ARNO
..."chevalier seul, chanteur de charme..."NEW CD: "Jus de Box" Release date: January 22, 2007
ARNO (Arnaud Charles Ernest HINTJENS) [b. Ostend, May 21, 1949] is a unique figure. A blend between a playboy and a hobo, a truly cosmopolitan nature and a true rock'n roll heart. Or, as "Oor's Music Encyclopedia" puts it:
"...one of the few groundbreaking artists of the European continent by the unique way in which he manages to combine elements of American blues and funk, French chanson and Belgian barroom-songs into his own personal style".
He stutters when he speaks, never when he sings, and has a unique way with words, no matter from which language they come from.
Before going solo under the name ARNO, he played in the important groups Tjens Couter and T.C. Matic (formed when Jean-Marie AERTS joined the group). Also after the split of T.C. Matic, the tandem Jean-Marie AERTS-Arno stayed intact. On the first solo album of Arno (entitled "Arno") even Serge FEYS and Rudy CLOET of the former group play a part.
As is pointed out in "Big in Belgium" :
"The artist Arno & Friends enjoyed a wider popularity than the group Arno & Friends ever did".
The second album "Charlatan" (1988) is received less well by the press, but still sells very good (for Belgian standards) : 50.000 copies worldwide.
T.C. Matic's legacy is less obvious. More tango, accordion, more BREL.
In 1991 Arno also played a major part in the group 'Charles et les Lulus', a project with Arno, ROLAND (Vancampenhout), Ad COMINOTTO and Piet JORENS. This was a very important step in his career, so it turned out to be later. Or as Arno said it later: "I was stuck, I needed to get back to my roots urgently."
Also in 1991, his French girlfriend, Marie-Laure BERAUD, recorded a very good album, with the help of most of the Lulus.
On his 1993 album "Idiots Savants" he works together with Jean-Marie AERTS for the last time. This record, which was recorded in Nashville and produced by Glenn ROSENSTEIN, is generally considered his best record. Or as "Humo" magazine puts it :
"For the moment this is the culminating point in the life and work of Arno Hintjens and probably one of the first CD's that builds a bridge to the 21st century."
With every album Arno becomes more successful : the incredible ADAMO-cover "Les Filles du bord de mer" (1993) has Belgium and France waltzing ("Joint-joint-joint!").
1994 sees the surprise breakup of the idyllic marriage between Arno and his lifelong companion Jean-Marie AERTS. As "Humo" wrotes in it's news section in 1994 :
"Everything crumbles, nothing lasts. Arno & Jean-Marie, a bond that seemed as durable as Smith & Wesson's, don't get along anymore. As is the case with most bloodbrothers, the cause for this split is so trivial it becomes almost funny : Jean-Marie supposedly plays too loud!."
It didn't take Arno long to find a new partner : Geoffrey BURTON (see Pieter-Jan De Smet).
Arno also aspires a career in film, first as a soundtrack-composer, then also in the footsteps of JACQUES BREL (of whom he has recorded "Le bon dieu") as an actor.
In 1998, Arno has taken up his second name again to form a temporary band, this time called "Charles & The White Trash European Blues Connection".
1999 became another Arno-year however : in August he released a CD "Le European Cowboy" in two languages at the same time.
In March 2000, Arno did a contribution to the "Glittering 2000" project, on which Belgian bands covered songs from the glamrock era, by doing a version of the David BOWIE / Mott The Hoople's song "All the Young Dudes".
Around the year's end, he came in the news with a very well succeeded benefit for AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL in the Ancienne Belgique (with the help of the likes of Tom BARMAN ( dEUS ), Axelle RED, Reggie from Indeep ...), and because two compilations were released at about the same moment : "Compil Complet", with a number of outtakes, live-takes and demo's from the T.C. Matic period, and "Le Best Of Arno" with the singles of his solo-period and with as a bonus a duet with Stephan EICHER (a Swiss singer who was once the half of the band GRAUZONE, and later steered chanson in new directions), a cover of the Melanie song "What have they done to my song" as "Ils ont change ma chanson".
In 2002 he received the title "Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres" ("Knight in the Arts and Literature") of the French government.
