In March 2021, together with Brooklyn-based drummer Raf Vertessen and Belgian pianist Andreas Bral, Hanne walked the whole Belgian coastline in the company of a camel and a camera crew. The goal was to register this coastline by recording the musical impressions of the trio alongside the road. Everyday improvised sets were played and recorded on different locations in- and outdoors, starting at the French border and ending five days later at the border with the Netherlands. Armed with backpacks, winter coats, hats and an inseparable wagon, the three musicians, together with their camel and camera crew, travel over empty beaches, mist-shrouded dikes and through dunes, accompanied only by the murmur of the North Sea and the whooshing of a biting wind. They improvise in the sand, in a church, on a breakwater. Sometimes with turbulent spontaneity, but just as often with hypnotic sounds. The film moves at its own pace and shows the Belgian coast in all its battered glory, but just as striking are the surprised and amused looks of passers-by. Beautifully captured by Seppe Van Grieken (camera) and Christophe Albertijn (sound), 'As We Walk' appears to be the debut of Hanne as a filmmaker; in two years she mastered to edit and direct the footage with the improvised music and Belgian coastline as the main storyline.

​

"I wanted to register this coastline because I believe this part of Belgium will look totally different in the near future and also because for me this territory symbolizes different problems that we are facing today. On the other hand, the camel created some dadaïstic atmosphere around our group, made people curious and laugh,... personally, I found it great to bring improvised music to people that normally would never listen to it."

Hanne De Backer

​

The movie was released in March 2023, together with the third album of  g a b b r o  'The Moon Appears When The Water Is Still' during an extensive release-tour throughout Europe. It will be announced in 2024 when the movie will be purchasable online.