Anton Walgrave has taken some interesting turns in his career. His 2000 debut album ‘The Hum’ was acclaimed by the press and knowing fans. The CD was recorded in London and produced by Kevin Armstrong, who had already worked with great names like David Bowie, Youssou N’Dour, Morrissey, and more.|In 2003 there was ‘’Before the dawn’, a dark, haunting CD perfectly combining strong songwriting and tasteful electronics. The single ‘Awake’ enjoyed a lot of radio airplay and made it onto several compilations. Flanders’ biggest girl group Scala even took it as far as Japan. More than enough good reviews, again and again hearty applause from those in the know. Anton played live, and every time he was convincing.|But a real performer always wants to go deeper and wider. Walgrave did what he had to do: write songs, scrap songs, rewrite songs and scrap some more songs. Day in, day out, rain or shine. Week after week, month after month. Lots of songs.|And then more work, to make good songs into great songs.|The great songs caught the attention of Frank Vander linden. Although he’d won prizes for outstanding production work on De Mens Cds, Vander linden had never dared to produce any one else’s work yet. But Walgrave’s compositions twisted his arm, his voice gave him shivers and the man’s passion was simply contagious.|Thus, they got down to work together, starting in May of 2005. Day in, day out, rain or shine, week after week. Songs fell by the wayside, refrains were halved, verses turned upside down, and every unnecessary note was ruthlessly scrapped.|Out of a mass of raw songs, twelve made the cut, each one just right – à point, with the compliments of the chef.|An elite team was put together to put these twelve songs onto CD. Michel ‘Shelle’ Dierickx, who had just made ‘Pocket revolution’ with dEUS and had been honoured for it in the media by Barman, recorded and mixed everything. Mario Goossens (Hooverphonic, Triggerfinger,…) played drums. The bass parts were shared by Hans Mullens (Buscemi,…) and fellow ‘Mens’ Michel De Coster. Aram Van Ballaert and Geoffrey Hautvas played guitar. The rest was done by Anton and Frank themselves.
The result is absolutely first class. Only seven days of mixing (in Brussels’ ICP Studio) were needed to finish the job. And, as Walgrave would say, ‘het vonkt!’ (it sparks!) It rocks, it moves you, seduces you, bites you, soothes and hits you. It has ‘it’.|And ‘it’ is a new CD with twelve extraordinary songs, of which ‘Lost Soul’ became the single. We dare say that ‘Lost Soul’ may be one of the best songs of 2006. The full CD, entitled Shine, will be released on 3 April 2006. The album presentation will be on 4 April in Het Depot in Leuven. There are rumours that the breakthrough to the larger public won’t have much longer to wait. |
