Album release show

GREAT NEWS! My new album ‘Erasing Mountains’ will be available in stores and on digital platforms on February 17th. We’ve been working hard on it this year, with a great team. The coming weeks I will reveal more about it.

I’d like to INVITE you for the release party on MONDAY 13 FEBRUARY in Amsterdam, in the Upstairs room of Melkweg. We’ll play the entire album, and some other songs, with the full recording cast of the record. Egon Kracht: double bas, Rob Wijtman: percussion, Ro Krauss: violin, Patrick Votrian: tuba, Kobi Arditi: trombone, Rik Cornelissen: accordion, Michiel van Dijk: clarinet and I will sing and play guitar. Hope to see you!!

TICKETS

Album release date!

We are happy to announce Erasing Mountains will be available in stores and on digital platforms on February 17th 2017. Physical copies will be available on deluxe CD and beautiful vinyl.
More to follow soon!

Night Falls On The Town on Spotify

You can now stream and share Night Falls On The Town on Spotify.
It’s also (or will be soon) on just about any other digital service. Happy streaming or downloading…

An African girl and the North Sea

The song Night Falls On The Town will be out on August 5, in memory of Jessica Phiri. Some of you may remember, there was a tragic accident on the beach here last year. Jessica Phiri from Zambia, fell into a rip current and lost her life, just 20 years old. She had been a guest with a German family, while working there for a year, through an international exchange program. It happened on a day trip to Zandvoort, at the end of Jessica’s stay. She wanted to see a sea. Zambia only has rivers.

She was missing for three days at the peak of summer and tourism just kept going as if nothing had happened. Albeit inevitable in a sense, it felt wrong to me. One of those late evenings I walked on the boulevard when all the tourists had gone home. I was surrounded by silent witnesses of tourism. Empty chairs, an abandoned fairground, the lifeboat had returned to the boathouse, but Jessica was still missing. I wrote the song Night Falls On The Town about it.  When the Phiri family and host family visited Zandvoort in June, to look for answers, I had the chance to present it to them. I hoped it might show them the events had had impact on the community here.

The song is available now on Bandcamp and precedes the release of my new album, expected in november.

 

Wilhelmina Huiskamer Festival

September 2nd and 3rd I will be playing 6 30 minute shows at Wilhelmina Huiskamer Festival. On Fridaynight I’ll be in Blok F and on Saturdaynight in Blok A. Plenty of new songs. Hope to see you there. Tickets

onbekend

A very special meeting

13458532_10206524641660226_693796326121008446_o

Last year there was a tragic accident on the beach near my house. I wrote a song about it. By chance I had the opportunity to meet the wonderful family of Jessica Phiri (Zambia) and the Munsch family (Germany) who were with her on that terrible day, August 5th 2015. I gave them the song, we all listened to it on the beach. You can read more about in on Facebook.  The song is called Night Falls On The Town and will be on my new album.

 

Mixing in California

collage2

A week ago I returned home from mixing my new album in Cotati, California. I worked, once again, with Oz Fritz, engineer extraordinaire, who had also recorded most of the music earlier this year in Holland. We spent 8 intense and long days in Studio A of Prairie Sun Recording, where we had been before in 2008 (to work on Cloudmachine’s Back On Land). I love the huge collection of vintage analogue gear there, aswell as the Waits-room in studio C, responsible for the characteristic reverb on two Grammy-winning Tom Waits records: Bone Machine and Mule Variations. The latter of which had drawn me to Prairie Sun and in particular to Oz back in 2008. Much to my surprise I discovered an old boiler with my name on it, that was fitted to the Waits-room aeons ago. Half way through the sessions percussionist Rob Wijtman joined us. Oz did his magic and we had a great time. I think we left Sonoma County with a great record. I hope you can hear it soon. Stay tuned…

Recording!

collage

Dear friends. A little over a year ago I decided to dismantle my band Cloudmachine. It was time for new colours. And stepping forward as a solo artist. Over the course of 2015  I worked on new songs and arrangements and thought about a new sound. I feel blessed some people I admire want to work with me. I got some good advise from dutch double bass player Egon Kracht and producer/arranger/composer Sebastiaan Koolhoven. This resulted in a full week of recording, just two weeks ago in the E-Sound studio in Weesp, the Netherlands. With Egon (double bass), Rob Wijtman (creative beating), Rik Cornelissen (accordion), Ro Krauss (violin), David Faber (cello), Michiel van Dijk (clarinet), Kobi Arditi (trombone) and Patrick Votrian (tuba). Great people and excellent players. Oh. And there was a small choir too! I am also very happy to be working again with renown engineer Oz Fritz (USA). He also engineered the Cloudmachine-record Back On Land (2009). He’s known – among other great things – for his work on some Tom Waits albums (Mule Variations, Alice, Blood Money) and we became friends. I am currently adding my vocals and some guitar sounds to these recordings, at my small but pleasant home studio near the coast here. I’m planning to head for California this spring to mix the album with Oz. The record will likely be released after summer. Hope you’ll bear with me. I think it is going to be something special.

Album progress

I spent 2015 mostly writing and arranging new songs. Also I had to think about the kind of album I want to make. Discover new things. Find a new colour palette. The story, the style, the team I would like to work with. The studio. Doing it properly, to my personal standards, is quite a big project. But an exciting one.

At this point I am heading for phase 1, recording the songs. I have booked studio time in February, with a musical advisor  (Sebastiaan Koolhoven) and seven incredible musicians. All people I admire, of which some, I have been hoping to work with at some point, for a long time. On double bass Egon Kracht (who also provided valuable input while I was writing), percussion Rob Wijtman (Ocobar), tuba Patrick Votrian (De Kift, K.O. Brass), trombone Kobi Arditi (K.O. Brass, Ricky Koole), violin Ro Krauss (De Wereldband, Wende), accordion Rik Cornelissen, clarinet Michiel van Dijk (Egon Kracht, Maarten van Roozendaal, Beau Hunks) and cello David Faber (Dudok Kwartet). I’m also excited to be joining forces again with engineer Oz Fritz (USA). During the holidays and in January I will be busy getting everything ready in time for the sessions.

It will take some time before it is mixed and released (phase 2 and phase 3) but I thought I’d keep you posted. Thank you for staying tuned.

(photo: Stef Nagel Photography)

Singelfestival Edam: new songs

Saturday September 26th I’ll be playing a 40 minute set in Edam. Just me and a guitar some familiar and some  new songs I’d like to try out and possibly record later on. Exciting for me. Hope to see you there.
SAT SEPTEMBER 26 Singelfestival, Edam. 23:30-0:10 tickets