Pura Vida: art for roots' sake

The master himself guides me around the halls and rooms of the Meeting and Event centre Staf Versluys. The building was named after the known world sailor and citizen of Bredene, who died in a motor accident in 1995. Pura Vida has already performed there a couple of times, even in the adjacent meadow, where the Afro-Carribean Festival has been housed for years. It is all part of the natural mystic feel that flows through Bregt De Boever's life.

It wasn't a favour that got him here either. There were many candidates, one of them being a fairly renowned artist, but Bregt turned out to be the chosen one. Admittedly, the centre's director had already heard Pura Vida's music in Sint-Miara-Aalter, Bregt's homebase, and seen the covers of Red Hot, Hard Road and We nah give up. Back then already, it did not leave him untouched.

The paintings on those covers are in their full and original glory part of the exhibition, next to a dozen of similar, yet each fascinating works, a series of early portraits, a couple a fragile wall dolls and for us, the reggae crowd, the magnificent highlight: LSP Paradise Island Community. It is the artistic depiction of a vision Lee Scratch Perry shared with Puraman, the result of reasoning and sharing thoughts through the internet for nights on end. We can see Kingston by night, Jamaican fauna and flora and of course Scratch himself with his Swiss wife. Unusually clear lines and figurative motives for a painting of Bregt De Boever, but it is in the end shared creativity and inspiration. Scratch and Puraman are undeniably kindred spirits who have not only found each other in music. For those still in doubt: Lee Perry loves Pura Vida's music and fully realises that nobody has ever updated his sound and genius in a better way. The joint record is on its way, and we've already got a sneak preview.

You can't deny that the bright colours and Boschian scenes in Bregt's painting often depict a sombre, even terrifying world. Everywhere eyes are prying and faces are hiding. And who is this Poddington Krank, the stretched-out shadow figure in a top hat returning several times, sometimes in the company of his even slimmer 'pennemeesters'? A brilliant producer in the studio, a devilish presence in the workshop.

Bregt says it's how he keeps the dreams and demons balanced in his head. Yin and yang. Light and dark. Music reaching for the sky, artwork leading us to the deepest holes of existence. Singers and players of instruments meet painter on the dark side of the moon. A few epic works are up in Bredene, equally rich and full in meaning as the paintings of Hiëronymus Bosch (mentioned above already) and Pieter Breughel. Had they used their brush in their time with equal thickness and expressionism, similar mass scenes and strange parables would have been created. I am possibly a bit biased (Pura Vida already had paintings on the covers of the first demo's that were sent to me) but, in my eyes, Bregt The Painter is no less than Bregt The Musician.

After our tour we enjoyed the beach for a bit and then found out that Pura Vida and Poddington Krank (the producer!) are up to big things. Lee Perry, Congo Ashanti Roy, Jah9: their new records will be brought to life in the Lost Ark Studio of Mare Aalter, as Sint-Maria-Aalter is known in reggae circles. And we should be a little bit proud of that. Also, that new Scratch one might be that album fans have so long been waiting for.