Flairck is a Dutch

Dutch people

The Dutch people are an ethnic group native to the Netherlands. They share a common culture and speak the Dutch language. Dutch people and their descendants are found in migrant communities worldwide, notably in Suriname, Chile, Brazil, Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and the United...

 musical ensemble

Musical ensemble

A musical ensemble is a group of people who perform instrumental or vocal music. In classical music, trios or quartets either blend the sounds of musical instrument families or group together instruments from the same instrument family, such as string ensembles or wind ensembles...

 formed in 1978 around guitar

Guitar

The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...

 virtuoso

Virtuoso

A virtuoso is an individual who possesses outstanding technical ability in the fine arts, at singing or playing a musical instrument. The plural form is either virtuosi or the Anglicisation, virtuosos, and the feminine form sometimes used is virtuosa...

 Erik Visser. The group has varying members dependent on the project. Their musical style is a blend of folk music

Folk music

Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....

, jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 and classical chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

, with touches of blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

. The music written by the members of the ensemble is often centred on an album theme and is played with a wide variety of acoustic instruments.

The name of the band is an original composition, derived from the French word 'flair' and the Dutch word 'vlerk', which means 'a nimble fingered hand' or 'wing', but also 'rowdy young man'.

History of the ensemble

Flairck started as an instrumental group, playing acoustic instruments and composing the majority of its own material. They play a form of chamber music

Chamber music

Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

, classically influenced new 'traditional' music .

The group has played in many countries including: Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

, Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, and North and South America

Americas

The Americas, or America , are lands in the Western hemisphere, also known as the New World. In English, the plural form the Americas is often used to refer to the landmasses of North America and South America with their associated islands and regions, while the singular form America is primarily...

. The group toured France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 with Georges Moustaki

Georges Moustaki

Giuseppe Mustacchi, known as Georges Moustaki , is a French singer and songwriter of Italo-Greek Jewish origin, best known for his poetic rhythm, eloquent simplicity and his hundreds of romantic songs...

 and recorded an album with producer Mike Batt

Mike Batt

Michael Philip "Mike" Batt is a British songwriter, musician, producer and Deputy Chairman of the British Phonographic Industry...

 and singer Maggie Reilly

Maggie Reilly

Maggie Reilly is a Scottish singer best known for her collaborations with the composer and instrumentalist Mike Oldfield...

, ("Sleight of Hand", EMI).

After two years of preparation Flairck released its first album in 1978. "Variations on a Lady" went platinum in the Netherlands and received three awards including an Edison. The second album "The Lady's Back" (1979), went gold and received several distinctions including an Edison. Over the years Flairck has released 17 albums. The third album "Live in Amsterdam" was released in 1980, "Circus" in 1981, "Flairck and Orchestra" in 1982, "Moustaki and Flairck" also in 1982, "Bal Masque" was recorded in 1984, "Sleight of Hand" in 1985, "Encore" in 1986 and "The Emigrant" in 1988. In February 1989 Flairck received the Gouden Harp (Golden Harp), The Netherlands' highest music award.

"Alive", a live double CD, was released in 1990. "The Parade" (1992) was based on the paintings of the Dutch medieval painter Hieronymus Bosch and the CD "Chambers" (1994) on the work of the Belgian surrealist René Magritte

René Magritte

René François Ghislain Magritte[p] was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images...

. In 1995 the CD "The Chilean Concerts" was recorded and released in South America. "The Golden Age" (1996) was set in the 17th century and based on the true story of a Dutch sailing vessel. In 1997 the group spent three months in Chile

Chile

Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...

 composing and recording music for the photographer Roberto Edwards' project "Cuerpos Pintados". In 1998 the tour "Lijf" celebrated the 20th anniversary of Flairck. In 1999 the "Symphony for the Old World" incorporated 9 musicians, including 4 soloists from the four corners of Europe. The CD and video "Symphony for the Old World" were released in the year 2000.

"Circus Hieronymus Bosch", a cooperation with acrobatics theatre group 'Corpus' and based on the paintings of the Dutch mediaeval painter Hieronymus Bosch, premiered in 2001, in 's-Hertogenbosch, followed by more than 80 concerts in Holland and Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

. "Circus Hieronymus Bosch" was recorded as a DVD and released in 2002.

Because of the success of this unusual circus show the cooperation between Flairck and Corpus continued the following year, resulting in the opera "Lucia the Moucheron", which premiered on September 21, 2002 in Middelburg

Middelburg

Middelburg is a municipality and a city in the south-western Netherlands and the capital of the province of Zeeland. It is situated in the Midden-Zeeland region. It has a population of about 48,000.- History of Middelburg :...

, Zeeland

Zeeland

Zeeland , also called Zealand in English, is the westernmost province of the Netherlands. The province, located in the south-west of the country, consists of a number of islands and a strip bordering Belgium. Its capital is Middelburg. With a population of about 380,000, its area is about...

.

In 2003 and 2004 Flairck stopped touring for the first time in its 25 year history. Erik Visser decided to take the time to settle some old scores: together with editor Piet Zweers he prepared the final musical scores of "Symphony for the Old World", "Circus Hieronymus Bosch" and "Lucia de Moucheron". Flairck released these music books online.

In 2004 and 2005 Erik Visser worked on a solo tour called "The One Man Parade" traveling through 45 Dutch theaters.

LP

• 1978 - Variaties op een Dame
• 1980 - The Lady's Back (Gevecht met de Engel)
• 1980 - Live in Amsterdam
• 1981 - Circus
• 1982 - Flairck & Orkest
• 1982 - Moustaki & Flairck
• 1984 - Bal Masqué
• 1986 - Sleight of Hand
• 1986 - Encore
• 1989 - Flairck 10 (The Emigrant)
• 1990 - Alive / Alive (2 CD Version)
• 1992 - The Parade (De Optocht)
• 1994 - Chambers (Kamers)
• 1995 - The Chilean Concerts (En Vivo en Chile)
• 1996 - The Golden Age (De Gouden Eeuw)
• 1998 - Cuerpos Tocados: Music for the Body
• 1998 - 3 Originals (the first 3 studio albums remastered)
• 2000 - Symphony for the Old World
• 2004 - One Man Parade (Eenmansoptocht)
• 2007 - Twenty Two (Twee en Twintig: 22 CD oeuvre box set)