Being able to listen to David Eugene Edwards is a privilege. The singer makes his audience feel chosen to hear his sensual voice. Hence it's not only the themes along catholic lines that turn his concerts into near-religious experiences.

As Sixteen Horsepower's frontman Edwards has developed his singing into an instrument that quavers heartbreakingly, howls and pines away, with a shiver in the tail of each sentence.

The seated Ancienne Belgique audience let themselves be moved by the songs Edwards recorded under the Woven Hand moniker, his side-project that has just released the new CD Blush Music. That record contains music written by Edwards for the dance performance Blush by Wim Vandekeybus' company Ultima Vez.

But Edwards primarily played songs from the untitled Woven Hand debut, which was released last year. The songs sound less gothic and ominous than Sixteen Horsepower's material. The intensity remains the same: Edwards puts his heart and doomed soul into it and alternates between electric guitar, banjo and mandolin. His lived-through melodious fire-and-brimstone sermons brought this exorcism to perfection.

The soundtrack to Blush might be said to consist of soundscapes, rather than songs, but it definitely were the songs that greedily gnawed at the heart. "White Bird" relied on Ordy Garrison's subtle drum roll, overlaid with an Indian-sounding motive from Edwards' guitar.

In between songs the field recordings that make up the most part of Blush music sneaked in: croaking and squeaking snippets of sound which rendered speaking in between songs redundant. It all worked out well for Edwards -- not the most talkative of men anyway --who halfway through the show remarked just how nice Belgian people are. The singer, who seemed grumpy and aloof last year during the Sixteen Horsepower concert at the Cirque Royal/Royal Circus, now appeared to be in a remarkably good mood.

"Story and Pictures" was one of the highlights that pierced you to the very marrow, with Edwards' resounding voice drifting over the sacred Americana of his band. After a thundering ovation a blood-curdling scream sounded from the audience. A fan who could no longer control her emotions? "Now, that's what I've been talking about all night", Edwards replied with a grin on his face.

The apotheosis was grand. Edwards snarled at his microphone, which almost fell over, and was shaking on his chair as if a dozen devils got into him.

People who crave for more of the same will have to wait until May, when Edwards will provide the music to Sonic Boom, the new project of Ultima Vez together with Toneelgroep Amsterdam.

Translation by Lot.