Arts Centre Vooruit, Ghent, Belgium

“I don’t like singers with guitars,” Luka Bloom once claimed in an interview with Flemish newspaper De Standaard. A slightly unusual quote from one of Ireland’s most celebrated singer-songwriters, to say the least.

Bloom started his career as a fingerpicking folkie, but tendonitis forced him to reinvent himself. On his 2007 album Tribe he has traded in his guitar for samples and electronica. The album, however, is remarkably meditative and quiet. The guitar is still Bloom’s most trusted companion on stage though, as shown in the recent dvd release featuring concerts in Bloom’s home country Ireland, where he performed in front of enthusiastic fans. If you would rather see the real thing, you can catch him live at Vooruit in the autumn!