Dickthespic's Blog

The Bony King of Nowhere is the project of 24-year-old Belgian composer Bram Vanparys. His honest music, characterized above all by Bram’s distinctive voice, claims your heart straight away. Songs are built on melodic backing vocals, guitars and sound layers, as well as the frequent use of unconventional percussion inspired by the Brazilian Tropicália Movement from the 1960s. His lyrics are often theatrical: the virgin Mary addressed by a dying man exalting death from his deathbed (“Maria”), the sunset pictured in a puppet’s world (“The Sunset”), the concept of despair painfully anatomized in the schizophrenia theme from the closing song “My Invasions”. Not your usual love-theme singer, that’s for sure.

The universal, yet very wayward character of Bram’s music already perplexed both media and
public in his own country, but also evoked international response. After his demo got selected in The Wire Magazine’s “Domino Festival” compilation, Bram immediately got called by Kieran Hebden (aka Fourtet), asking him if he could include some songs in the soundtrack of a film he’s working on (“Boy Meets Girl”, Wildebeest Productions, New York). Also, Devendra Banhart sang Bram’s praises in a personal letter after hearing the demo. And, last but not least, Jon Kelly (Paul McCartney, Kate Bush,…) expressed his interest in mixing the first album of The Bony King Of Nowhere, which was produced by European cultproducer Koen Gisen (An Pierlé&White Velvet) in his weird 1960’s studio.

On February 23rd 2009 The Bony King Of Nowhere released this first album “Alas My Love” on Helicopter Records.

11.02.2011 saw the release of his new album Eleonore on the [PIAS] Recordings label.

After having listened to this album it remains a mystery who she exactly is, but it’s clear Eleonore is a lucky girl. On his second album, belgium Bram Vanparys, has crafted 9 beautiful and melancholic songs dedicated, or so at least the album title and two songs (“Girl from the play” and the title track) suggest, to this girl.
On his previous record, Alas My Love, there was some experimentation on the song structure and productions. This new record is more like a plain singer-songer writer record. In this case that’s not a bad thing at all; it proves to be a big leap forward.
The Bony King often is compared to Thom Yorke or Leonard Cohen (“The Garden”), but on this record a Young Tim Buckley comes to mind. A good voice only is no guarantee at all for a good record. But combined with the soothing melodies and harmonies, for example on “Girl From the Play” and single “Going Home”, this a surely a record that stands out.“The Poet” is a nice interpretation of dutch poet Van Elsschot poem “The Marriage” and musically a reincarnation of The Band.
So don’t be surprised if this album is going to be the, more than deserved, international breakthrough of The Bony King Of Nowhere. In the meantime he leaves us with a beautiful record and keeps us wondering who Eleonere is