Nicolas Van Belle is a young Belgian guitarist who also plays the Greek string instruments – bouzouki and tzouras, and is known for exploring the less conventional practices on these instruments. He is known for his work with fellow Belgian experimental accordionist Stan Maris.
Einde Were is Van Belle’s experimental solo debut album, recorded in late 2024 at Zinnema in Brussels. It is a true DIY work. Van Belle is the sole player and composer, but he also designed the cover artwork (with visual artist Amber Verhulst) and printed himself the limited edition of 100 vinyl
Einde Were is a ten-movement suite consisting of carefully layered structures of bowed, detuned, and open-tuned electric guitar, classical guitar, bouzouki, and tzouras, with fragments of distorted spoken word. This genre-defying suite navigates freely between traditional and ancient, lyrical and melancholic, song-like sonic landscapes and intense, experimental, noisy sound-oriented soundscapes.
Van Belle says that the central theme of this album is as old as time itself. According to Van Belle, Einde Were suite seeks an emotional catharsis and a sense of purification, healing, and renewal, following a personal process of mourning, of leaving behind a world once known. It highlights Van Belle’s idiosyncratic sonic vision, and even without providing a comforting, emotional catharsis, it guarantees a captivating, thought-provoking listening experience.
Eyal Hareuveni
Nicolas Van Belle (guitars, bouzouki, tzouras, spoken word)
