A few months ago I wrote some words about Anne Chris Bakker‘s beautiful album “Tussenlicht“, a self released limited edition CD-R. (If you haven’t checked this one yet: the digital edition is still available!)
It’s a pleasant surprise to find that his new (first “official”) album “Reminiscenses“ is now released on Dronarivm, the (Moscow-based) contemporary ambient and modern classical music label curated by Pleq and Dimitry Taldykin.
The name may not immediately sound familiar, but “Anne Chris Bakker“ should ring a bell if you carefully checked out the releases by Jan and Romke Kleefstra (internationally acclaimed for their Frysian soundscape poetry and Piiptsjilling collaboration with Machinefabriek and Mariska Baars).
Anne Chris Bakker has worked with them on various releases: “Wink“, “Griis” and a live performance cassette released in March 2012.
“Tussenlicht“, recently released on Somehow Recordings (where the physical version is available), is Anne Chris Bakker‘s second solo project (after “Weerzien”, 2012). Its dreamlike poetic atmosphere is definitely resembling the Piiptsjilling/Kleefstra recordings, and yet there is something remarkably different…
Matthew Florianz is one of the dutch artists I have been following for a lot of years now – together with fellow experimenters like Rutger ‘Machinefabriek’ Zuydervelt, the ‘Piiptsjilling’ (Kleefstra) brothers and Michel Banabila.
It’s funny mentioning them together, because their music is quite different. But all have their own definite ‘brand’ that identifies their music, all work tirelessly on their music, and – finally – all get international recognition for their works’ quality.
From these artists, Matthew Florianz (who started recording as ‘Liquid Morphine’ around 2000) may be the one whose music remains most close to the origins of ambient music as defined by Brian Eno.
In musical style, I mean, not regarding the ‘generative’ compositional aspect of much of Eno’s music. Florianz carefully constructs his music, paying attention to the placement of every little detail.
“Deislieper” is the third release in what I like to call the “Kleefstra Wire Trilogy“.
In fact, there’s no real ‘trilogy’, but three separate albums that were presented by three independent labels on one single advertising page in Wire Magazine: “Wurdskrieme” (on Experimedia). “Tongerswel” (on Home Normal), and now “Deislieper” (on Hibernate).
“Deislieper”, by the way, is a Frisian name for the nightjar and literally it means ‘day sleeper’
Rooted firmly in the improv scene, core members Jan (poetry) and Romke (guitar, effects) Kleefstra never work alone.
With Piiiptsjilling, most of the contributors were Dutch fellow musicians (like Rutger ‘Machinefabriek’ Zuydervelt, Mariska Baars, Chris Bakker), but soon they also started playing with an international cast of musicians like Peter Broderick, Nils Frahm, Greg Haines (on the Seeljocht project).
Tongerswel presented their work together with saxophonist Gareth Davis, and now Deisleeper features the incredible percussion music by Sytze Pruiksma.
When I reviewed the very first Piiptsjilling release way back in 2008, I wrote it deserved “to be heard in and outside of Friesland (or Holland, for that matter)”. In no way I could have imagined that the combination of Frisian poetry and dreamy improvisational soundscapes would gain international recognision to this extent.
It’s quite a remarkable feat for “local” music like this to be featured in the October Wire issue on a single advertising page, combining three respectable labels (Home Normal, Experimedia, and Hibernate) promoting different albums by the Kleefstra brothers: Deislieper, Wurdskrieme and Tongerswel, respectively!
The cover image and title of “Kinison – Goldthwait“ may raise some questions, especially for those not living in America. From the website notes, we learn that “Saul is taking some form of inspiration from the well documented public feud between the American stand up comedians Sam Kinison (foul mouthed ranter), and Bobcat Goldthwait (Zed from the Police Academy films). The dispute (supposedly over who stole whose act) came to a head on U.S. ‘shock-jock’ Howard Stern’s radio show, when a boozy sounding Kinison called up Goldthwait live on air, leading to a rather fiery showdown.”
From what I read and heard about this incident, to me this just sounds like a pitiful, embarrasing moment of horrible, (so-called) shock-radio. So it’s fascinating to find that this particular incident is the source of inspiration of this new Danny Saul album.
As Saul says about this: “The track titles may provide something of an ‘ambiguous narrative’ which the listener can take or leave.”
On second thought, there is a remarkable resemblance between this album and the radio incident it was inspired by.
If you’re a collector that likes to have your music on a physical CD, times are rapidly getting harder. Especially in the ambient and experimental genre, where more and more releases are handmade do-it-yourself releases in extremely limited editions.
Take Wixel’s 2009 project, for instance: one CD every month, every edition physically released in the number of days of that particular month (but at least these are later rereleased in simpler packaging and available as digital downloads too). Even a relatively ‘big name’ like Thomas Köner releases his latest CD ‘La Barca‘ in a limited edition of 600 copies only.
By the time the news of a new release reaches you, chances are the album is sold out and unavailable physically.
Such is the case with Wink, the new album by Kleefstra / Bakker / Kleefstra.
Although I thought I acted quickly, my handpainted CD (!) and handpainted cover bears the number 90 – of only 100! So I guess it’s sold out the moment you read this…
So what’s the use of this blogpost then?
‘Opposites attract’. That’s quite appropriate when talking about Machinefabriek and Soccer Committee working together.
Their music seems quite incompatible at first: intimate acoustic folk vs. gritty electronics.
But Mariska Baars (Soccer Committee) and Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) have been playing together more often in the past.
