By Marc Vandemoortele

After his dashing start in our concert hall twenty years ago, Wouter Vandenabeele is also preparing for the current festive season with his new ensemble Hiraeth. For this, he travelled around the Méditerranée for three months, in search of like-minded souls and the universal feeling of melancholy. It promises to be a sparkling and heart-warming concert.

You know Wouter Vandenabeele from groups like Ambrozijn and Olla Vogala. He is also the man behind the 'Fiddlers on the move' festival in Ghent. There he invites violinists from all over Europe; friends by now, whom he met during his many travels.

He himself always sought the trance of intensive playing together, hours of jams and discussions about music over a good glass of wine. In this way, many plans were forged and groups formed. This experience led him to set up workshops, where interesting violinists come to share their music and expertise with other violinists. That he thereby puts folk violinists in the spotlight is a happy by-product; they too often remain under the radar.

Three months of travelling with Hiraeth

This summer, he embarked on a three-month concert tour across Europe. That undertaking, too, is the result of that same 'network of the violin'. Friends each contacted other musicians and each planned a part of one big concert tour.

It was full of concerts, interviews, jams and meetings with musicians. The result is a summer project full of surprising music, each time for a different audience.

read their full travel report on the blog

In search of melancholy

As a central theme, Wouter chose a 'search for melancholy'. Because melancholy is first and foremost something that has always attracted him, but also because he senses the same sensitivities among fellow violinists everywhere.

'Happiness is apparently difficult to capture in a melody or a song, it is not so easy to express the feeling of 'contentment' in a melody line. People consciously seek melancholy in order to obtain catharsis. You get strength from listening to sad music.'

Hiraeth is a term from the Welsh language, meaning homesickness. It includes pain, from the loss of a past or an ideal situation from the past. Such melancholy and dreaming of a better world is of all musical styles. And there is a lot of violin music that refers to traditions from the past, music that builds on a musical fact from the past.

With his project, Vandenabeele takes the time to delve into that melancholy. Through one musician, he gets to know other artists from the same region. There is time to meet, to interview, to play together, to set up something together.

The land of repentance

The concert tour goes around Europe, with many stops in the Balkans and the Mediterranean world. Especially in Southern Europe, all kinds of ritual forms of 'trauma treatment' are traditionally known. There, you will find many styles of lamentations, poems of sorrow and lamentations in which people sing their suffering. This is how people deal with death, having to say goodbye or remembering the past. 

They are tried and tested ways of coping with grief, especially vocally but also instrumentally. Music that serves to come to terms with life. An Italian musicologist, in his famous book, speaks of 'the land of repentance'.

Questions in many languages

Wouter conducted many interviews during the trip. Many questions come back: which music made an impression when you learned to play music, which world opened up thanks to that music? What made you decide to become a musician? And then the question why this melancholy always creeps in, consciously or unconsciously. When man has a problem, he often enough seeks solace in music.

Hiraeth is a long-drawn-out feast of encounter, of many languages, dialects and local violin styles. In this way, Wouter encountered small population groups that have a special bond with their past. 

• The Arbëreshë, an Albanian minority that has lived for centuries in the South of Italy and on Sicily.
• Or the Pontic Greeks, the former Greeks of the Black Sea coasts who are scattered over many countries, and partly ended up in Greece, as a small minority with their own ancient language. 
• Or the Greek colonies in the south of Italy, minorities who remain faithful to their language and their musical styles, and continue to nourish their melancholy. 

They cherish a dreamed motherland, and they continue the musical traditions. And every time, it turns out that every language or dialect has its own music. The differences may be subtle, but every language sings differently. It is a fascinating journey to begin to recognise those differences.

Return with concert

At the end of September Wouter Vandenabeele arrives back in Ghent, with next to his souvenirs a car trunk full of photos, movies, music recordings, books and much more. You will hear all about it at the concert in De Ha on Friday 30 September, with various old and new friends on stage. At the time of writing, the list is not yet complete but expect two Slovenians, a Pontic Greek and singers from Greece, Italy, Albania and Spain.

That's where Hiraeth's big tour ends. The violin network has only grown, and a three-month trip has provided inspiration and plans for years to come.

Are you coming?

FRI 30 SEPT '22 at 20h15
Hiraeth with Wouter Vandenabeele
In search of the melancholic soul

Or attend the concert for children, with veggie spaghetti as a happy meal afterwards!

FRI 30 SEPT '22 at 17h45
The Family Melancholy * for young ears (families)
Musical tour around the Mediterranean Sea with Wouter Vandenabeele and his companions