the paths of tomorrow’s Music. We will see him again on May 10 at the Uhoda Jazz Festival in Liège and on June 9 at Jazz Middelheim.
Unity is strength
VAAGUE is one of eighteen emerging Belgian projects which were presented in Groningen from Wednesday January 15 to Friday January 17, as part of the 39th edition of Eurosonic. Establishing itself as the most important curator of European musical talents, this showcase festival brought together 333 artists/groups from 33 countries. Its previous editions have notably revealed Dua Lipa (in 2013, see below), Fontaines DC, Stromae, Angèle and even Zaho de Sagazan, big sensation of the 2024 edition. Professionals in the sector are not mistaken. This year, there were more than 4,000 to swell the population of the “Martini Stad”, the nickname given to the Dutch city for its Martini Tower planted in the middle of the Groote Markt. From the Dour Festival to Les Ardentes, via Rock Werchter, the Fifty Lab, the Botanique, the Ancienne Belgique and the OM de Seraing, the main programmers of Belgian concerts and festivals made the trip.
An essential step
“With its eighteen artistic projects and its 230 accredited professionals, the Belgian delegation is one of the largest in this edition. It’s less than England, but more than Francerejoices Julien Fournier, director of Wallonie-Bruxelles Musiques, an organization responsible for promoting artists from the Federation abroad. Several showcase festivals are organized in Europe, but Eurosonic remains unmissable. He is the first to have taken such an initiative. It has a history punctuated by big names. It benefits from the support of European authorities and the rigorous selection is made by true music lovers. The young artists programmed at Eurosonic benefit from much greater recognition and validation than elsewhere.”
At Eurosonic, there is strength in numbers. Brussels, Walloon and Flemish artists come together under the Belgium Booms banner. “For most international events, we work in close collaboration with VIBE, our Flemish equivalent, specifies the director of WBM, which supported 420 artistic projects in 2024. This collaboration makes sense. The hip-hop scene is very strong in the Federation, the Flemish are more famous for rock. French-speaking artists are targeting the French market, while the Flemings are looking more towards England. We are complementary and we can share our experiences and our contact networks.”
The future is in the doghouse
Colt at Eurosonic 2025. Credit Ben Houdij/Eurosonic.
Apart from a few pop exceptions (Angèle in 2018, the duo Colt who made a good impression this Wednesday 15 at the opening of the festival), the Belgian artists selected at Eurosonic go off the beaten track of the mainstream. “We realize that Belgium is appreciated abroad for the diversity, relevance and “do it yourself” approach of its alternative projects. We will look a lot in the niches of jazz, electro, rock, metal, hip-hop… In Groningen, we will highlight artists who catch your attention from the first notes played: you like the thing or you don’t like it at all, but you realize that it doesn’t exist elsewhere. We also do not have the financial means to compete with France or England on their own territory with things they already produce. Among our greatest export successes in recent years, we can cite La Jungle, Avalanche Kaito and the instrumental neo-jazz wave (Tukan, Echt!, STUFF…)… We also notice a disparity between Belgian successes for export and what is happening at home. It is not always the most visible artists in the Federation who arouse interest beyond our borders.”
Favorites Mosquito
Alongside VAAGUE and the imperious Sylvie Kreusch, we are not the only ones to have been bewitched by Martha Da’Ro’s performance. The Belgian-Angolan singer and actress (we saw her in 2015 in Black by Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah) continues its momentum after its first album “Philiphobia”. On stage, she reinvents soul/jazz/electro between lascivious poetry, sensual choreographies, percussion and big sub-bass. Imagine the cross between the soul inspiration of Macy Gray and the tribal pop of MIA
-A few hours after downing craft beers at the drink organized by Belgium Booms, the Doodseskader duo took over the stage of the underground club Mutua Fides. Doodseskader (“Death Squad” in Dutch) is the meeting of mustachioed drummer Tim De Gieter (from the group Amenra) and matchstick-legged bassist Sigfried Burroughs. The pair sends heavy and nothing but heavy. Minimum means, maximum noise for formidable metal efficiency which does not forget borrowings from hardcore hip-hop.
Marcel and Eden Hazard
Already present in 2024 and nominated for the Music Moves Europe Awards 2025, Brussels-based James de Graef, aka Loverman, took advantage of the natural acoustics of the Nieuwe Kerk church to present his new stage formula in piano/voice. His visit to Groningen last year allowed him to perform at eight European festivals. Here, he is ready to conquer intimate rooms and meet the angels. Another place, another atmosphere. It was in a billiard room that Marcel offered one of the most exciting concerts of the festival. The post-punk combo from Liège released its second album “Ô Fornaiz” in February on the Luik Records label. A record recorded and mixed on the floor by Ben Hampson (Lambrini Girls) in an old bakery in Sprimont. With titles like Spirit Of Eden Hazard Kicking, Degenerate Pop or St Glin Glin, we’ll let you imagine the mess. But behind the valves and the attitude “fuck off”, the gogusses know how to play, stay the course despite technical problems and give the whole audience a thumbs up. What more could you ask for? To see and re-watch on 21/3 at Rockerill (Charleroi), 29/3 at l’Entrepôt (Arlon), 11/4 at Botanique (release party) and again on 18/5 at(x) (Nuits) Botanical.
Why The Eye?
One last UFO for the road? It’s with the Brussels collective Why The Eye? that we have closed this 39th edition. Born as part of the Zinneke Parade, Why The Eye? is a new example of surrealism “Belgian style” which pleases so much abroad. Or four masked oddballs playing on homemade instruments. A stoemp concocted based on pieces with weird arrangements, texts “who say anything”, electro tribal fusion and barnyard cackles. Well seen the kets.
Sylvie Kreusch
Western girl
Sylvie Kreusch. Sony
Sylvie Kreusch knows Eurosonic well having already presented “Montbray” there in 2022. Back in Groningen last Wednesday, two months after the release of her second album “Comic Trip”, the Belgian singer was relaxed. “I’m told that a stint at Eurosonic is important for my artistic project, but I try to escape this pressure. Eurosonic is not a competition. It’s a festival where the atmosphere is musical, with concerts all over the city. All the artists present cherish the same dream: to give a good concert and hope that people don’t forget them.”
In forty minutes of a glamorous, intense and already well-established show, Sylvie Kreusch and her group (three girls, three boys) left their mark. At the crossroads of childhood, westerns and comics, “Comic Trip” is a retrofuturistic pop album where the artist reveals himself naturally, contrasting with the polished aesthetics of his debut. “Everything I do today takes me away from the image of “femme fatale” that I had at the start of my solo journey. I gained experience, changed my lifestyle, and I have more confidence to show myself as I am.” His androgynous look and the color of his hair (blond on the cover, red in Groningen) also refer to Bowie from the “Station To Station/Low” era. “My ultimate influence. I love his chameleon side and his way of carrying out his projects taking into account all disciplines: music, video, photography, theater.” The world of childhood and comic book onomatopoeia in his songs? “I have entered my thirties, but I hope to keep a part of my childhood in me. When I started, I was very naive, but I find it important to keep this lightness. Childhood and the memories linked to it provide me with both a creative space and a refuge.”
Comic Trip, Sony. 16/4, Reflektor. 19/7, Dour Festival.
