Felix Machtelinckx Deep South

Vinyl Catalogue Number: SUBEX00181
Download Catalogue Number: SUBEX00182
General Release Date: 14/11/2025

Deep South is an array of experimental improvised songs, manifesting drought and nature’s organic textures, with vocals moving from bitter-sweet to harrowing, accompanied by alternate ear jazz drums. This provides an ambient landscape amidst fragments of songs, lullabies and poems in an unknown language.

“I started the research for the album with one central theme: drought. The dry ground beneath my feet felt like a good place to start. I went out in nature with an old cassette field recorder in the South of France, in search of textures that moved me. Soon I started to improvise little songs, lullabies and poems in unknown languages accompanied by nature and its rich palette of sounds. Creating rhythms by hitting tree barks, scratching rocks and walking among the thyme and rosemary in the rocky mountains, coexisting with a threatening hot summer wind. These improvisations became the base of the tracks on Deep South. All of the roots of the songs were created from an improvised session in nature. From a to z. I never chopped or messed with the base tracks.

Then the second part of the creative process started. I was invited by Kaiho Company to make a soundtrack for their next dance piece hosted by Fabbrica Europa and Aterballetto in Italy. So my quest for textures and feelings of the drought continued. Here, I used some of the improvisations to create the soundtrack. Tracks like The Riser, Giant Sleeps and Ossa had found their final shape in the dance studio's Twin Peaks-like Italian hotels and long train rides.

Other tracks were shaped to accompany the short movie ‘Muttn’ by Tuur Oosterlinck and became the harrowing undertone of the film. With all this input and direction I decided to let the tracks rest and fermentate. Though, I knew I wanted to shape them into an album later on.

After a long wintersleep, I felt I missed some rhythm and different kinds of textures. I wanted some real studio sounding drums to contrast the lo-fi and organic sound of the current tracks. So, I called my two favorite jazz drummers and booked a studio. It was challenging and very interesting to add drums at the end of the process. Not even one, but two drums! There was no fixed rhythm as the tracks are very floaty and organic. I wanted them to be like nature, without a computerized pulse or timecode. Van Soom and Caramin did their magic and so Deep South became reality.”

Felix Machtelinckx
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Felix Machtelinckx is a singer, composer, producer and lyricist from Belgium. Featuring an array of film scores, dance soundtracks, pop, folk and electronic music, Felix's music resonates with a familiar, almost nostalgic patina, applied with a distinctly crooked touch. Through artistic collaboration, coaching and production, Felix has cut a dash in the pop and indie cult scenes of Belgium, especially with his band Tin Fingers, who are feted as one of the most promising indie acts of the moment.

felixmachtelinckx.be

All songs, field recordings, and electronics written, improvised and produced by Felix Machtelinckx.
Drums by Tim Caramin on the left and Marnix Van Soom on the right.
Mastering by Dan Seville

Deep South LP recorded at Mons, Saint Jean (fr) - Firenze, Fabbrica Europa &
Reggio Emilia, Aterballetto (it) during the hot summer of '23.
Additional drums recorded in Hightime Studio (be)