The Nights are coming!

Once again, Les Nuits Botanique are upon us. The alternative music festival ranks among the most prestigious indoor musical events in Europe, if not the world. Quite right too, we say

You won’t find Les Nuits Botanique among the laureates of the Festival Awards – and in any case, you have to enter if you want to stand any chance of winning. No, the appeal of this 10-day musical extravaganza is not commercial but artistic. Not for nothing have the likes of London psych-prog collective Archive and Irish singer-songwriter Perry Blake released live albums recorded at Les Nuits. When Nottingham melancholy merchants Tindersticks decided to celebrate their 10 years of existence, their first thought was to contact the festival’s organisers. (Could they be tempted to toast the 20th anniversary of the release of their first album at Botanique next year? You read it here first.)

What a pity, then, that the official blurb on the Botanique website doesn’t do justice to its flagship event. “A festival that makes discovering and reinforcing musical careers its top priority”, it proclaims. As mission statements go, this one is as vague as it is non-committal. Imagine a restaurateur purporting to specialise in groundbreaking, innovative recipes... oh, and French classics. Maybe the other tagline featured on the same page, “11 days of music discovery in five venues”, is more apt.

Founded in 1995, Les Nuits Botanique is a festival in a league of its own. As the name suggests, it takes place across four of the Botanique’s numerous venues (Orangerie, Rotonde, Chapiteau and Grand Salon), but also at its sister venue, the particularly grand Cirque Royal. The eclectic line-up – more than 50 local and international acts in total – encompasses (almost) every shade of modern alternative music: from indie guitar pop to electro via post rock and even new folk.

Unsurprisingly for a festival with its finger on the proverbial pulse, several gigs are already sold out. Fans of Canada’s Chilly Gonzales, Britain’s Django Django or US act the Rapture will have to think of something creative to procure tickets. That leaves more than 40 concerts for which tickets are available, however, and the 2012 edition of Les Nuits is more eclectic than ever.
The opening night (May 10) sees Londoners Bombay Bicycle Club play the Chapiteau (supported by Simpsons-referencing Belgian outfit Malibu Stacy) while over at the Cirque Royal, Manchester’s the Ting Tings will be presenting their ‘difficult second album’, Sounds From Nowheresville, no doubt throwing in their earlier hits (That’s Not My Name, Great DJ) for good measure.

On May 12, the Chapiteau welcomes the Divine Comedy. Billed as “An Evening with Neil Hannon”, the concert will give the genial Ulsterman – a Botanique alumnus – the opportunity to revisit the Divine Comedy’s back catalogue in an acoustic format. Here’s hoping he goes back in time and gives intimate renditions of early gems such as Queen of the South, Bernice Bobs Her Hair or Your Daddy’s Car. Test Match Special listeners, meanwhile, may wish for the inclusion of material from his 2009 cricket-themed side project, the Duckworth-Lewis Method.

Belgian post-rock exponents V.O. play the Cirque Royal on May 17 (supporting French/American outfit Woodkid). Led by the irrepressibly versatile Boris Gronemberger, they have a brand new album (On Rapids) to promote, and to be able to do so in such prestigious surroundings is no mean feat. The venue’s excellent acoustics will provide the perfect foil for the Brussels sextet’s atmospheric, imaginary film music. Well, V.O. does stand for version originale...

German electro duo Mouse On Mars will light up the Orangerie on May 19, reminding connoisseurs of Intelligent Dance Music (now an officially recognised genre, apparently) why they have been leading the field since the mid-1990s. Their concerts, like those by fellow Düsseldorfers – and techno pioneers – Kraftwerk, tend to put paid to the notion that electronic music does not belong on a stage. The addition of drummer Dodo Nkishi to the live set-up will undoubtedly give a new dimension to old favourites (Distroia) as well as latest opus Parastrophics.

It is of course impossible to preview, within the confines of one article, every single one of the 50-odd acts appearing this year, but every night is chock-a-block with international talent. Les Nuits also features a healthy dose of French-language artists – as you would expect from a festival taking place in the Centre Culturel de la Communauté Française. Tickets are selling fast for concerts by French acts Dominique A and Daniel Darc, as well as Malian superstars Amadou & Mariam who these days are accustomed to rubbing shoulders with the likes of Blur’s Damon Albarn and Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears.

Homegrown acts, too, will feature heavily throughout the festival; not as a concession to its location, but rather as a testament to the quality and success of the current crop of Belgian artists. Flying the flag for Belgium are, in no particular order, Goose, Great Mountain Fire, Sarah Carlier, the Experimental Tropic Blues Band, Absynthe Minded, Hoquets, Intergalactic Lovers and many others.
To call the line-up of Les Nuits eclectic is a massive understatement. Artistic director Paul-Henri Wauters has been booking bands at Botanique since 1988, and is understandably proud of “his” baby. Les Nuits is not the first of its kind in Europe, but it has become a heavyweight of the alternative music circuit in Europe. “Each city, each venue gives a festival a different vibe,” he explains. “I suppose you could say that the Printemps de Bourges [the groundbreaking French festival launched in 1977] was an inevitable influence when we started, but there is an unmistakable identity about Les Nuits, a vibe that cuts right through the genres.” Given its ever-growing success, could the festival be expanded by taking in more locations and lasting longer? “The only expansion we are interested in is in terms of quality,” Wauters replies flatly.

The high standards he has maintained throughout his tenure are largely responsible for his position of joint president of De Concert! (also known as the International Festivals Federation), a grouping that unashamedly places artistic quality over crass commercialism. Eliciting succinct answers to specific questions from such a passionate man is nigh-on impossible. Still, when asked which concert from the previous 18 editions best symbolises the essence of the festival, Wauters takes his time – this is a man who has booked literally thousands of acts – before finally opting for last year’s tour de force by Icelandic maverick Björk at the Cirque Royal. An unpredictable, entertaining, genre-hopping eccentric – how fitting.

LES NUITS 2012

May 10-21

www.botanique.be/en/les-nuits