Zita Swoon is a

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

indie rock Indie rock is a Music subgenre, subgenre of rock music that originated in the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand from the 1970s to the 1980s. Originally used to describe independent record labels, the term became associated with the mu ...

group. They entered the music scene of

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

in 1993, still under the name A Beatband with the EP ''Jintro Travels The Word In A Skirt''. The group is typical of the music scene in Antwerp, with members playing in numerous other groups. The best known member is singer, musician and composer Stef Kamil Carlens, who founded the group together with Aarich Jespers and also played in

dEUS ''Deus'' (, ) is the Latin word for "god" or "deity". Latin ''deus'' and ''dīvus'' ("divine") are in turn descended from Proto-Indo-European *'' deiwos'', "celestial" or "shining", from the same root as '' *Dyēus'', the reconstructed chief g ...

. The same group released ''Everyday I Wear A Greasy Black Feather On My Hat'' under the name Moondog Jr. in 1995. Shortly thereafter they encountered legal trouble over the name

Moondog Louis Thomas Hardin (May 26, 1916 – September 8, 1999), known professionally as Moondog, was an American composer, musician, performer, music theoretician, poet and inventor of musical instruments. Largely self-taught as a composer, his ...

with Louis T. Hardin, and changed it to Zita Swoon (Zita = intense, Swoon = desire). The success of this album was awarded with invitations to the

Lowlands Upland and lowland are conditional descriptions of a plain based on elevation above sea level. In studies of the ecology of freshwater rivers, habitats are classified as upland or lowland. Definitions Upland and lowland are portions of p ...

Pinkpop The Pinkpop Festival is an annual music festival held at Landgraaf, Netherlands. It is usually held on the Pentecost weekend (''Pinksteren'' in Dutch, hence the name). If Pentecost falls on an early date in May, the festival is held later in June. ...

and Rock Werchter festivals. The same year they also appeared live on

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

in ''

Most Wanted Most Wanted may refer to: Law enforcement A most wanted list used by a law enforcement agency to alert the public, such as: *FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives *FBI Most Wanted Terrorists *ICE Most Wanted *List of Mexico's 37 most-wanted drug lords *Lis ...

'' with Michael Blair. Their first appearance in the US was at the

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

festival in 1998. Zita Swoon has played in numerous locations, from New York to the Belgian Rock Werchter festival, the

Holland Festival The Holland Festival () is the oldest and largest performing arts festival in the Netherlands. It takes place every June in Amsterdam. It comprises theatre, music, opera and modern dance. In recent years, multimedia, visual arts, film and archite ...

, as well as in

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. In early 1999 their work was recognized by the Flemish government with a grant of 1.5 million Francs and the title Cultural Ambassador of Flanders (a title previously awarded to

DAAU DAAU (short for Die Anarchistische Abendunterhaltung) is a classical, jazz, experimental and multi-genre music group from Antwerp, Belgium. The band was founded in 1992 and borrowed its name from the novel '' Der Steppenwolf'' (1927) by Hermann ...

and

). In 2009 Stef Kamil Carlens participated with Lexus Concert, a 'hybrid' concert where Stef does a crossover concert at Klara festival with a musician from a totally different style and background. The winner of Lexus concert wins a private try out concert on board a new Lexus RX 450h.

Members

Original members

* Stef Kamil Carlens –

vocals Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

* Aarich Jespers –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

percussion A percussion instrument is a musical instrument that is sounded by being struck or scraped by a beater including attached or enclosed beaters or rattles struck, scraped or rubbed by hand or struck against another similar instrument. Exc ...

Additional members

Amel Serra Amel (; french: Amblève, ) is a Belgian municipality in the Walloon province of Liège, and is part of the German-speaking Community of Belgium (german: Deutschsprachige Gemeinschaft Belgiens). On January 1, 2013, the municipality of Amel had ...

– percussion *

Joris Caluwaerts Joris, a Dutch form of the given name George, may refer to: *Joris Bado (born 1991), Burkinabé basketball player * Joris Bert (born 1987), French baseball player * Joris Borghouts (born 1939), Dutch Egyptologist * Joris Delle (born 1990), French ...

– piano,

rhodes Rhodes (; el, Ρόδος , translit=Ródos ) is the largest and the historical capital of the Dodecanese islands of Greece. Administratively, the island forms a separate municipality within the Rhodes regional unit, which is part of the So ...

* Bart Van Lierde – bass *

Eva Gysel Eva or EVA may refer to: * Eva (name), a feminine given name Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters * Eva (Dynamite Entertainment), a comic book character by Dynamite Entertainment * Eva (''Devil May Cry''), Dante's mother in ...

– backing vocals * Kapinga Gysel – backing vocals

Ex-members

* Tom Pintens – guitar, backing vocals, piano,

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

(as of April 2008) * Kobe Proesmans – percussion * Thomas de Smet – bass * Bjorn Eriksson – guitar * Benjamin Boutreur –

saxophone The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed instruments, sound is produced when a reed on a mouthpiece vibrates to pr ...

* Leonie Gysel – backing vocals

Discography

As A Beatband

* ''Jintro Travels the Word in a Skirt'' (1993)

As Moondog Jr.

* ''Everyday I Wear A Greasy Black Feather On My Hat'' (1995)

As Zita Swoon

Studio albums: * ''I Paint Pictures on a Wedding Dress'' (1998) * ''Life = A Sexy Sanctuary'' (2001) * '' A Song About a Girls'' (2004) * ''Big City'' (2007) * ''Big Blueville'' (2008) Live albums: * ''Live at Jet Studio Brussels'' (2001) * ''A Band in a Box'' (CD and DVD) (2005) Soundtracks: * ''Music inspired by

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology Al ...

, a film by F.W. Murnau'' (1997) * ''Plage Tattoo/Circumstances'' (music from the performance) (2000) Compilations: * ''To Play, To Dream, To Drift – An Anthology'' (2009)

As Zita Swoon Group

* ''Dancing With The Sound Hobbyist'' (2011) * ''Wait for Me'' (2012) * ''New Old World'' (2014) * ''Nothing That Is Everything'' (2015)

External links

Official website

Fansite

Archive

Last.fm group
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zita Swoon Belgian alternative rock groups