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Rating: A microphone, an acoustic guitar, and a piano: few but good are the ingredients of our Tom's live performances.
This individual with a hysterical gaze and fervent mind has kept dEUS fans waiting in suffering for almost 5 years, yet in the meantime, as a DJ (!), he has enlivened the Central European nights, made a film, founded a techno/electro/jazz/blues project (Magnus); and has also traveled around Europe performing in intimate unplugged evenings accompanied by pianist Guy Van Nueten.
Someone recorded it all and compiled the best pieces into a double CD. The two also play various covers, including Joni Mitchell (a splendid River), Nick Drake, Serge Gainsbourg, JJ Cale, even "of" Bowie (Memory of a Free Festival, some might not believe it but he did it very well) and it is especially in these pieces that the talented Guy carves out his space with his jazz inspiration.
But mostly, these are acoustic versions of dEUS songs (from this point of view, the album doesn't add much to the quality of the Belgian quintet), where Barman takes the lead. Often Van Nueten steps aside and leaves the scene entirely to him. The set is very 'stripped down', and Tom, “delicate and egocentric like his voice” (self-quote), knows how to capture the atmosphere when it's intimate and people hang on his every note.
He may not be the most virtuosic of guitarists, but he is certainly an artist who puts his heart into his songs, masters them, and cradles them like precious creatures, drawing out their essence (Right As Rain in the skeletal and moving version it probably had when he wrote it, at 17 years old – 17 years...), or – unfortunately not very often – giving them unrecognizable forms (Everybody’s Weird slows down, calms down, and becomes a wonderful piece).
A bit more inventiveness and this album would have been not just nice but also striking (which is what many of us are looking for, isn't it?). I will continue to listen to it frequently, I believe, whenever I have the chance to close my eyes and watch the notes emerge from the darkness.
Tracklist and Videos
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