Dat Ik Zingen Moet!

Since forming in 2007, this young Flemish ensemble, intent on leading listeners musically through the Dutch-speaking region ‘from Amsterdam, via Ghent and Ypres in Calais’, have triumphed at pretty much every folk club and festival in Flanders. They also caused quite a kerfuffle at last year’s English Folk Expo in Bury, and when we last heard from them, they were leading us astray with their ‘Laat ons Drinken’ (Let’s Have a Drink) on their second collection. With a title here that translates as ‘For I Must Sing!’ it’s only fitting then that the original quartet have swelled their ranks with vocalists Jonas Cole (who performs under the pseudonym Mr Jones, and is a part of the a capella Brussels Vocal Project) and Hanneke Oosterlijnck (well- known in Flemish folk circles for Folgazán, GFVP and RedCoat).

The vocal arrangements and harmonies are truly outstanding, from the opening ‘Wij Boeren En Boerinnen’ (another song about drinking) onwards. Meanwhile, musically, their striking combination of such traditional instruments as bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy and dulcimer is sufficiently subtle and modern sounding, which immediately banishes any suggestion of a mere drunken singalong.