Mon Petit Album

One of my all-time favorite Belgian records must be Jacques Bekaert’s self-titled album, originally released in 1981 on the Igloo label. Featuring luminary musicians such as Maggi Payne, “Blue” Gene Tyranny, Georges Lewis, David Rosenboom and David Behrman, the record consists of three delicate configurations of acoustic instrumentations and field recordings, two of which were created for film works by Akiko Iimura. I could have easily chosen films by her life partner, Takahiko Iimura, a filmmaker who worked with some of the greats of the Japanese sonic avant-garde, such as Yasunao Tone, Takehisa Kosugi or Yoko Ono. But I feel that the work of both Akiko and Bekaert has been historically undervalued and that their collaborative efforts need to be heard - and seen. I haven’t seen it yet myself, so I’m looking forward to it! A rare review of Mon Petit Album describes it as a “layering of experimental imagery over a natural setting, folding sprawling, overlapped film footage of a pastoral scene under an original soundtrack by Jacques Bekaert combining flute and violin phrasings atop subtly processed sounds. Iimura herself drifts in and out of the frame, making direct eye contact with the camera while embedded in the landscape—a powerful act asserting autonomy over her own image as a woman.” (Stoffel Debuysere)