DAAU // Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung

HOW IT ALL BEGAN
For those who have only just discovered DAAU’s music with ‘The Shepherd’s Dream’, let’s take you on a trip down memory lane. The band came about in the early nineties as a part of the fertile Antwerp scene which has also generated the likes of dEUS and Zita Swoon. Brothers Simon and Buni Lenski (on cello and violin respectively), Han Stubbe (on clarinet) and Roel Van Camp (on accordeon), all classically trained, were still in their teens by then, but with their predominantly acoustic music they immediately stumbled upon a sound of their own. They played their instruments with a rock attitude and a gypsy spirit, and from the word go improvisation became essential for their method of composing. Their band name, Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung, was taken from ‘Steppenwolf’, a novel by Herman Hesse, first published in 1927.
The four piece made its debut in 1995 with an untitled album on the tiny Jack & Johnny label, but pretty soon was offered an international record deal by Sony Classical. This company would later re­release the first cd in a different packaging. The tongue twisting bandname got abbreviated to DAAU and on its second album, ‘We Need New Animals’ (‘97), recorded with the assistance of Michael Brook, the group showed a different face altogether. It introduced hyperkinetic electro beats and the voices of Angélique Willkie (previously of Zap Mama) and An Pierlé. This experimental approach was not exactly what Sony Classical had in mind, which explains why DAAU eventually moved to Columbia.
On ‘Life Transmission’ (2001), Lenski brother number three, piano player Adrian, joined the ranks and the group started flirting with dub, funk, distortion and programming. For ‘Mary Go Round’ DAAU even brought in singer Ya Kid K of Technotronic fame. On other tracks some of the band members had a go at singing themselves. With the concerts of that period in mind, the line­up was temporarily invigorated by drummer Janek Kowalski.
Following the release of ‘Ghost Tracks’, a collection of rarities, the group more or less went back to its acoustic roots with ‘Tub Gurnard Goodness’ (‘04). On the cd it also made some stylistic excursions to reggae and came up with a remarkable cover of Radiohead’s ‘2+2=5’. ‘Domestic Wildlife’ (‘06) was to show a more energetic and exuberant nature: through the addition of drummer Geert Budts and double bass player Fré Madou the band grew into a full­fledged sextet and now juggled with real rock grooves and jazzy colourings. Shortly after finishing the recording, Madou was replaced by Hannes d’Hoine. Buni Lenski would eventually make his way to the exit too, as he was about to move from Antwerp to Paris.
In order to guarantee their artistic independence, in the early noughties the members of DAAU decided to start a small record label of their own,
called Radical Duke Entertainment. It was to become an outlet for albums by bands such as Dez Mona, Wild Ox Moan and the Belgian­Icelandic Mogil.
From the very start DAAU took pride in its reputation for being an exciting live band. The musicians toured extensively in Europe, made quite an impression at prominent festivals in France, Switzerland, Hungary and Scandinavia and even gigged in Russia and Taiwan. Between the acts, all members of DAAU moonlighted in other bands: Roel Van Camp was (and still is) part of Dez Mona, Simon Lenski made an experimental cello record with Bo Wiget (‘Die Vögelein schweigen im Walde’) and entered into an alliance with the ladies of vocal trio Laïs (‘LaïsLenski’). Together with Han Stubbe he was also involved with Prima Donkey and Donkey Diesel.
In its current line­up as a four piece DAAU played a significant role on ‘The Dark Age of Love’, a tribute album by This Immortal Coil, and in ‘Archipels Nitrate’, a film by Claudio Pazienza.
In the course of its career DAAU worked intensively with French electrodub band Ez3kiel and Danish folk noir duo Murder. A show with the latter at the Danish Spot festival in 2008 made a huge impression on journalist David Fricke of American music mag Rolling Stone, who called it one of the weekend’s highlights.
In 2010 DAAU is to write the beginning of a new chapter with ‘The Shepherd’s Dream’, a bucolic album that demonstates in the most convincing manner that, creatively, the band is still alive and kicking.