Absynthe Minded

Absynthe Minded originally was a one-man band, being musician-singer-composer Bert Ostyn. He started off in 1999 with recording More Than This on 8-track in a 5 to 4 bedroom in Ghent (Belgium), with modest songs in a moderate rock genre.

The opportunity to record some material in a studio brought forth Mushroom Holiday (2000). On that demo other musicians collaborated with Ostyn for the first time, which led later on to the forming of a band called Tao Tse Tse. Ostyn's third demo, Krankenhaus Hotel, was recorded in a noisy apartment bedroom again, on a Tascam four track.

The first band-demo was called Sweet Oblivion (2002); the band itself was renamed Absynthe Minded Quartet. Under that name, they played in almost every bar in the country and did a lot of support acts too, e.g. for Spinvis and Zita Swoon.

2003 saw the release of their first official effort, the History makes Science Fiction EP, released on the Keremos label. The musicians were the same as before: Renaud Ghilbert, Sergej van Bouwel and Jan Duthoy. In came drummer Jakob Nachtergaele, playing the drums and woodblocks on one song. Nevertheless, Absynthe Minded dropped the 'Quartet' and became somewhat different, changing the way they played.

Their debut full length album, Acquired Taste, was released in 2004 on that same Keremos label and EMI Belgium, was produced by Geoffrey Burton and contained 14 songs.

New Day was recorded in the end of january 2005 and was produced by legendary producer Jean-Marie Aerts. After touring Belgium and the Netherlands, they recorded 16 songs and released the album in March in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands. That summer, New Day was also to be released in Portugal. From this album came Absynthe Minded's first single, My Heroics, Part One, which got much airplay, hit the charts and got a place in some 'all time greatest' lists. During recording this song, the best takes appeared to have a too low volume level. The resulting noise is definitly one of the song's charms.

In 2007 Absynthe Minded has recorded their next album, There Is Nothing. It's as they say a more up-front piece of art. The album has some great tracks including Stuck In Reverse and Let's Be Radical .