The Bony King of Nowhere is the project of 24-year-old Belgian composer Bram Vanparys. His honest music, characterized above all by Bram’s distinctive voice, claims your heart straight away. Songs are built on melodic backing vocals, guitars and sound layers, as well as the frequent use of unconventional percussion inspired by the Brazilian Tropicália Movement from the 1960s. His lyrics are often theatrical: the virgin Mary addressed by a dying man exalting death from his deathbed (“Maria”), the sunset pictured in a puppet’s world (“The Sunset”), the concept of despair painfully anatomized in the schizophrenia theme from the closing song “My Invasions”. Not your usual love-theme singer, that’s for sure. The universal, yet very wayward character of Bram’s music already perplexed both media and public in his own country, but also evoked international response. After his demo got selected in The Wire Magazine’s “Domino Festival” compilation, Bram immediately got called by Kieran Hebden (aka Fourtet), asking him if he could include some songs in the soundtrack of a film he’s working on (“Boy Meets Girl”, Wildebeest Productions, New York). Also, Devendra Banhart sang Bram’s praises in a personal letter after hearing the demo. And, last but not least, Jon Kelly (Paul McCartney, Kate Bush,…) expressed his interest in mixing the first album of The Bony King Of Nowhere, which was produced by European cultproducer Koen Gisen (An Pierlé&White Velvet) in his weird 1960’s studio. In 2009 The Bony King Of Nowhere released his first album
“Alas My Love” on Helicopter Records. He now is finished with his second album ‘Eleonore’ and according to himself it sounds “more direct, more in-your-face, my only goal is authenticity: my work has to be genuine and credible. I feel increasingly attracted to the folk tradition, as it was documented in ‘American Folk Anthology’ by Harry Smith.” We can only agree. Bram Vanparys is a busy bee too. He's already half way through writing his third album and is currently working on the soundtrack for ‘Les Géants’, a film by Walloon film-maker Bouli Lanners. Please let 'em all come, very quickly, since I can not currently get enough of these beautiful sounds.
@ Ghent, Belgium
♫ Acoustic, Folk
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