Songs With Roots - Project

The world is filled with beautiful songs: lullabies, songs for celebration, songs of mourning, songs for harvesting or sowing, songs with quirky stories, and songs for the road. 

The new band Radio Lomax embarks on a quest to uncover hidden musical gems. Three stunning voices and two exceptional instrumentalists bring these songs to life. Their inspiration? Alan Lomax. His name may not ring a bell, but he spent his entire life traveling in search of the most beautiful songs, preserving them from oblivion. The result: a breathtaking archive of stories and songs that has inspired countless musicians. 

Every culture has its own songs, passed down from generation to generation. For this performance, electroacoustic composer and researcher Giulia Vismara and her students set out through the city of Brussels, searching for songs that arrived in Belgium through migration. Now, Radio Lomax brings these songs to you.

voice and keyboard Aline Goffin
voice Enice Mokamba & Amel Sdiri
trumpet, double bass and voice Bert Bernaerts
percussion and voice Tijl Piryns
song selection, arrangements, dialogues Jan Van Outryve
song collection, recordings, composition Giulia Vismara
resarch Hidde van Schie & Esther De Soomer, with the cooperation of Centre Culturel Alevi de Bruxelles, Fedasil (Petit Château/Klein Kasteeltje), Samusocial, Les Choux de Bruxelles & many more
costumes Harriet Wouters
light and technical design Mike Neyens
sound design Pieterjan Seynaeve
stage direction Wouter Van Looy
production Zonzo Compagnie
coproduction Bozar, Klarafestival, Musica 
with the support of the Flemish Community

As part of the BIG BANG Festival, the Opéra de Rouen Normandie and Zonzo Compagnie have been building a successful partnership for many years. A collaboration in the context of Songs with Roots was therefore bound to happen.

Barbara Jarque created video portraits of Rouen residents who once left their homeland for the Normandy capital: Iran, Poland, Romania, Turkey, ... Together with the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Rouen Normandie, Aline Goffin, Jan Van Outryve, Lieselot De Wilde, Mamadou Dramé & Sep François performed beautiful songs that enhanced these video portraits at the end of November 2024. A dream project.

Together with Concertgebouw Brugge, we went into the homes of Zeebruges residents in the spring of 2024 in search of special songs with a unique story. We looked into the homes and hearts of these people and talked about their childhood and their musical memories. In Songs with Roots, their songs and stories were transformed into a multimedia concert that was very close to the people and their stories. It became a strong interaction between five individual performers and the renowned string ensemble Bruges Bryggen Strings.

voice Lieselot De Wilde, Amel Sdiri & Aline Goffin
kora Mamadou Dramé
lute & arrangements Jan Van Outryve
drums Simon Segers
Bryggen Bruges Strings
video Bárbara Jarque
research Li Li Chong
end direction Wouter Van Looy

At the request of Deutsche Oper am Rhein (Germany), director and artistic director of Zonzo Compagnie Wouter Van Looy created a project that was rooted in the local community of Bruckhausen. Composer Jan Van Outryve looked for songs that travelled with the migration flows or were passed on by German culture; from Turkish lullabies via Romanian dances to the Steigerlied of the miners.

Documentary maker Annabel Verbeke and sound scaper Gedeon Depauw provided images and sounds that portray the neighbourhood and interact with the chosen songs. The performance took place in a UFO, a pop-up theatre developed by architecture collective Raumlabor Berlin.

vocals & performance Aleksandra Popovska
direction, scenography & concept Wouter Van Looy
arrangements & concept Jan Van Outryve
sound design Gedeon Depauw
video Annabel verbeke
dramaturgy Anna Grundmeier