- A legendary post-punk tape reemerges.
- The scene: downtown Brussels 1979. Michel Duval and Annik Honoré, a pair of arts journalists and scenesters, are running nights at Plan K, a salon-style arts venue. Honoré had a connection with Joy Division, and they had booked the band to play, along with Cabaret Voltaire, supporting legendary beat-author William S. Burroughs. Joy Division's international debut went down in history as the first gig where they performed the perennial anti-anthem "Love Will Tear Us Apart."
The following spring, more of the Factory Records camp—A Certain Ratio, The Durutti Column and Section 25—played Plan K on Duval and Honore's invitation. This time label founder Tony Wilson came along for the ride, and Plan K formed a strong bond with his roster. Around the same time, a Belgian new wave outfit called The Names signed with Factory. It was quickly agreed that Duval and Honoré would run point on Factory Benelux, seizing the opportunity to, in the label's words, "release 'spare' recordings by Factory artists, and provide the Manchester label with an entrée into Continental Europe."
At the same time, Honoré and Duval came together with designer Benoît Hennebert, and a new label was born: Les Disques du Crépuscule. Crépuscule means "twilight," and the first release was a cassette compilation, From Brussels With Love. The tightly curated cassette encapsulated the very best in experimental pop, ambient, proto-balearic, post-punk and new wave sounds. It quickly sold over 6,000 copies in Europe. Writing in NME, Paul Morley called it "a masterpiece of distinctly northern European post-punk eclecticism." It was an exciting indicator of what would appear on the label the following year.
Filtering the best of '80s avant-pop through their suave, Euro-centric lens, Crépuscule went on to outlive Factory, open another venue and set up in Japan. Their releases became widely regarded as a symbol of sophisticated, eclectic quality. They released dozens of landmark records, such as Antena's Camino Del Sol or Anna Domino's self-titled album, both of which have been re-popularised in recent years by selector DJs.
Ever wonder who The Durutti Column wrote "For Belgian Friends" for? One of the band's most Balearic tracks, cherished by fans today, was written as a homage to Honoré around 1980. Somehow it didn't make it onto the compilation back then, but Crépuscule has included it as part of a sprawling reissue of From Brussels With Love, released for the label's 40th anniversary at the end of 2020.
There are three unique, remastered versions of this reissue, across tape, vinyl and CD. The superlative one is the double-CD edition, presented inside a 60-page hardback book with a new disc of tracks that didn't make the original, including "For Belgian Friends" and two additional cuts from The Names, plus music by Polyphonic Size, Josef K, Tuxedomoon and Digital Dance, who released on Crépuscule over the following years.
Experiencing the compilation with 40 years' hindsight is a remarkable privilege. The aesthetic differences between the disparate worlds—the Factory-sound, the post-punk and pop-rock coming out of Manchester, and the colder, kraut-inspired new wave of the continent–is beguiling. Bookended with short jingles by Ultravoxx frontman Michael Foxx, it features a mercurial lineup of new wave and post-punk acts including The Names, Der Plan and Dome alongside Factory artists and minimalists like Michael Nyman, Brian Eno and the late Harold Budd.
There are three Durutti Column tracks in total, surely some of Vini Reilly's best work in "Sleep Will Come" and of course "For Belgian Friends." Martin Hannett, Factory's in-house producer, known for instilling sparse, cavernous production into most Factory records, has a moment of his own on "The Music Room."
I approached this legendary compilation expecting to learn about the roots of edgy Europop outfits. Instead I uncovered stories about some of my favourite UK bands. Kevin Hewick, an often sidelined Factory artist, steals the show with "Haystack," a short, beautiful song recorded with the surviving members of Joy Division in 1980, right after Ian Cutris died, before they became New Order. In this context, Hewick's lyrics about substance abuse—"the birds are stinging, in an open air surgery"—are haunting.
Half-forgotten polymath Thomas Dolby sounds like Heroes-era Bowie on "Airwaves," a golden-hour, piano-pop ballad. Bill Nelson's "The Shadow Garden" is an ambient soundscape, one of the most beautiful pieces of music on the tape, up there with the best of Eno's. Michael Nyman's "A Walk Through H" is a whirligig symphony you might easily mistake for Philip Glass. Ethereal keys sing a soft requiem for Harold Budd on "Children On The Hill." Then 44, Budd was in a purple patch, having collaborated with Brian Eno on Ambient 2 and his landmark The Pavilion Of Dream just a few years earlier.
The European tracks are notably sexier. Radio Romance's "Etrange Effinite" gives off a smouldering sense of lust. The Names instill a vision of bright suits and art-deco grandeur on the driving coldwave classic "Cat." Neue Deutsche Welle rockers Der Plan are low-key hysterical on the jangly, helium-drunk "Mein Freunde."
Much more than a DIY mixtape, the compilation is like a group-show of daring contemporary artists, punctuated with two interviews: Brian Eno and French film actress Jeanne Moreau, played over the music of Phill Niblock and Claude Coppens, respectively. There's a poem, "Armory Show," in which Richard Jobson toasts the international art fair it's named after, which is famous for introducing wide-eyed Americans to the radical extremes of Europe's avant-garde art scene.
Rich in texture, enigmatic and deeply inspired, From Brussels With Love is a post-punk compilation that set the bar for the movement to follow. Above all, this is a seminal collection of timeless music to be unearthed, freshly discovered and cherished by generations to come.
TracklistCD1
01. John Foxx - A Jingle #1
02. Thomas Dolby - Airwaves
03. Repetition - Stranger
04. Harold Budd - Children On the Hill
05. The Durutti Column - Sleep Will Come
06. Martin Hannett - The Music Room
07. The Names - Cat
08. Michael Nyman - A Walk Through H
09. Brian Eno - Interview
10. John Foxx - A Jingle #2
11. Jeanne Moreau - Interview
12. Richard Jobson - Armoury Show
13. Bill Nelson - The Shadow Garden
14. The Durutti Column - Piece For An Ideal
15. A Certain Ratio - Felch (Live in NYC)
16. Kevin Hewick and New Order - Haystack
17. Radio Romance - Etrange Affinité
18. Gavin Bryars - White's SS
19. Der Plan - Mein Freunde
20. Gilbert And Lewis - Twist Up
21. John Foxx - A Jingle #3
CD2 tracklist below:
01. John Foxx - A Jingle #4
02. John Foxx - Mr No
03. Bill Nelson - Dada Guitare
04. The Durutti Column - For Belgian Friends
05. Richard Jobson + Tuxedomoon - Orpheé
06. Aksak Maboul - DBB (Double Bind Baby)
07. Karel Goyvaerts Ach Golgotha
08. Marguerite Duras Interview
09. Polyphonic Size - Nagasaki Mon Amour
10. Marine - Life In Reverse
11. Michael Nyman - Mozart
12. Gavin Bryars - White's SS (unedited)
13. The Names - Nightshift
14. Repetition - A Still Reflex
15. Digital Dance - Treatment
16. Josef K - Sorry For Laughing
17. A Certain Ratio - And Then Again (live)
18. John Foxx - A Jingle