DAAU (short for Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung) is a classical, jazz, experimental and multi-genre music group from

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. The band was founded in 1992 and borrowed its name from the novel '' Der Steppenwolf'' (1927) by

Hermann Hesse Hermann Karl Hesse (; 2 July 1877 – 9 August 1962) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss poet and novelist, and the 1946 Nobel Prize in Literature laureate. His interest in Eastern philosophy, Eastern religious, spiritual, and philosophic ...

.Anarchists indeed
, Flanders Today, 14 April 2010. "...the tongue-twisting name – taken from the 1927 Herman Hesse novel Steppenwolf" The current line-up consists of Roel Van Camp (

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

), Han Stubbe (

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

), Hannes D'Hoine (

upright bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

) and Jeroen Stevens (

drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a ...

marimba The marimba ( ) is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the mari ...

). Founding members Buni Lenski (

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

) and Simon Lenski (

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

) left the band in 2006 and 2013. In the course of DAAU's history, other musicians have joined the quartet for a limited period: Adrian Lenski (

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

), Janek Kowalski (

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

), Angélique Willkie (

vocals Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define sing ...

), Fré Madou (upright bass) and Geert Budts (drums). On record, the band also collaborated with An Pierlé, Ya Kid K (

Technotronic Technotronic was a Belgian electronic music project formed in 1987 by Jo Bogaert and best known for their 1989 single, " Pump Up the Jam", which features vocals by Ya Kid K. The song peaked at No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United ...

) and David Bovée (Think of One).

Career

In 1994 they debuted with their acoustic self-titled album on the label Jack&Johnny, which also released the first material by Zita Swoon (back then called A Beatband) and

dEUS ''Deus'' (, ) is the Latin word for 'God (word), god' or 'deity'. Latin ''deus'' and ''dīvus'' ('divine') are in turn descended from Proto-Indo-European language, Proto-Indo-European *''deiwos'', 'celestial' or 'shining', from the same root ( ...

. For dEUS, DAAU also recorded a version of the cult-hit "Suds & Soda". In 1996

Sony Classical Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired ...

signed the band, re-released the debut album, and released the follow-up ''We Need New Animals'' (1998). The album was recorded in the Spanish village

Ronda Ronda () is a Municipalities in Spain, municipality of Spain belonging to the province of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its population is about 35,000. Ronda is known for its cliffside location and a deep canyon that ca ...

and introduced vocals, electronics, drums and guitar to the sound of DAAU. The band was invited to support 16 Horsepower on tour in Europe. The record sold very few copies and Sony decided to shift the group to Columbia Records, which released their third album ''Life Transmission'' (2001) before sacking the group later that year. Even though record sales were once again below expectations, the group scored some small radio-hits and toured extensively in the

Benelux The Benelux Union (; ; ; ) or Benelux is a politico-economic union, alliance and formal international intergovernmental cooperation of three neighbouring states in Western Europe: Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. The name is a portma ...

and played for large crowds at

Rock Werchter Rock Werchter is an annual music festival held in the village of Werchter, near Leuven, Belgium, since 1976 and is a large sized rock music festival. The 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2012 and 2014 festivals received the Arthur award for ''best festiva ...

and

Pukkelpop Pukkelpop is an annual music festival that takes place near the city of Hasselt, Belgium in mid- to late August. It is held within a large enclosure of fields and woodland—adjacent to a dual carriageway called ''Kempische Steenweg''—in the v ...

festivals. In 2002 the band set up a record label of their own, titled Radical Duke, and released an EP of music they composed for a dance play ''Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain'', also known as ''Colours''. Later a compilation of outtakes and alternative versions was released, titled ''Ghost Tracks''. Two years later the group returned to the acoustic approach of its early days and released their fourth record ''Tub Gurnard Goodness'', including a cover of

Radiohead Radiohead are an English rock band formed in Abingdon-on-Thames, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, in 1985. The band members are Thom Yorke (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); brothers Jonny Greenwood (guitar, keyboards, other instruments) and Colin Gre ...

's " 2+2=5". On tour, DAAU expanded itself to a sextet with a new

rhythm Rhythm (from Greek , ''rhythmos'', "any regular recurring motion, symmetry") generally means a " movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions". This general meaning of regular r ...

section. ''Tub Gurnard Goodness'' was released in Europe and the group played many concerts in Germany, Czech Republic and in France with electro dub crew Ez3kiel. In

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

they were present at the

Sziget festival Sziget Festival (, ) is one of the largest music and cultural festivals in Europe. It is held every August in northern Budapest, Hungary, on Óbudai-sziget ("Old Buda Island"), a leafy 108-hectare (266-acre) island on the Danube. More than 1,0 ...

, in Denmark at

Roskilde Festival The Roskilde Festival is a Danish music festival held annually south of Roskilde. It is one of the largest music festivals in Europe and the largest in the Nordic countries. It was created in 1971 by two high school students and a promoter. In 1 ...

. In 2006 the band released their first record as a sextet, ''Domestic Wildlife''. Shortly after, bass player Fré Madou decided to leave the band. In 2010 the band released ''The Shepherd's Dream'', now as a quartet. In 2011 Simon Lenski composed and recorded the soundtrack for the short movie ''Motor'' by Dutch movie maker Simone Bennett. For this musical piece a special electric twelve string violin was built for him by experimental luthier

Yuri Landman Yuri Landman (born 1 February 1973) is a Dutch inventor of musical instruments and musician who has made several experimental electric string instruments for a number of artists including Lee Ranaldo of Sonic Youth, Liars (band), Liars, Jad Fair ...

. For their work in '' Last Winter'', they received a Magritte Award nomination in the category of Best Original Score.

Line-up

* Buni Lenski (violin) (1992–2006) * Simon Lenski (cello) (1992–2013) * Han Stubbe (clarinet) (1992–present) * Roel Van Camp (accordion) (1992–present) * Adrian Lenski (piano) (2001–2002) * Janek Kowalski (drums) (2001–2002) * Geert Budts (drums) (2004–2006) * Fré Madou (upright bass) (2004–2006) * Hannes D'Hoine (upright bass) (2006–present) * Jeroen Stevens (drums) (2013–present)

Discography

# ''Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung'' (1995) # ''We Need New Animals'' (1997) # ''Life Transmission'' (2001) # ''Richard of York Gave Battle in Vain'' (2002) # ''Ghost Tracks'' (2004) # ''Tub Gurnard Goodness'' (2004) # ''Domestic Wildlife'' (2006) # ''The Shepherd's Dream'' (2010) # ''Eight Definitions'' (2013) # ''Hineininterpretierung'' (2017)

Side-projects

* Simon Lenski with Bo Wiget * Bear Guts Quartet

References

External links

DAAU official Bandcamp pageDAAU on Discogs
{{Authority control Belgian experimental musical groups Belgian classical music groups Belgian instrumental musical groups Musical groups established in 1992 Belgian alternative rock groups Belgian progressive rock groups Belgian folk music groups Belgian jazz ensembles Belgian orchestras Belgian musical quartets Contemporary classical music performers Jazz fusion ensembles Avant-garde jazz ensembles