Onze Danses Pour Combattre La Migraine

In the spring of 1977, two young Belgian musicians who call themselves Aksak Maboul (aka Marc Hollander & Vincent Kenis) set out to record an album, Onze danses pour combattre la migraine, in which they playfully fused and deconstructed all kinds of genres to create their own musical world. Three years later, Hollander founded the Crammed label. Many ingredients came in and out of the Aksak blender : fake jazz, electronics, imaginary African & Balkan music, minimalism... there were even pre-techno aspects such in as Saure Gurke and its characteristic keyboard stab pattern which will mysteriously find its way into many classic Detroit techno tracks some ten years later. Onze Danses became a cult album, and seems retrospectively to have mapped out the way for the various directions which have been explored by Crammed during the next two decades.

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“One of the jewels in the crown of new European music... Intimist and mischievous, bouncy and velvety, brimming with inventiveness” (Le Monde de la Musique, France, ‘78)

“Moving from traditional dance motifs to modern musical riddles, the result simply defy any attempts at pigeon-holing.... music for your body, your head and your heart” (Time Out, UK, ‘81)

“One of the most beautiful records ever produced... Aksak Maboul brought together every musical material which Europe had to offer, which resulted in a perfect, fresh and unusual masterpiece” (Tip, Germany, ‘82)

“It’s like an initiatic and ironic journey in the land of Marc Hollander and Vincent Kenis, barely escaped from the asylum of Common Sense” (Libération, France, ‘80)