Before Aksak Maboul (documents & experiments 1969-1977) by Aksak Maboul, released 21 November 2025
- Here and Now, a Free Rock Tentet
- Riot in the Solbosch
- Abstract and Concrete
- Five Sketches for a Short Film
- Lost in the Farmhouse
- Modular Excursions at John’s
- Kosmischer Afternoon
- The Big Slide
- Gyrovagations
- Imaginary Travels with Chris
- Proto-Kefak
- Didn’t Make It 1: Balinoid
- Didn’t Make It 2: Angeloid
- Java Ney
- Didn’t Make It 3: The Missing Dance
Retrieved from long-forgotten reel-to-reel tapes and cassettes, this collection of prehistorical traces unveils some of the meanders which eventually led to the inception of legendary experimental pop outfit Aksak Maboul, founded in 1977 and still active in 2025.
A bildungsroman of sorts, the story begins in 1969, when 19-year-old Marc Hollander and Paolo Radoni form a band to play a strange mixture of psych rock and free jazz. Called Here and Now (no connection to the later UK band of the same name), the band soon becomes a wild tentet and, after winning an amateur contest and being involved in the whirlwind around the mythical Amougies festival, lands a record deal with then-prestigious French label BYG Records (but ends up not releasing anything).
More musicians join the collective (including future Aksak Maboul members Vincent Kenis and Denis Van Hecke), which dissolves in 1972.
From 1973 to 1977, Marc Hollander engages in a series of solo recordings and collabs, in which further threads which will make up the fabric of Aksak Maboul’s music are explored.
In the course of seventeen tracks and 80 minutes* of music nurtured by the fertile upheavals of that era, we are taken for a stroll through moments of free rock, improv, quasi-kraut, modular and ambient electronics, piano pieces, percussion and various experiments and sketches, which hint at what Aksak Maboul later became, and at what it has not (but could have) become…
*on the digital and CD versions. Two tracks, as well as the two additional excerpts of a 1969 live set by Here and Now, are left out of the vinyl format.
All tracks recorded in and around Brussels, 1969-1977
Assembled & edited by Marc Hollander, 2025
Restored and mastered by Stephan Mathieu at Schwebung Mastering
Featuring Marc Hollander, Vincent Kenis, Paolo Radoni, Chris Joris, Pico Berkowitch,
Denis Van Hecke, Stefan Liberski, Somore Sainte-Jules, John Van Rymenant and others.
Track listing
- Here and Now, a Free Rock Tentet (1969)
- Riot in the Solbosch (1970)
- Abstract and Concrete (1972)
- Five Sketches for a Short Film (1972)
- Lost in the Farmhouse (1973)
- Modular Excursions at John’s (1975)
- Kosmischer Afternoon (1975)
- The Big Slide (1976)
- Gyrovagations (1976)
- Imaginary Travels with Chris (1976)
- Proto-Kefak (1976)
- Didn’t Make It 1: Balinoid (1977)
- Didn’t Make It 2: Angeloid (1977)
- Java Ney (1977)
- Didn’t Make It 3: The Missing Dance (1977)
plus two more excerpts of the 1969 live set by Here and Now:
- Freeform Rock/Captain Crab/Softly Sometime
- Sérénade de Paris/Miracle Fence
Aksak Maboul in brief
AM hasn’t stopped changing shape and form throughout its existence, playfully mixing and exploring various musical genres (from rock, electronic and experimental to jazz, contemporary classical, pop & non-western) to create its own sonic world, with its distinctive aesthetics and musical foundations.
Aksak Maboul was initiated in 1977 by Marc Hollander, soon joined by Vincent Kenis. AM’s first two albums are considered avant-garde classics to this day, a status reconfirmed by the reception of their recent vinyl reissues. Hollander set up the Crammed Discs label in 1980, as an extension of the polymorphous AM approach.
Aksak Maboul went into hiatus for three decades, and came back to life in 2014 with the release of Ex-Futur Album, a collection of unfinished avant-pop songs written & recorded in 1980-83 by Hollander & Véronique Vincent. A new live band was formed at that point, and toured around Europe, appearing a.o. at festivals such as Primavera Sounds Barcelona and Le Guess Who? Marc Hollander & Véronique Vincent wrote, recorded and released two acclaimed new AM albums, Figures (2020) and Une Aventure de VV (Songspiel) (2023). A sixth album is currently in the works.
Aksak Maboul Before Aksak Maboul (Documents & Experiments 1969-1977)
LP, CD & digital, out on CrammedLab, 21 November 2025
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