One of the city's great hidden treasures, the Brussels music scene hosts some of the biggest and best up-and-coming artists and bands in the international, European and Belgian scene.
Every month, Europe's capital has no shortage of thrilling concerts – and picking out the best gigs can be tough. This is why we have put together a monthly guide to discover the best live acts in the city, perfect for new and old Brussels folk alike.
Carefully selected by music journalist Simon Taylor, here are The Brussels Times' choices for the concerts that you should not miss with your friends throughout February.
Best gigs this month:
4 February
Kelly Moran
Église des Dominicains
Kelly Moran is a US pianist and producer who takes the piano and modifies the sound with a range of devices and effects to create rich soundscapes, an approach best exemplified on her 2018 Ultraviolet album. On some of her albums including her upcoming release, Don’t Trust Mirrors, she complements the piano with synthesisers.
Kelly Moran
On her 2024 LP, Moves in the Field, she combined her own musical virtuosity with the technology of the Disklavier, an electronic instrument developed by Yamaha which works like an old-fashioned player-piano but using MIDI to play back pre-stored music. For her Brussels show, Moran will be joined by Margaret Hermant, a Belgian harpist and violinist who is part of Echo Collective, a group that specialises in post-classical music. Hermant has played with Dustin Halloran as part of his A Winger Victory for the Sullen project and has just written her first film soundtrack.
9 February
Holly Humberstone
Ancienne Belgique
Surprisingly, tickets are still available for Humberstone’s show at AB. I say surprisingly because she is a talented English singer-songwriter in the vein of Olivia Rodrigo and Billie Eilish, although less well-known.
Holly Humberstone. Credit: Louis Browne
Originally from Grantham in Lincolnshire (coincidentally also the birthplace of Margaret Thatcher), Humberstone sings about her personal experiences and turns them into soundtracks for a troubled generation. You should check out the acoustic version of Sam Fender’s Seventeen Going Under she recorded with the North Shields singer.
10 February
Anna of the North
Ancienne Belgique
Anna Lotterud (to use her given name) will be bringing her own brand of Nordic electro-soul to the Ancienne Belgique. Anna has been performing since the mid-2010s and appeared on rapper Tyler, the Creator’s Flower Boy album.
Anna of the North
While the pop market isn’t short of Nordic songstresses (think Sigrid, Robyn and her Norwegian compatriots Susanne Sundfør and Aurora), Anna’s music has a distinctive charm that will go down well on a chilly Brussels evening.
14 February
Sessa
Botanique
What better way to spend St Valentine’s than listening to the bossa nova-infused music of Sessa, yet another Brazilian artist gracing the international circuit.
Brazilian artist Sessa
Sessa spent a few years in New York (where he was part of Garotas Suecas, or Swedish Girls) and his music shows the same eclecticism as his Brazilian predecessors like Caetano Veloso who was influenced by the Beatles as well as 60s psychedelic rock, but all overlaid with the melodies and harmonic and rhythmic sophistication of Brazil.
16 February
Yann Tiersen
Ancienne Belgique
Yann Tiersen
Another show that I’m surprised to see isn’t sold out. Tiersen is a pianist and electronic music composer, originally from Brittany. He made his name writing soundtracks including the one for Amélie. His music will appeal to fans of Hauschka, Hania Rani and Ludovico Einaudi.
20 February
Wolfgang Muthspiel Trio
Bozar
Muthspiel is an Austrian jazz guitarist who has managed to break into the ranks of the world’s best players in that genre, which is dominated by the Americans like Pat Metheny and new artists like Kurt Rosenwinkel and Julian Lage. The quality of Muthspiel’s playing, a mixture of post-bop and the electronic textures of Bill Frisell and his ECM labelmates John Abercrombie, and the regard in which he is held is demonstrated by the people he plays with.
Wolfgang Muthspiel Trio
Brian Blade is up there as one of the greatest living jazz drummers and a brilliant composer and arranger who is musical director to Norah Jones and Joni Mitchell. Expect a display of virtuosity that ranges from intense runs to passages of gentle subtlety.
26 February
Fennesz
Bozar
I included the Fennesz show in last month’s gig guide by mistake. It is in fact taking place in February. Everything I wrote about him still applies, though. Apologies to all.
27 February
Helena Casella
Het Depot, Leuven
Casella is a Belgo-Brazilian singer from Gent who fuses neo-soul, R’n’B with the Brazilian jazz she loves and grew up listening to. Her debut LP, Pit of Impressions, was released early last year and the recording leans more towards neo-soul. I was lucky enough to catch her lunchtime show at Flagey Jazz Festival with an amazing band including Agus Falka, an Argentinian guitarist based in Amsterdam.
Helena Casella. Credit: Flagey
The band has the serious jazz skills needed to give flight to Casella’s songs. Hopefully, they will be playing with her at the show at Het Depot. Casella is one of my tips for Belgian musicians to go big this year. She has also appeared on tracks by Kunde, a Belgo-Cameroonian rapper whose music also draws on jazz.
