Aksak Maboul

Aksak Maboul (also spelled Aqsak Maboul for a while^{[nb 1]}) are a Belgian avant-rock band founded in 1977 by Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis. They made two studio albums, Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine (1977) and Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (1980), the last one with ex-Henry Cow members Chris Cutler and Fred Frith. They were also active in the Rock in Opposition movement in 1979.^[1][2]

By the mid-1980s Aksak Maboul ceased functioning as a group, but became active again in 2010 when they produced a new track for a tribute album. In 2014 they resumed work on an unfinished album, Ex-Futur Album (by Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul), that they had begun between 1981 and 1983. The album came out in Europe in October 2014.

History

Aksak Maboul began in 1977 as a duo of Marc Hollander (keyboards, reeds, percussion) and Vincent Kenis (guitar, bass guitar, keyboards). Marc Moulin (keyboards) and Chris Joris (percussion, keyboards) joined later, and with this line-up, plus guests Catherine Jauniaux (voice) and others, they recorded their first album, Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine (French for "Eleven Dances for Fighting Migraines"). It was released in 1977 under the name Marc Hollander / Aksak Maboul on an independent record label, Kamikaze Records.^[2][3]

Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine was a playful mix of musical forms, cultures and genres. With drum machines and looping organ lines, it shuffled between improvised jazz, ethnic music, electronics and classical music. It was largely an instrumental album with snatches of singing and voices.^[3]

In late 1977 Aksak Maboul started performing live, during which time Frank Wuyts (percussion, keyboards) replaced Joris and Moulin, and Denis van Hecke (cello) and Michel Berckmans (bassoon, oboe) of Univers Zéro joined.^[4] In early 1979, Hollander invited Chris Cutler and Fred Frith of the recently defunct avant-rock group Henry Cow to join Aksak Maboul on their next record.^[5] They rehearsed together, performed in a few concerts and then went to Sunrise Studio, Kirchberg in Switzerland to record their second album, Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (French for "A Little of the Bandit Spirit").^[5] This was released in 1980 on Crammed Discs, a new independent record label Hollander had created to release the album.

Un Peu de l'Ame des Bandits was more intense and experimental than their first album. It contained complex written sections as well as improvised ambient pieces. It used sampling before samplers were invented and was a mixture of tangos, Turkish tunes, chamber rock, noisy punk rock and pseudo-Varèse music. Like the first album, it was instrumental with a little singing and voices.^[2][4]

Back on the road again, Aksak Maboul joined the Rock in Opposition (RIO) movement and in April 1979 they performed at an RIO festival at the Teatro dell'Elfo in Milano, Italy. Aksak Maboul were one of the last of the original RIO bands.^[6]

In early 1980, Hollander founded the Crammed Discs independent record label. A few months later the original nucleus of Aksak Maboul (Hollander and Kenis) and the core of a Brussels band Les Tueurs de la Lune de Miel joined forces to become The Honeymoon Killers. They toured Europe between 1980 and 1981, although still under the name Aksak Maboul. "Bosses de Crosses", one of the first pieces they composed, was included on the CD re-issue of Un Peu de l'Ame des Bandits. In 1981, they recorded an album entitled Tueurs de la Lune de Miel / Honeymoon Killers, which attracted a lot of attention across Europe and Japan. The band toured for four years under that name.^[7]

During that period, Hollander and Honeymoon Killers vocalist Véronique Vincent, aided by Kenis, wrote and recorded a series of electronic avant-pop tracks which were meant to become Aksak Maboul's third album. The release was announced in the first Crammed Discs catalogues (in the early 1980s), but it was not completed and was put on hold, until 2014.^[8]

The last Aksak Maboul recording to appear in the 1980s came out on a 1984 compilation album, Made to Measure Vol. 1, where the original duo of Hollander and Kenis contributed seven tracks of new material composed for a play by Michel Gheude based on the life of Maïakovsky.^[9] The music here has been described as "minimalist rock" and is very different from their two studio albums.^[1] By the mid-1980s Aksak Maboul ceased to exist as a permanent group, but Hollander and Kenis continued to play an active role in Crammed Discs' musical policies. In the late 1980s, Hollander and Kenis produced several electronic dance music tracks under the name Mr Big Mouse.

In 2010, Aksak Maboul produced a new track for Tradi-Mods vs Rockers, the tribute album to the Congotronics series which came out on Hollander's Crammed Discs label. Aksak Maboul's contribution is "Land Dispute", a new take on a song by Congolese band Kasai Allstars.^[10]

In 2014, Hollander resumed work on the unfinished 3rd Aksak Maboul album from 1981–83, mixing and editing tracks from demos and rough versions (some of them retrieved from cassette tapes). Entitled Ex-Futur Album, the album is released under the name Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul, and a first single ("Chez les Aborigènes") came out digitally on July 4, 2014.^[8]

In early 2015, encouraged by the enthusiastic reactions to Ex-Futur Album,^[11] Aksak Maboul started playing shows for the first time since the mid-80s, with a new line-up including Véronique Vincent (vocals), Marc Hollander (keyboards), Faustine Hollander (guitar, bass, vocals), Sebastiaan Van den Branden (guitar, bass, synth) and Christophe Claeys (drums, percussion), the latter two being also members of Amatorski.

Members

• Marc Hollander – keyboards, reeds, percussion, drum machine
• Vincent Kenis – guitar, bass guitar, keyboards, percussion
• Véronique Vincent – vocals

Temporary members and guests

• Marc Moulin – keyboards
• Chris Joris – keyboards, soprano saxophone
• Catherine Jauniaux – singing
• Frank Wuyts – percussion, keyboards
• Michel Berckmans – bassoon, oboe
• Denis van Hecke – cello
• Geoff Leigh – saxophones
• Guigou Chenevier – drums
• Fred Frith – guitars, bass
• Chris Cutler – drums
• Bob Vanderbob – saxophones
• Yvon Vromman – guitar, vocals
• Gérald Fenerberg – guitar
• Jean-François Jones Jacob III – drums
• Faustine Hollander – guitar bass, vocals
• Sebastiaan Van den Branden – guitar, bass, synth
• Christophe Claeys – drums, percussion

Discography

Studio albums

• Onze Danses Pour Combattre la Migraine (LP 1977, Kamikaze Records, Belgium / CD 2003, Crammed Discs, Belgium)
• Un Peu de l'Âme des Bandits (LP 1980, Crammed Discs / CD 1995, Crammed Discs)
• Ex-Futur Album by Véronique Vincent & Aksak Maboul (CD/LP 2014, Crammed Discs)

Appears on

• Various artists: Made to Measure Vol. 1 (LP 1984, Made To Measure, Belgium) – Aksak Maboul contribute seven tracks of new material
• Tradi-Mods vs Rockers: Alternative Takes on Congotronics (2xCD 2010, Crammed Discs) – Aksak Maboul contribute one track, a rework of a song by Kasai Allstars

See also

• Romantic Warriors II: A Progressive Music Saga About Rock in Opposition

Footnotes

References

External links

• Aksak Maboul at AllMusic.
• Aksak Maboul pages on the Crammed Discs website.
• Aksak Maboul discography at Discogs.
• Aksak Maboul on Myspace.
• Aqsak Maboul / Marc Hollander Chris Cutler homepage.