Je m'en fish

infobox record label


founded = 2003
founder = Bart Dujardin
country = Belgium
location = Brussels
genre = Electronic
url = http://www.jemenfish.be

'Je m'en fish' roughly translates as 'I do not care' and is one of Belgium's largest organisations working with electronic music of any kind as well as incorporating a number of audiovisual artists, graphic artists and more. While being active before this time, it began as an officially recognized entity by the Belgian government in early 2003.

Since then Je m'en fish has been steadily growing from 6 to about 30 different musical projects including some large international names such as The Neon Judgement, Luc Van Acker, Implant, and more. It has gathered the financial and logistic support of both the Belgian government and the Dutch community in Brussels as well as a number of sponsors and as such has been increasingly considered to be the most important organisation supporting electronic music in Belgium as well as a steady rise of Je m'en fish events in Europe, where the collective has been receiving increasingly positive feedback as well as airplay in several countries.

The collective released a high quality digipack compilation CD in 2005 with a limited edition of 1000 copies. This release was followed by a large number of events to support it, and was sold out in early 2006. A DVD featuring numerous videoclips is planned in early 2007.

Je m'en fish is since 2005 also the official organiser of a national electronica contest designed for young talents, providing them with material and logistical aid as well as giving them the possibility to join the organisation to have a more stable support. Its founders were also offered and accepted an offer to have their own program on the Belgian radio FM Brussel.

2006 saw a new event 'Lektrofest' emerge in light of the large 10-day festival Gentse Feesten during the summer. Je m'en fish had both indoor performances and an outdoor stage for bands, and invited many national and international talent, more than 100 live acts total.

2007 was a radical change in direction with a largish contest together with online platform electrobel in the guise of the 'Dark contest', a soundtrack contest for the 25th edition of the Brussels International Festival of Fantastic Film (BIFFF). The end of the year also saw multiple coproductions with Mekitburn festival, Alienor festival (France), Langweiligkeit festival (Netherlands) and more.

Late 2007 and now 2008, the organisation seems to decide to drop the competition aspect of some of its novel ideas, and starts to focus more on offering open stages where everyone is welcome, pushing participants to work together instead of in a competitive environment. Most notable of these is a successful series of events titled 'Taking Back Mondays' in Brussels-based club Kultuurkaffee. Invited international guest artists for these include Legowelt, Total Science, Chris Su, Klute, and more.

Event summary

Je m'en fish has been known to try to incorporate several artistic styles into one all-encompassing event, and ecourages artistic on-stage intertwining and artistic 'discussion'. As such the organisation has been known to interact with a wide number of other organisations going from theatre and screenplays to live paintings on their music. The musical projects have as a whole been invited to the largest Belgian festivals and stages, most notable being the Dour festival, Ancienne Belgique, and almost all of Brussels' largest venues such as Kultuurkaffee, Recyclart, and more. It has coproduced evenings with Ninja tune and Warp Records.

International events in 2005: 8 events in The Netherlands, 2 in Brazil, 7 in Germany, 3 in Slovenia, 2 in the UK, 2 in Switzerland, 1 in Spain, 1 in Portugal and 1 in Austria.

International events in 2006: 10 in The Netherlands, 7 in France, 2 in Spain, 3 in Germany, 2 in Italy, 2 in the UK, 1 in Switzerland, 1 in Sweden and 1 in Slovenia.

ee also

* List of record labels

External links

* [http://www.jemenfish.be Je m'en fish official page]
* [http://www.myspace.com/jemenfish Je m'en fish Myspace page]
* [http://www.flickr.com/photos/jemenfish/sets/ Je m'en fish event picture sets]
* [http://www.vgc.be Dutch community of Brussels]