Belgian news of interest

1. Yesterday I got some long-awaited awaited news via press release: Rêve d'Eléphant Orchestra are to release their second album soon, again on De Werf. Unfortnately, it sports a terrible title: Lobster Caravan (ouch). On the positive side, the 3 drummer/percussionists, tuba, guitar, trumpet and flute line-up has remained and been augmented by keyboardist Jozef Dumoulin. Their first album, Racines du Ciel was an awesome, idiosyncratic and fun mix of improvisation, Indian music, jazz, catchy tunes and general bizzarery. De Werf had a good year in 2001, an excellent one in 2002 (with the 10-CD Finest in Belgian Jazz series), but released 3 generally unremarkable CDs in 2003. Their first 2004 CD was equally lacklustre. I hope that Lobster Caravan sparks a return to form.

2. SABAM (the Belgian music-related royalty-collecting institution) will now be handling royalty-collecting for Universal Music's operations in 18 European countries.