Nathalie Matteau

Female Arno tells stories

by Ernst Jan Rozendaal (translation: Frank van Meerendonk).
Published in PZC, Saturday, July 4th 2009
(see my myspace blog for original article)

VLISSINGEN (Flushing)   The choice of music at the Vlissingen Festival ‘Onderstroom’ is rich and varied. Big and small acts, known and unknown ones. Those who, strolling along Oranjedijk, allow themselves to be lured into a festival tent can make unexpected discoveries. Take, for example, Nathalie Matteau & Les Hommes Perdus who played in ‘Theatertent Deluxe’ last night. The name may be slightly misleading for this small shelter, but within no time the French Canadian singer miraculously converted the ramshackle building into an intimate living room. Matteau's virtuoso five piece band (drums, accordion, tuba, trombone and sax) played a potpourri of music styles. Jazz, blues, chansons and gipsy music were forged into an irresistible rhythm. Sometimes, Matteau's dark voice was highly reminiscent of Edith Piaf, or   perhaps even more so   of a female Arno. She turned out to be a true story teller, who kept her audience enthralled in English, French, German and Dutch. She sang about childhood sweethearts, loneliness in Paris, and old, languishing actrices. The evening's first highlight was Jacques Brel's ‘Les Bourgeois’, a song in which Matteau's dynamique varied from whisperingly soft to overwhelmingly powerful. But her performance reached an absolute climax in her raw interpretation of ‘Kraaien’ (Crows   FvM) of Krang, a funeral blues in which the alto sax shrieked and the harmonica wailed. Tonight, Matteau can be heard again (8:30 p.m.).

photo © Brendan van den Breuken