- Arno (Virgin, 1986) - Charlatan (Virgin, 1988) - Ratata (Virgin, 1990) - Charles et les Lulus (Virgin, 1991) - Tracks from the Story (Virgin, 1992) - Idiots Savants (Virgin, 1993) - A la Francaise (Delabel, 1995) - Water (labeled as "Arno & The Subrovnicks") (Delabel, 1995) - "Toy Story" (Walt Disney Records, 1996) - Give Me the Gift (Delabel, 1997) - En Concert a la Francaise (Delabel, 1997) - Charles & The White Trash European Blues Connection (Delabel, 1998) - A Poil Commercial (Delabel, 1999) - Le European Cowboy (Delabel, 1999) - Arno Charles Ernest (EMI, 2002) - French Bazar (EMI, 2003)
- Arno Live in Brussels (EMI, 2005)
- Jus de Box (EMI, 2007) --- NEW!!
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(Click to Enlarge)
www.myspace.com/T.C. MATIC
When the 80's near, Arno Hintjens of the band Tjens Couter decides to give his R&B-music a more modern sound. He changes the name of the group into T.C. Matic (Feb. 1980), and teams up in June with guitarist Jean-Marie AERTS (who had been playing with Johan Verminnen, Plastic Bertrand, Kaz Lux, Big Bill, Bert de Coninck and Raymond van het Groenewoud in the 70's). The new name of the band is a reference to the Serbian surrealistic poet Dusan Matic [1898-1980].
Although Tjens Couter had been a well-known group, T.C. MATIC got off on a difficult start. They were looking for a record company and only Marcel VANTHILT (Arbeid Adelt!) who was looking for bands to fill a record for the ASLK (a former Belgian bank) showed some interest in their demo-tape. With the 75.000 BEF. (1.859 EURO) sponsor money from the bank they headed of to London and recorded five songs.
"Bazooka Joe" was released on the compilation album "Get Sprouts", the other four were released as a double single, without a record company.
Still, no one was interested, so Paul Evrard, former manager for Raymond van het Groenewoud, founded his own record company Parsley. The single "Oh La La La!" was released and the group was on it's way.
"Oh La La La!" becomes an evergreen (still to this day, a party in Belgium isn't complete without it) and sells over 15.000 copies, an enormous amount for a Belgian single at the time.
The debut album "T.C. Matic" (1981) that follows soon afterwards gets equally well received. The late journalist Marc Mijlemans wrote in "Humo" magazine :
"The debut album of T.C. Matic is filled with interesting, intriguing and at times even impressive music. Factory funk, this is. Brutal city noises from a hard world somewhere in between A Certain Ratio and the SIMPLE MINDS... Export-ready Flemish rock, 'cause most of the songs can easily survive the comparison with new things coming from England. ... Never has a group from Belgium showed so much soul as T.C. Matic on this existential cry from the rhythmic jungle. I love T.C. Matic, but I wonder if that means I also have to love the voice of Arno Hintjens. Yes? Well, OK then."
They also prove to be a very impressive band on stage : in 1981 they go on tour together with Lavvi Ebbel (called 'Tourmalaise') and get to play on the famous Torhout-Werchter festival. Their stage act soon becomes a living legend.
From "Oxygene" in 1983 :
"On stage, T.C. Matic really makes the impression of having fallen into the barrel of magic potion when they were little. A noise level that tenfold the power of the songs and then there's Arno, the showman, a class of its own, a Presence, a strong magnet, hip-movements that would make Elvis blush... Last month, they were supposed to go on a tour together with P.I.L. John Lydon was right : T.C. Matic would've been so much better than his own group."
Belgium soon becomes too small. They try to make a break to abroad with "l'Apache" (1982) their second album. From "Humo" :
"Wherever you went along Flemish roads during the past year, you met T.C. Matic. With their white-hot western soul they made tracks around the country that still haven't been erased but - and there always this sickening but inevitable "but" - you can't get higher in Belgium than a place at Torhout-Werchter and a very well received debut album. Et maintenant ? There's no way back, no road ahead. There only the possibility of a big leap, hoping to land somewhere where a people live, a lot of people. "l'Apache" is that leap. It is a very well executed leap, and if they don't make a soft landing with this one, that can mean only one thing : that the thesis of the VMO (an extreme right and racist action group) that "all foreigners are stupid and too lazy to listen" is correct. With "A different smell from the same perfume" (Luna Twist), "Er sterft een beer in de ta..ga" (De Kreuners) and "Promises" (Allez Allez), "l'Apache" (1982) is the fourth album of international standards to come out of Belgium this year. And it's probably the best. Better in any case, better balanced than they were on their already impressive debut".
