BIOGRAPHY:

Since dEUS, Zita Swoon and the inevitable “Godfather” Arno arrived on the scene, Belgium has, as everyone knows, established itself as the hub of European rock on the old continent. Like their cinema - which despite the very modest size of the country can inextricably engage us in its improbable road movies - Belgian rockers have always displayed a gift for constructing and freely exploring vast sonic spaces, with the horizon their only limit. It is almost as if the proximity of the English coast plays a part. Unless it is some ghost freighter drifting endlessly on the North Sea since the far-off 60s, home to one of those pirate radio stations whose electric glamour still echoes in the imagination of musicians from Antwerp, Brussels or Ghent (which is actually the city where the Absynthe Minded venture began). The idea visibly amuses Bert Ostyn, the quintet’s songwriter-in-chief and vocal supremo: "Oh yeah, that boat was cool. In fact, I have records with advertising jingles from back then. It’s pretty nostalgic...”

Bert is the guy with the Rubik's Cube on the cover of Absynthe Minded, a fourth album that rather miraculously sums up the group’s progress and fascinating palette of sounds - from folk rock to Gypsy swing via indie rock and quasi-noise ambiences. At his side, Jan Duthoy (piano, Hammond organ), Sergej Van Bouwel (double bass), Renaud Ghilbert (violin) and Jakob Nachtergaele (drums) play expertly on their devilishly vintage instruments to weave musical climates that are mainly acoustic, but can also turn stormy or bring a delicious jazz front sweeping in, taking the form of a guitar solo.

As we have mentioned, the group was formed in Ghent, a mediaeval (but hip) city,  in 2002. Bert: “I’d been writing songs since I was 14 or 15; songs that weren’t necessarily very good. Then at 18, I went to Ghent to study recording techniques and I met some jazz musicians. Jazz was new to me. I was more a rock fan. But discovering Django Reinhardt, Miles Davis and all those great musicians broadened my horizons. I had this friend Sergej who played double bass, and Jan, who I was already in a group with. So we set up this very Gypsy-inspired band.” 

In a relatively short time, Absynthe Minded acquired something of a reputation, and not only in the bars they tirelessly toured (as their name might suggest). Bert: “It’s true: basically that’s what we were: a bar band. The name Absynthe Minded has quite a lot of associations. People think of painters and 30s poets in New York and Paris. They think of inspiration, the muse.” After the essential preliminary demos, the group got serious and released an EP, History Makes Science Fiction, in 2003, followed by two albums: Acquired Taste (2004) and especially New Day (2005), marking the start of the Absynthe Minded phenomenon in Belgium. The secret weapon? “My Heroics, Part One” (Bert insists on the irony of the title), voted best song of the decade by Flemish radio station Studio Brussel, and which is included as a bonus track on the new album for those who missed the previous episodes. 

After an impressive number of concerts - more than 300 in three years, including a tour supporting dEUS - and a third opus, There Is Nothing (released in 2007), the five musicians took time out to hone the twelve songs that would form the eponymous Absynthe Minded album. True to his creative process, Bert first wrote the different lyrics in English before writing the music, adopting the style that suited each song best. “When you’re on the road, you play a lot, you write lots of new songs, you work together and that leads to some very interesting things,” he stresses. “It’s really the dynamics of the group that make me feel like a songwriter.” His inspiration? “Life, the people around me, my family. Great things like love. For me, lyrics come from the subconscious.”

Recorded at Studio Ferber in Paris with the assistance of Jean Lamoot (Noir Désir, Alain Bashung, Girls In Hawaii) and transcended by the group’s remarkable osmosis, Absynthe Minded plays brilliantly on contrasts and silences. Each note adds a touch of colour and enhances the melody, raising it to its quintessence. As a result, the record produces a rather giddying impression, from its back-to-basics-style swing-mode opening ("If You Don't Go, I Don't Go") to its intimist coda ("Oh! The Longing", a simple piano ballad). Elsewhere, "Multiple Choice" combines subterranean shuffle, Hammond-organ snarls and talking-blues verses, before taking off with an almost pop-tinged chorus towards jazz-rock guitar dissonance. Introduced by a few strokes of cello, the catchy "Mercury" and its runaway beat follows three soft pearls with a deliciously woody fragrance: the single "Envoi" (Send) with its All Along The Watchtower flavoured riff; "Heaven Knows" with its languid rhythm reminiscent of early Dire Straits and compelling gimmick ("You are, you are, you are my baby girl"); not to mention "Dead On My Feet", a little indie-pop wonder that Bert sings with all his usual elegance. Released in Belgium at the end of 2009, the album immediately won the quintet four Belgian Music Industry Awards in January, including best album, best single (for "Envoi") and best indie-rock group.

No surprise there. Beyond its European dimension, Absynthe Minded is one of those rare albums that brings immediate but also lasting pleasure. The pleasure of listening to fluid, organic music that seems to flow naturally (in fact, almost absent-mindedly) from these magnificent musicians, who never cheat - or only on one point: in real life, Mr. Ostyn is unfailingly incompetent with a Rubik's Cube. “It’s just a rock-star pose,” he admits with a laugh. “Well… it’s very, very subtle.”