12 months ago I had no ideas what would Laid Back look like in the future and I still don’t know.

We still add the “radio” label to our name so I guess we are some kind of online radio station providing on-demands mixes next to a stream. But honestly if our role would stop there… I would be bored. So I like the fact that we don’t know what we are and ended up being a platform supporting various projects… Here are (in no particular order) some of the players who shared their passion with us and some of the games we played together. Thank you all for the good times!

* Carlito who published massive photo series from his walks in the New York streets and especially the mind blowing Bronx Riviera piece.

* Jason “ClassicBeatz” Minnis who released his Ntale’s Groove album, a remix EP and even a classical piano CD next to collaborating with Miles Bonny and Tokyo Dawn.

* Oli-B not only illustrated the LDBK compilation and Ntale’s Groove album but impressively brought his game to the next level… Keep an eye on him.

* One of my personal highlights of the year was attending the International Radio Festival in Zurich, meeting so many like-minded people, getting interviewed by one of the biggest japanese radio station and most important: going on a trip with Benny and hosting our first radio show together.

* Working on an almost daily basis with long time friend and collaborator LuiGi was a true blessing. What an experience to release the 74 Miles Away project in collaboration with Melting Pot Music and have one track selected by Lefto for his Brownswood compilation. Seeing MonkeyRobot and Pierre Anckaert playing their electro-jazz on the most prestigious stages of the country with huge smiles on their faces brought joyful tears to my eyes.

* It’s always good to go outside of your comfort zone and that’s where you end when teaming up with JoBee to help her release her first Jazz project… Make sure to check the mix on top of this page if you want to know what she has in the pipeline for next year… This is Magic and I want to be part of it.

* I had to go to Istanbul to hear about singer Desta Haile and she happened to be in Brussels upon my return… so I asked filmmaker Sylvain to document the recording of her acoustic tracks. Let us know when you are back in town Desta.

* Releasing the LDBK compilation gathering 25 artists and entirely financed by our audience was probably the best illustration of what Laid Back is. All credit goes to Pierre for pushing this project.

* When it comes to writing about Jazz, Blast Kid is our go-to-guy and once again he delivered big time with this in-depth articles on Czech Jazz … one that even got noticed by the Czech Arts and Theatre Institute while his pop corn documentary ended up being one of the most popular pieces on the blog this year.

* With more than 250 mixes, 10.000 followers and hundred thousands of plays: Mixcloud is more than ever our platform of choice when it comes to sharing our shows. But it’s more than that. Over the years the Mixcloud boys (thank you Nikhil, Sam, Nico, Rich & Matt) became partners and even offered us to organize the compilation release party in London. Special shout out to Teru (FR), Orsii (UK), Lexis (CA), Tome (HR), Vlada (SR) and others for sharing their sets on our page.

* Probably the biggest collaboration on our Mixcloud page was the one between the legendary DJ Vadim, LDBK’s hottest DJ Mr. Critical and new kid on the block SeQ who did an amazing on the illustration front. Gathering a couple of people on the same show is probably something we will do more often in the future.

* Getting interviewed or speaking at conferences helps me understand what it is that we are doing. Thank you Caro at Lezarts Urbains, Sam at Brave New Radio Symposium, Sven at Poppunt magazine and Gilles at KIKK festival for the opportunities. Looking forward to more of those talks.

* I hope to find a proper office / studio space to host our activities in 2012 but in the meantime, I like my nomadic workstyle especially when I’m around St Gilles and drop by to spend a few hours at Digital Park‘s with Laure, Ali & Tom. Inspiration and good vibes in the air!

Thank you’s are tricky because you know you will forget somebody but thanks to Find Magazine, RELEASE, BlueFunk District, Dragontape, Tjunk, Limited Addiction, Eugene Wisotow, Supafly collective, Simon at Divergence FM, Caro Lessire, Jan Wafflez, Joep at Namahn, Dirk Vermeiren (Soul Sendikasi), BBE, Strand, Project:Mooncircle, Tokyo Dawn, Mpumi, Fato, Royal Groove, Bar du Matin, FM Brussel, Kwak, Seb, Caro and everybody who supported us in one way or another.

Can I make a wish? For 2012, I’d like a great 10th birthday party, a new 74 Miles Away album, a new iPad app, a new site, organizing exhibitions, … Haha I sound like a spoiled kid. Nah I just want plenty of next level collaborations with talented and like-minded cats from all over the world.

Whatever you do in 2012, have fun and… stay tuned,

J.

ps: Big up to the Farm Prod team for giving our logo yet another facelift.