Various Artists

Bokan! Musics in the Margin

Label: Sub Rosa Country: Belgium

"This CD, a second opus of musical art brut, has been produced as part of the music workshops at the institute La Porte Ouverte (Blicquy, Leuze-en-Hainaut). In these workshops, youngsters are given an opportunity at the microphone, percussion, guitar, piano, recording - in a word: music - a try, often for the very first time in their life. They quickly make these music implements their own, using them in surprising ways. Slowly, artists emerge and truly musical personas are built as recording sessions progress. Over weeks, years, with every workshop, a monstrous pile of material accrues, hours upon hours of recordings featuring residents wholeheartedly diving into a journey into sound. A work on voice, with voices. Crazy raucous, unreleased covers, melodies made out of three times nothing but a lot of soul and guts - these recordings undoubtedly hold a few invaluable gems, testifying to these moments when, turned on to music and their instruments, the youngsters inhabit together a soothed and soothing project, away from aggressiveness and violence.

Various strategies allowed the production of this sound object: sometimes it took a day of work to produce some of these pieces (for instance track 5), but usually the live takes have been left alone, with no additional work. However, some people close to the organization have obtained copies of workshop recordings and were able to work on them and develop electronic versions...

A striking experience if there ever was one, full of surprises, mysteries, and meetings, "Bôkan!" is an excerpt, a trace, a marker of a destabilizing yet stimulating music experience, an endearing record because it was produced under very special conditions, with very unique young people."-Sub Rosa