We see musicians and majorettes dressed in their costumes for public appearances that are asleep. They have their brass instruments with them, but their drowsiness prevents them from playing. Time is suspended in this 'tableau vivant' and the tiniest gesture of one of the sleeping majorettes becomes an event, creating a tension in the image that contrasts with its picturesque composition. On the smaller screen, one can see the total view of the scene, while on the big screen details of that same scene appear.

The title Fanfare, Calme & Volupté refers — not without humour — to the well-known refrain from Baudelaire's poem L'invitation au voyage from the collection entitled Les fleurs du mal (1857). "Là, tout n'est qu'ordre et beauté, Luxe, calme et volupté.", it says. ("There, everything is order and beauty, luxury, calm and sensuousness.") In this love poem, Baudelaire gives free rein to his escapist oriental fantasies. The poem inspired Henri Matisse, among others, to paint an impressionistic work with the same title (Luxe, calme et volupté, 1904).

The idea to recompose a traditional genre that conflicts with contemporary issues does not stem from a nostalgic longing for a conventional visual idiom but enables Theys to better illuminate conflicts within contemporary art and culture.