Amatorski is a Belgian

post-rock Post-rock is a form of experimental rock characterized by a focus on exploring textures and timbre over traditional rock song structures, chords, or riffs. Post-rock artists are often instrumental, typically combining rock instrumentation with ...

band consisting of Inne Eysermans, Sebastiaan Van den Branden and Christophe Claeys.

History

Amatorski was formed in 2008. The group became famous after reaching the final at the

Humo's Rock Rally Humo's Rock Rally is a Belgian contest for rock bands, organized every second year since 1978. It is organized by the Belgian magazine HUMO. Every band that has not yet released an official recording, may enter the Rock Rally, by submitting a demo ...

in 2010. The band name comes from the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

word for ''amateurish'', accordingly the group records its music in low fidelity. Apart from that their music is also characterized by a

melancholic Melancholia or melancholy (from el, µέλαινα χολή ',Burton, Bk. I, p. 147 meaning black bile) is a concept found throughout History of medicine#Greece and Roman Empire, ancient, medieval medicine of Western Europe, medieval and Lear ...

, blurry style in which the texts are often very narrative. This is expressed in their record ''Come home'' for which singer Inne Eysermans found inspiration by reading the love letters from her grandmother that were written during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. This song gained fame since it was used in Belgium during publicity spots for water brand Spa Reine. In 2011 they travelled to London, England to work with producer

Darren Allison Darren Allison (born May 1968, Ashington, Northumberland, England) is an English record producer, musician, and audio engineer, best known for his production work with artists such as Spiritualized,Kempster, Chris "Studio secrets of the stars ...

(

Spiritualized Spiritualized (stylised as Spiritualized®) are an English rock band formed in 1990 in Rugby, Warwickshire, by Jason Pierce (often known as J. Spaceman), formerly of Spacemen 3. After several line up-changes, in 1999, the band centered on Pierc ...

The Divine Comedy The ''Divine Comedy'' ( it, Divina Commedia ) is an Italian narrative poem by Dante Alighieri, begun 1308 and completed in around 1321, shortly before the author's death. It is widely considered the pre-eminent work in Italian literature and ...

Belle & Sebastian Belle and Sebastian are a Scottish indie pop band formed in Glasgow in 1996. Led by Stuart Murdoch, the band has released eleven albums. They are often compared with acts such as The Smiths and Nick Drake. The name "Belle and Sebastian" comes ...

) on their debut album '' TBC''. Upon its release, '' TBC'' garnered much critical acclaim, and ascended to number 5 in the Belgian album chart. Later that year, the album received nominations in several categories, at the Belgian

Music Industry Awards The MIA's, in full Music Industry Awards, are Flemish music prizes that are awarded by the VRT in collaboration with Music Centre Flanders. The prizes replace the ZAMU Awards, last awarded in 2006. The abbreviation MIA is a wink to ''Mia'', a ...

. Their style was often compared to that of Portishead and Sigur Ros. Entitled ''from clay to figures'', Amatorski's second album is coming out in April 2014, on

Crammed Discs Crammed Discs is an independent record label whose output blends world music, rock, pop, and electronica. Based in Brussels, Belgium, Crammed was founded in 1980 by Marc Hollander of Aksak Maboul and has since released around 375 albums and 275 ...

(who have also given ''TBC'' an international release in 2013). In 2014,

Dominik Scherrer Dominik Scherrer is a Swiss-British composer born in 1967 in Zurich, Switzerland, who has written prolifically for film, theatre and television. Career Scherrer has composed the music score for both seasons of the British television series ''R ...

composed a new orchestral version of their song "Come Home", which is used as the opening theme of acclaimed

BBC One BBC One is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network owned and operated by the BBC. It is the corporation's flagship network and is known for broadcasting mainstream programming, which includes BBC News television bulletins, p ...

and

Starz Starz (stylized as STARZ since 2016; pronounced "stars") is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by Lions Gate Entertainment, and is the flagship property of parent subsidiary Starz Inc. Programming on Starz consist ...

drama The Missing. In December 2020, a cover of the band's song "Come Home" was featured in

Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...

's annual Christmas commercial, titled "Mailbox," in partnership with the

USO The United Service Organizations Inc. (USO) is an American nonprofit-charitable corporation that provides live entertainment, such as comedians, actors and musicians, social facilities, and other programs to members of the United States Armed F ...

Music Industry Awards

In 2010 they were nominated for three Belgian

MIAs MIAS may refer to: * Maryknoll Institute of African Studies, educational institute, see Maryknoll * MIAs, plural of Missing in Action * Moscow International Automobile Salon, auto show in Russia * Montreal International Auto Show The Montreal Int ...

. However, they did not win any of the prizes: * Hit of the year (''Come Home'') * Best artwork ('' Same Stars We Shared'' -artwork done by Femke Vanbelle) * Best breakthrough

Band members

* Inne Eysermans (singing, piano, guitar,

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German ''Akkordeon'', from ''Akkord''—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed ...

) * Sebastiaan Van den Branden (singing, guitar) * Christophe Claeys drums, percussion

Former members

* Hilke Ros (

contrabass Contrabass (from it, contrabbasso) refers to several musical instruments of very low pitch—generally one octave below bass register instruments. While the term most commonly refers to the double bass (which is the bass instrument in the orchest ...

, synthbass) * Laurens Van Bouwelen (drums,

vibraphone The vibraphone is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone is called a ''vibraphonist,'' ''vibraharpist,' ...

)

Discography

Amatorski in the Ultratop 50, ultratop.be
/ref>

Albums

Singles

References

External links

Official websiteInterview with Amatorski at Bedroomdisco
Belgian post-rock groups {{Belgium-band-stub