Cult Soundtrack To ‘Jan Zonder Vrees’ (1984) Gets A Vinyl Release

If you would crack open my cranium like a walnut between your two thumbs (please don’t), you would find nestled in a corner flap of grey matter, somewhere amongst the usual childhood triumphs and traumas, the soundtrack to ‘Jan Zonder Vrees’. This small synth masterpiece by Brussels-based composer Alain Pierre was the earworm-sidepiece to Flanders’s first feature-length animation in 1984. Despite its cult classic status, it had never gotten a proper release. Until today.

Stroom.tv, always toiling away at the frontiers of cult music goodness, just dropped an 180g vinyl version.

A real treat for fans of: Tangerine Dream for Risky Business, Goblin for Dario Argento, John Carpenter, Judge Dredd-Era synths, etc.

Buy it on the Bandcamp page, where you’ll also find a free streaming to get familiar, as needed.

Quoted from Stroom.tv:

“First there was total darkness, then came birth as an online radio station, and now S troom.tv gets a record label branch.

The firstborn baby is the soundtrack to the 1984 Flemish cult classic movie ‘Jan Zonder Vrees’, by infamous composer Alain Pierre. ‘Jan Zonder Vrees’ was the first animated feature film, directed by Jef Cassiers and commissioned by the public broadcasting company BRT. It tells the tale of Jan, a simple yet extremely strong farmer boy who has to battle evil whilst fleeing from his native town of Antwerp. Although Cassiers was on a very small budget, his movie is full of references to Old Masters like Bruegel and Bosch, and famous actors such as Jan Decleir and Dora Van der Groen lent their voices. ‘Jan Zonder Vrees’ became an instant classic sunday afternoon VHS-tape for a whole generation of flemish kids.

The soundtrack of the Brussels based composer and sound designer Alain Pierre, who worked on numerous other movies (Jurassic Parc ao!), is one of the most striking elements that contributed to the success of this classic – however, until today, the soundtrack never had a proper release. The score ranges from catchy synthesizer tunes over upbeat medieval melodies with an eighties make-over to near-atmospheric ambient, and the theme song is an earworm that’s nested deep into the collective memory of every Flemish person who had a tv in the late eighties and nineties.

‘Jan Zonder Vrees’ is the first ever release on STROOM, a sublabel of musicmaniarecords.”