Tristan Driessens: oud, lavta, vocals, arrangments, artistic direction, Eugénie De Mey: vocals, Raphaël De Cock: vocals, bagpipes, Jew’s harp, Harald Bauweraerts: hurdy-gurdy, Miriam Encinas Lafitte: vielle, dilruba, medieval flutes, frame drums, Dick van der Harst: percussion, arrangments, Pierre Hamon: medieval flutes, bagpipes, Michalis Kouloumis: violin, viola, Michaël Grébil: medieval lute, lavta, cetera, bowed cittern, vielle, Afghan rebab.
AWARDS
World Music Charts Europe Top 20, February / March 2023
Flanders Folk Awards “Best Album”, February 2024
PRESS
**** Multicultural medieval meanderings from Belgium. Songlines Magazine # 186 (UK) 2023
**** A pan-European folk album that covers a very wide range. Heaven #2 (NL) 2023
In their arrangements, they explicitly engage in dialogue between south and east. Muziek Mozaïek Folk & Jazz #1, 2023
A musical feast that demonstrates from start to finish how much music can cross any man-made boundary. Rootstime (BE) 29/03/2023
Old Flemish and Eastern folk music with a strong passion for Wannes Van de Velde. Muzikzine, 28/03/2023
An exciting journey back in time and certainly a lot of sounds to (re)discover for many of us. JazzMania (BE) 17/03/2023
Especially thanks to the strong, complex and varied arrangements, this recreation of Van der Velde’s songs turns out beautifully. MixedWorldMusic (NL) 27/02/2023
This album should already be on the list of the best albums of this year. Musik Global (DE), 13/01/2023
Toasaves excels in sublime instrument control, coherent performances and vigorous ensemble playing. Music Frames (BE), 11/01/2023
As to how to connect (musical) worlds, this ensemble clearly has what it takes! New Folk Sounds (NL), 08/01/2023
Pleasant surprise from Belgian music collective. Keys and Chords (NL), 28/12/2022
I know that nowadays it is fashionable to be cosmopolitan and to combine the cultures of different landscapes, but only a few manage to realize all this with such inspiration as the Toasaves band. Ekultura (HU), 23/12/2022
A truly timeless and boundless beauty. De Subjectivisten (NL), 20/12/2022
DESCRIPTION
On their first critically acclaimed album “Zwerver” (wanderer in Dutch), Toasaves starts from the compositions and the ‘Groot Liedboek’ by Wannes van de Velde (1937-2008), the singer-songwriter who blew new life into the oldest surviving ballads and litanies in his home port of Antwerp. Tristan Driessens wrote new arrangements of both anonymous medieval songs and original work by Van de Velde. It goes without saying that an eclectic dialogue with the East, which runs like a red thread through Driessens’ career, was not missing. It ties in with the nomadic spirit and openness of Wannes van de Velde, and reveals and reinforces the primal power of the early music repertoires.
The Toasaves’ exceptionally rich and rare set of instruments fulfills a connecting function. Thanks to virtuoso performances on traditional instruments from East and West – Medieval flutes, drums, cisterns and fiddles, Oriental violin, Turkish lutes (lavta and ‘ûd) and frame drums (daf, bendir, pandero cuadrado), hurdy-gurdy, Flemish and Irish bagpipes, Indian dilruba and bansuri, Afghan rebab, Persian santur, … – new light is shed on the actual source of musical traditions that, separated in time and space, often contain the same poetic and musical secrets. Starting from the folk repertoire of Wannes van de Velde, the travelling companions surprise us by mixing it with early music, traditional dance music from the Greek islands, classical court music (makam) from Istanbul and even folk music from Afghanistan.
