Moved from Futurum. Tickets remain valid.

It’s been half a decade since Warhaus, the project of Maarten Devoldere (Balthazar), suddenly captured our musical hearts with their triumphant double album triumph of We Fucked a Flame into Being (2016) and Warhaus (2017). And it wasn’t because he was patiently creating new work in Ghent.

The songs on his brand new album Ha Ha Heartbreak, released in November 2022, gushed out of him in just three weeks in Palermo, Italy. Devoldere simply needed the solitude of a hotel room, a guitar, a microphone and a heart that had recently been broken into a thousand pieces. Grief was so hard to overcome, so Sicily seemed like a good escape. But as is always the case, those who run too fast from life run right into themselves.

The listener doesn’t even notice at first. The smoky first track and the first single Open Window almost makes you dance, even though your love has left… the future looks promising after all. The song eventually almost gets you moving in the style of a French 70s movie. But the album gradually convinces us that this sovereign doesn’t really have much under control. The songs gradually become more agonizing, in the lyrics that is, because the music is beautifully and unexpectedly light. Strings, backing vocals, brass, playful piano. This contrast of form and content makes the album a powerful experience.

The album was produced by Jasper Maekelberg, who left the Sicilian vocal recordings in their entirety on the album. Ha Ha Heartbreak is Warhaus’ most personal record to date, a record with many layers of mourning and grief. It will appeal to all those whose hearts have ever been broken by love.

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)