mec yek
Mec Yek in concert at the Airbag Festival
Cultuurcentrum Brugge
Sint-Jakobsstraat 20
May 28, 2022
8:00 PM GMT+2
I Was There
Leave a Review
About this concert
Ergens halfweg de jaren '90 raakte Jaune Toujours-frontman Piet Maris in zigeunermiddens verzeild, waarna hij op- en afreisde naar Roma in Slovakije, om met zijn accordeon in aanslag opnames en notities te maken van de liederen die daar het leven van elke dag uitmaken. Dat veldwerk vormde de grondslag van Mec Yek : met de muzikanten van Jaune Toujours (Piet Maris, accordion & zang - Théophane Raballand, drum & percussie - Mathieu Verkaeren, contrabas - Mattias Laga, sopraansax & klarinet) werd het repertoire daarna stevig aangepakt, wars van om het even welke traditie. Het doet meer dan één zigeunerwenkbrauw fronsen, maar het werkt evengoed aanstekelijk bij jongere Roma. En zo kwam het ook dat bij de bisnummers aan het eind van een winters café-optreden in Gent twee jonge Romani zangeressen - Katia en Milka Pohlodkova - mee het podium opsprongen, om daarna nooit meer weg te gaan. De zigeunerspin-off van Jaune Toujours heet Mec Yek en hun nieuwste full album heet Taisa!
Net zoals het muzikale parcours van Mec Yek zit ook hun muziek vol verrassingen. Na SuperDiverCity van een aantal jaar geleden komen ze nu met een nieuw album Taisa, wat ‘morgen’ betekent. Het ‘mañana’ van de Roma, zeg maar. En het Covid-jaar 2020 zal bepalend blijken voor de sound van het nieuwe repertoire. Mec Yek ging voor een lichte, makkelijk verhuisbare set-up met percussie, zodat er Corona-veilig kon worden gerepeteerd op de meest uiteenlopende plaatsen: kort op de bal, in openlucht of in grote binnenruimtes, met de nodige afstand. Het merendeel van de opnames gebeurden trouwens ook op die manier, in de concertzaal van de VK in Molenbeek. Voor het repertoire zelf gingen Katia en Milka terug naar hun jeugd in Kosice in Slovakije, naar een demo met liedjes die ze samen met hun broers maakten. Maar er zijn ook eigengereide arrangementen van traditonele Roma-liederen. Er wordt gezongen in het Romanes, maar af en toe ook in het Russisch en zelfs een klein beetje in het Nederlands. Met een breed muzikaal palet, van tarantella over ska tot eilandenblues. Maar tegen alle verwachtingen in: Mec Yek is een zigeunergroep zonder viool.
Show More
Find a place to stay
Upcoming concerts from similar artists
Bandsintown Merch
Circle Hat
$25.0 USD
Live Collage Sweatshirt
$45.0 USD
Rainbow T-Shirt
$30.0 USD
Circle Beanie
$20.0 USD
Easily follow all your favorite artists by syncing your music
Sync Music
Share Event
mec yek Biography
Sometime midway through the 1990s, Piet Maris (frontman with the acclaimed Euro roots outfit Jaune Toujours)
began to make contact with gypsy musicians and, through their guidance and contacts, to travel regularly to a Roma
community in Slovakia. Through the latter, the ever curious musician learned their gypsy style of playing. Afterwards,
this repertoire was thoroughly reintepreted by the musicians of Jaune Toujours, who, in their usual fashion, began
pushing the music beyond the boundaries of tradition by adding their own musical flavours to the sound. At first, the
more traditionally-minded gyspies in the band’s audience frowned in astonishment at these changes but the sound
began to catch on with the younger Roma. The latter’s stamp of approval was, ultimately, given authority when two
young Roma singers - Katia and Milka Pohlodkova - joined the band on stage and never left… The gypsy
incarnation that has developed from Jaune Toujours is called Mec Yek and Super Diver City is their latest
recording.
Piet Maris: “When I look back, I’m pretty impressed with the itinerary we
embarked on together with Katia and Milka . From that first moment on stage,
when we had just fallen into each other’s cultures, as a manner of speaking, we
were still discovering our common identity and the way we deal with music. The
way we look at things, how we’re positioned in our lives, the differences but at
the same time the similarities between the cities we live in... Meanwhile, the
multicultural society has been declared dead – while I was thinking that we even
have not begun yet – up next came the declaration of “superdiversity”... All
those years at least we have worked together to present a valuable, authentic
alternative for the clichés that still surround the Roma, the gypsies.”
As you’d expect from Mec Yek’s origins, Super Diver City contains some musical
surprises: twelve tracks, nine particular arrangements of traditional Roma-songs, two
songs written by Katia and Milka and one Amy Winehouse-cover, translated into
Romanès. Some songs show minimal orchestration, other pull out all the stops (now
and then even with a Hammond organ). The band travels back to its nostalgic roots,
from the early years with the Roma in Slovakia, to more contemporary and urban dub,
ska, latin and soul. All nicely mixed together by Shazalakazoo, leading duo in Balkan
Beats from Belgrade, Serbia, who delivered already in 2010 some surprising remixes of
Jaune Toujours and Mec Yek tracks for the remix album RE:PLUGGED. But, against
all expectations: Mec Yek is a gypsy band without violin.
Read Morebegan to make contact with gypsy musicians and, through their guidance and contacts, to travel regularly to a Roma
community in Slovakia. Through the latter, the ever curious musician learned their gypsy style of playing. Afterwards,
this repertoire was thoroughly reintepreted by the musicians of Jaune Toujours, who, in their usual fashion, began
pushing the music beyond the boundaries of tradition by adding their own musical flavours to the sound. At first, the
more traditionally-minded gyspies in the band’s audience frowned in astonishment at these changes but the sound
began to catch on with the younger Roma. The latter’s stamp of approval was, ultimately, given authority when two
young Roma singers - Katia and Milka Pohlodkova - joined the band on stage and never left… The gypsy
incarnation that has developed from Jaune Toujours is called Mec Yek and Super Diver City is their latest
recording.
Piet Maris: “When I look back, I’m pretty impressed with the itinerary we
embarked on together with Katia and Milka . From that first moment on stage,
when we had just fallen into each other’s cultures, as a manner of speaking, we
were still discovering our common identity and the way we deal with music. The
way we look at things, how we’re positioned in our lives, the differences but at
the same time the similarities between the cities we live in... Meanwhile, the
multicultural society has been declared dead – while I was thinking that we even
have not begun yet – up next came the declaration of “superdiversity”... All
those years at least we have worked together to present a valuable, authentic
alternative for the clichés that still surround the Roma, the gypsies.”
As you’d expect from Mec Yek’s origins, Super Diver City contains some musical
surprises: twelve tracks, nine particular arrangements of traditional Roma-songs, two
songs written by Katia and Milka and one Amy Winehouse-cover, translated into
Romanès. Some songs show minimal orchestration, other pull out all the stops (now
and then even with a Hammond organ). The band travels back to its nostalgic roots,
from the early years with the Roma in Slovakia, to more contemporary and urban dub,
ska, latin and soul. All nicely mixed together by Shazalakazoo, leading duo in Balkan
Beats from Belgrade, Serbia, who delivered already in 2010 some surprising remixes of
Jaune Toujours and Mec Yek tracks for the remix album RE:PLUGGED. But, against
all expectations: Mec Yek is a gypsy band without violin.
Balkan
World
Gypsy
Follow artist