Aksak Maboul - Lublin 06.07.17

A few days ago, the legendary avant-rock band Aksak Maboul under the lead of Marc Hollander performed in Lublin, Poland together with the singer Véronique Vincent, as a part of "Inne Brzmienia" festival.

The band consisted of Marc Hollander, who played keyboards and operated all sorts of electronic machinery, Veronique Vincent, who sang on about 80% of the numbers, Aksak Maboul guitarist Lucien Fraipont and members of the band Aquaserge, which records under Hollander’s Crammed Discs label.

It was a phenomenal concert, one of the best I’ve been to this year. The set kept great balance between synth-pop sensibilities of the Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul project, the latter’s avant-garde studio explorations, and collective modal improvisation. The music went from as far as something reminding of 20^th century avant-garde opera to jams reminiscent of The Doors. All in all, a fantastic experience. Some of the pieces I did not recognize (I had not investigated the ‘Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul’ albums), but the last piece before the encore was a variation on my favorite piece by the band, the nearly-proto-techno (Mit 1) Saure Gurke (Aus 1 Urwald Gelockt).

I also got to talk to Marc Hollander for half a minute before the concert, telling I was a big fan of his music and I was really looking forward to seeing him play. He seemed like a very kind and warm person.

Here are a few videos from the concert. I apologize for bad sound quality, it was very loud.

Side note: I did not put "Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul" in the thread title, because that would have been too long if I wanted to also write the place and the date.

Side note #2: During this amazing festival, I also got a chance to see Tuxedomoon, Wacław Zimpel, and the amazing Mulatu Astatke play, among many.

Edited by ALotOfBottle - July 09 2017 at 10:12

Love that band  Can't wait the lp reissue of their second album, their best in my opinion. I talked to Marc once on the phone. He was interested by producing a musical project of mine and a friend. Unfortunately that never came through. Nice person as you say, open mind. 

Great little review Tymon - I wish I could've been there.

Guldbamsen wrote: Great little review Tymon - I wish I could've been there. Most of these old school musicians are actually a lot easier to meet and talk to than what most fans think. As long as you keep the conversation directed at their music you'll more than likely have a friend for the moment/night. Oh and I have done 3 posts previous to this WITHOUT captchas - I am hoping this trend will soldier on.

Thank you! And that's very much true. Musicians love hearing from their music's enthusiasts (surprising, innt?).
Captcha has been exceptionally bad for me this morning, I've been getting "tick the boxes..." verifications for the first time today.

Meltdowner wrote: I never heard of them but with "maboul" in their name it could only be interesting  I'll have to look into them more. Nice review!

I had not known what the word meant until I read your message, to be honest. They're a great band, I have a feeling you might really enjoy their first album. And thank you!

Flight123 wrote: Wow!  What a great document of the gig.  One band I have never seen (in any shape or form).  Reminded me a bit of Stereolab in places...  Thanks for this!

Thank you! Haven't investigated Stereolab enough to say for sure, but I can see where you are coming from. They are a great band to see live and I recommend you do if you get a chance. And you are welcome! 

Edited by ALotOfBottle - July 13 2017 at 09:28