Vermandere can look again on a richly stuffed profession on stage. In 1968, after he had first gone to the monastery for a couple of years and had been a instructor, he got here with a primary report: ‘Liedjes van de Westhoek’. These had been the heydays of cabaret and people.
He travelled via Flanders and the Netherlands with a bunch of musicians, his ‘henchmen’, who hardly modified over time: Freddy Desmedt (clarinet, saxophone and harmonica), Pol Depoorter (guitar and mandolin) and Bart Caron (double bass). Collectively they gave typical concert events with songs and ‘tales’, the tales that Vermandere dug up in between.
Vermandere’s (tune)texts are in regards to the Westhoek, the battle and each day life, but additionally about solidarity and variety. Generally Vermandere additionally introduced instrumental music, along with his bass clarinet for instance. When he sang, he nearly all the time did so in his mom tongue: West Flemish. In complete, Vermandere has launched greater than 30 information.
“His timbre may be very distinctive,” Bart Caron says about Vermandere’s music. “He did not care about fashions and developments within the music world, and but his songs stay topical. They’ve an everlasting worth. When he sings ‘Duizend soldaaten’ right this moment, it is not simply in regards to the battle within the Westhoek, but additionally about Gaza and Ukraine.”
