Dear Darkening Ground

Natashia Kelly
Sat 04/02/2023 - 20:00

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€ 15 - check our reductions

As Jazz Impuls laureate, Natashia Kelly is performing in Leuven with her Dear Darkening Ground project. This has resulted in a new album with WERF Records. She uses a special concept: man’s place in nature. She is surrounded by the best musicians from the Belgian jazz scene.

For Dear Darkening Ground, Kelly was inspired by poets such as R.M. Rilke and W.B. Yeats, who were already writing about man's place in nature over a century ago: will he remain part of it, or will profit prevail? Those words turned out to be prophetic. It motivated her to work with lyrics that reflect a changing zeitgeist: on the one hand, a warning about the danger that a flawed relationship between man and nature can entail. On the other hand, a hopeful message: things can be different.

It results in music that brings a message full of poetry in these turbulent times. She can count on some heavyweights of Belgian jazz: Ruben Machtelinckx is one of our most interesting guitarists and is on the cusp between improvisation and contemporary experiment. Pianist Nicola Andrioli played alongside Philip Catherine, among others, and is a master of lyricism. Bassist Yannick Peeters impressed with her international dream project GingerBlackGinger. Dré Pallemaerts is simply an indispensable kingpin within the Belgian music world.

The musicians are anchored in jazz, but use pop and folk influences as well. They play with panache and refinement, in tune with the voice and lyrics, which are in the foreground more than ever, but at the same time form a perfect blend with the music. Dear Darkening Ground remains open and accessible, seeks hope and goes straight to the heart.

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with Dré Pallemaerts (drums), Ruben Machtelinckx (acoustic guitar), Yannick Peeters (double bass), Nicola Andrioli (acoustic piano), Natashia Kelly (vocals, compositions and lyrics) photo Bas Verbruggen

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