The Belgian band Stavroz is back with Take a Seat, a new album that captures the band at their most focused and free. Written and recorded during their Kick Up The Dust tour across different corners of the world, the 14-track journey drifts through dusty deserts, humid cities, and late-night reflections – all without ever losing the unmistakable Stavroz sound.
The story of Stavroz begins in East Flanders, where IJsbrand De Wilde and Gert Beazar started out spinning genre-blurring DJ sets. When Maxim Helincks and Pieter De Meester joined, what began as a DJ project grew into a band with a vision: to carve a new path in electronic music. Early releases like The Ginning EP and Kasambila gained attention for incorporating the warmth of acoustic instruments into electronic music, a sound that came fully into focus on their 2022 debut album Mindibu and their latest EP Kick Up The Dust (2023).
Now, with Take a Seat, Stavroz continues to explore that in-between space – between genres, between organic and synthetic, between movement and stillness. Known for their acoustic-infused rock-electronica, the band isn’t chasing trends or algorithms. Rather than adding to the noise of everything-everywhere-all-at-once, Take a Seat encourages us to slow down, take a breath, and tune in. “This time, we changed our usual way of working,” the band explains. “Normally, each of us writes and records in our own home studio, shaping ideas separately before bringing them together. After months of sketching and experimenting at home, we booked a studio in the south of Belgium, surrounded by nature and silence. That space gave us the chance to really jam, revisit, and rework everything we had been creating over the past year, and to let the music grow in a new, more collective way.”
Related
Âme release new album "Love Is The Dance”
Last Night On Earth invites Reset Robot back for his latest EP ‘Simple’Stavroz have also discovered new instruments and unfamiliar sounds, expanding their world without ever losing what makes it theirs. It started during travels through North Africa and the Middle East, where they came across instruments like the gembri and qarqeba. “We bought some of them, learned how to play them and figured out a way to implement these and other instruments into our music in a way that fits,” Stavroz explains. “This has proven to be a difficult exercise, but this is one of the ways that makes us stand out from the rest in electronic music. Rock meets electronic meets soundtrack.”
The journey into Take a Seat begins with Hunt, the album’s first single. A slow-building piece that drips with tension and dust, it’s as hypnotic as it is hard to pin down: “Imagine a camel race, deep in the desert – with robot jockeys.” Hunt is dry, droning, and cinematic, built on restraint and groove, built on the signature instruments that have come to define Stavroz. It’s the band as we know them, but with a closeness that brings us nearer to their live performances than ever before.
Para Rio is a different story. Softer and more delicate, this one was written for the newborn daughter of one of the band members. “We played it with the same tenderness you’d have holding a baby for the first time – delicate, careful, full of emotion. It still sounds like us, but maybe with a little more heart. This one’s for love. This one’s for Rio.” The track “breathes acoustic warmth, layered with subtle electronics and synths entwined around horns,” forming a soundscape that balances intimacy and strangeness. It’s Stavroz at their most tender, but still pulsing with quiet intensity.
One of the album’s highlights is Lilac, a collaboration with acclaimed Australian singer-songwriter RY X, known for songs like Berlin and Only, both streamed over 200 million times on Spotify. RY X’s distinct, emotional vocals fit naturally with Stavroz’s warm and textured sound. The track floats in the space where both artists thrive, minimal, emotional, and atmospheric, with a haunting, intimate feel that echoes the delicate longing in the lyrics.
Take a Seat isn’t just a collection of singles; it’s a full album best experienced and fully understood as a complete work – a story told across 14 tracks that moves between melancholy and hope, balancing restraint with momentum. In a time when singles and playlists hold most of the power in the music industry, Stavroz show that the album format remains meaningful. The album will be available digitally and on double vinyl, with a limited edition coloured pressing for the first 200 orders. “All the more reason to avoid skipping to the instant satisfaction part,” the band advises. “Just start on side A and end on side D. Pop it on your record player, turn up the volume… and take a seat.”
Stream / Download here
Discover more from Decoded Magazine
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
