Southwards – Musique sans frontières
Flemish workers cross the border, French factories thrum and sigh. Southwards / Musique sans Frontières captures their sweat, their songs, and their homesickness in an explosion of Balkan, Klezmer, and poetry.
More about this project
At the end of the 19th century, thousands of Flemish workers migrated to France to work in the booming textile industry. Their lives were hard and their positions often precarious, partly due to the tense relationship between the Flemish and the French. Southwards / Musique sans Frontières sheds light on this working-class existence in a tragicomic, musical way.
The music of Dick Van der Harst brings jazz, classical sounds, and folk music together into compelling compositions, where large groups of musicians come to life as one. Lyrics by Marc Hauman, with his characteristic voice and poetic observations, give the stories extra power and emotion, full of nostalgia, irony, and social engagement.
The Orchestre International du Vetex Géant, founded by Ruben Deprez and Michaël De Schrijver, brings together Flemish, Walloon, and Northern French musicians who blend their diverse backgrounds into a mix of Balkan, Klezmer, Ska, Latino, and gypsy music. Singers include Sarah D’Hondt, Gvantsa Gvasalia, Marc Hauman, and Jean-Jacques Révillion.
This production is a collaboration between ‘Nouter Club and vzw Trefpunt, in partnership with Via Lactea, Flonflons Lille, and Vooruit, and is part of the European Interreg project 300 jaar grens.