Soundtrack for the Summer: Casper Van de Velde

Drummer Casper Van de Velde (23) threw a juicy bone to the Brussels jazz scene with SCHNTZL, his collaboration with pianist Hendrik Lasure. But he also explores art pop with Bombataz and blends tear-jerkers with synths with In Een Discotheek. These are his favourite tracks for the summer.

Of course, Casper Van de Velde is known as a jazz musician, but he has an eclectic music taste. From the soft funk of Shuggie Otis's "Aht Uh Mi Hed" to William Basinski's "dlp 3", his ideal soundtrack "for spacing out". In between he ponders about R. Stevie Moore's "I’ve Begun to Fall In Love", "Mystified", a song from Fleetwood Mac's slick pop record Tango in the Night., MGMT's "Me and Michael", and "Sega" by Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder.

"Everything by James Blake always," Casper Van de Velde tells us about his next pick, Blake's "Unluck" . But there's more: "Heaven or Las Vegas" by Eighties icons Cocteau Twins, for example. Or Nico's "These Days", from her classic record Chelsea Girl, a song he first heard in Wes Anderson's summery movie The Royal Tenenbaums, Hudson Mohawke's "3.30", and "Bibimbap" by Anderson Paak's funky side project Knxwledge, "a song that radiates sunlight." And finally, "When a Man Loves a Woman" by the late folk queen Karen Dalton, a song he only just discovered this summer. "Chills me to the bone."

See Casper Van de Velde live: 30/8: Bombataz (Flamingo, Brussels), 6/9: Donder (Jazz in ’t Park, Ghent), 8/9: In Een Discotheek (S.N.O.B.S. Festival, Ghent), 26/9: Warm Bad (Flagey, Brussels), 25/9 > 12/10: Sylvia (with An Pierlé, Théatre National, Brussels), 13.10: SCHNTZL (Handelsbeurs, Ghent)