The firstborn baby is the soundtrack to the 1984 Flemish cult classic movie 'Jan Zonder Vrees', by infamous composer Alain Pierre. ‘Jan Zonder Vrees' was the first animated feature film, directed by Jef Cassiers and commissioned by the public broadcasting company BRT. It tells the tale of Jan, a simple yet extremely strong farmer boy who has to battle evil whilst fleeing from his native town of Antwerp. Although Cassiers was on a very small budget, his movie is full of references to Old Masters like Bruegel and Bosch, and famous actors such as Jan Decleir and Dora Van der Groen lent their voices. ‘Jan Zonder Vrees’ became an instant classic sunday afternoon VHS-tape for a whole generation of flemish kids.
The soundtrack of the Brussels based composer and sound designer Alain Pierre, who worked on numerous other movies (Jurassic Parc ao!), is one of the most striking elements that contributed to the success of this classic - however, until today, the soundtrack never had a proper release. The score ranges from catchy synthesizer tunes over upbeat medieval melodies with an eighties make-over to near-atmospheric ambient, and the theme song is an earworm that’s nested deep into the collective memory of every Flemish person who had a tv in the late eighties and nineties.