Alkalin Cocek (Roel Poriau) - Orchestre International du Vetex

The Orchestre International du Vetex started up in february 2004. Two professional Flemish (Belgian Dutch-speaking) musicians, Ruben Deprez and Michaël De Schrijver, gathered volunteers in the deprived neighbourhood of Venning-Veemarkt in Kortrijk (Belgium) to create a festive brassband for the yearly Spanish ‘Fiesta Mestiza’ in the old building of the knitting factory Vetex. Next to the locals of Kortrijk, they also found musicians in the french-speaking part of Belgium, Wallonia, ánd across the French border in Lille. The international orchestre of the Vetex was created and was proud to be able to make music within such a big social and cultural mixture of people and backgrounds.

From the first concert on at the Fiesta Mestiza, the Orchestre International du Vetex stole the hearts of many people. They were invited to other festivals, events, neighbourhood parties...in Flanders, Wallonia and France. Until today they played at more than 60 events like Dranouter folkfestival, Cactusfestival, La Noche... They even went of for 10 days to the south of France during the summer of 2005. All these gigs encouraged the feeling of friendship between the band members and led to a sound more compact and professional after summer.

In may 2005 the Orchestre released a first album ‘Le Beau Bazar’ which contains 12 exciting tracks. A kind of bizar French-Flemish mixture of catchy balkanmusic, energetic gypsie and streetmusic, ska, polka, java, latino... But beside the up-tempo extravert themes, the album also offers space for some more intimistic and sillent songs (like Licht a.u.b. = Light please). The DVD ‘Les Beaux Temps’ then again is like a little road-movie from the ‘Vetex on the road’.

With the support of the crossingborder project ‘PassPartout’ (Interreg), the Orchestre International du Vetex is getting to obtain a solid place in Flanders, Wallonia and the North of France. The recepy is simple and clear: French, Flemish and Walloons make music without complexes and show us a way to turn the anxiety for the ‘unknown’ and differences between cultures into a statement of respect and creativity.

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