The passage across the boundaries becomes a fact (they tour all around Europe and play Pinkpop, Roskilde, in France, Germany,...) but never becomes a huge success. Only in Scandinavia the group develops a following, much to the delight of Arno : "The ladies over there are wild! They go after the men just like the men in Rome go after the women." Even a third and fourth album can't change that. Herman SCHUEREMANS (the organizer of Torhout/Werchter) in an interview with "Het Laatste Nieuws" in 1984 :
"The Belgian branch of EMI has 100 percent faith in the group. They invest a lot in them. Unfortunately, they don't seem to get that message through to the international headquarters. When T.C. Matic began in Belgium they said: "There will be no audience for that kind of music".The group has made that audience. Then came Holland. The first time they shouted "stupid Belgian", but the next time they were silenced by the music. In Scandinavia the same thing happens. The weird thing is that this group can really move things around, but that the record company does so little with it."
So, continues to battle with the world : "Choco" (1983) and "Ye Ye" (1985) (the only T.C. Matic record not produced by Jean-Marie AERTS) still show a group that's growing. On occasions, the elements that would be much more obvious in Arno's later music (accordion, barroom music, Waltz ...) and other influences (World music) creep in. But the story remains the same : although they survive a two years longer than the majority of the Belgian bands, even this group ultimately has to face the fact that without a major breakthrough abroad, the Benelux is too small to continue to evolve and make a living.
After a huge tour with The SIMPLE MINDS in 1986 that turns out to be a waste of effort, and a tumultuous tour in France, the group gives up (June '86). The creativity was gone. Belgium's finest band was no more.
Still, the musical saga that went from Freckle Face to Tjens Couter and to T.C. Matic isn't finished: there's still Arno's solo career to come!
Jean-Marie AERTS gained widespread acclaim and a rock-solid reputation as a musician, composer and studio-producer.
AERTS's wide range of adventurous experiences include, amongst many others: The Scabs, The Neon Judgement, Jo Lemaire + Flouze, Luc Van Acker, Urban Dance Squad, Elisa Waut, Babylon Fighters, La Fille d'Ernest, Odieu, Tom Wolf, Beverly Jo Scott, Ashbury Faith, Red Zebra, Junkfish, Arbeid Adelt!, Cobraz, Lavvi Ebbel, Stricktly Rockers, Kamagurka, El Fish, De Div, De Kreuners, Piu Piu, Flesh & Fell, and JMX... This eclecticism has made him into one of the most innovative producers to come out of Belgium to date.
DISCOGRAPHY:
- T.C. Matic (Parsley/Statik, 1981) - L'Apache (EMI, 1982) - Choco (EMI, 1983) - Ye Ye (EMI, 1985)
Compilations :
- The Best of T.C. Matic (ca vient, ca vient, change pas demain) (EMI, 1987) - Compil Complet (EMI, 2000) - The Essential of T.C. Matic (EMI, 2003)
- T.C. Matic 25th Anniversary collector's edition - CD+DVD (EMI, 2006)
Singles and 12'' :
- Modern Noise / White Rhythm / Take it easy / Femme Femme (T.C. Matic, 1980) - Oh La La La! / Still on the Loose (Parsley, 1980) - Willie / I'm not like that (Parsley, 1981) - Le Java / Mummy (EMI, 1982) - Middle Class and Blue Eyes / Touch me (EMI, 1983) - If you wanna dance, dance / Attack Anna (EMI, 1983) - Ugh Ugh / Ugh Ugh (instr.) (EMI, 1984) - Putain Putain / Living on my Instinct (EMI, 1984) - Elle Adore le Noir (pour Sortir le Soir) / Act like a dog (EMI, 1985) - Who's that girl / Let Me Out (EMI 1986) - Chi Boem / Pauvre con (EMI 1986)
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(The film 'Komma' directed by Martine DOYEN in which Arno plays the main masculin role as Peter De Wit has been nomiated to take part in the 46th Semaine de la Critique (the 46th week of the Criticism) in Cannes (France, 17-26 May 2006).
(released: March 13, 2006)
(ASIN: B0009VYPB0)
(de Gilles Deleux (2004) - ISBN: 2841146995)
Management:
'TALENT SORCIER' (management) email: [email protected]
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