Music from Netherlands

Partir to Live (2012) is a non-narrative film experience in sensations, in ethical confusion, and in physical and psychic contusions, directed by Domingo Garcia-Huidobro of Föllakzoid. Dutch minimalist composer Jozef van Wissem’s score for the film consists of appropriated 12-string electric guitar drone, black baroque lute mirror images, and minimal electronics. For the first time ever, Sacred Bones Records will release the DVD and soundtrack LP together in a limited one-time pressing of …

Following previous Low Point releases, Glisten (2009) and Patina (2011), Whorls is the third collaboration between Tim Catlin, a guitarist and sound artist based in Melbourne and Machinefabriek, nom de plume of Rutger Zuydervelt from Rotterdam. Catlin made initial recordings drawing upon a wide range of approaches, preparations and techniques for instruments including acoustic guitar, bowed piano and zither which were then sent to Zuydervelt for the addition of extra sounds, editing and sequenci…

The central concept behind Alvin Lucier's Memory Space is the representation of another time and place through the use of a new set of sounds. In his instructions, Lucier asks the performer/s to go to an environment and record by any means (notes on paper, graphics, audio recording or by memory) the sound situations that are present, then, at any later time, in a different space, attempt to recreate that situation. The purpose of the work is to avoid elaboration or embellishment, but given that …

**Initial copies pressed on Initial copies pressed on transparent wax** Driven by my love for solo albums by drummers and percussionists like Jon Mueller, Wil Guthrie, Nick Hennies and Burkhard Beins, I've made Drum Solos. It's my take on a solo drum record, despite the fact that I lack the talent to hit a steady beat or a play a drum roll. Instead, I used the sounds of a drum kit as a source for further processing.I booked a rehearsal room with a drum kit, and recorded as much sounds as I could…

Gorgeous new full length from Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem. Wissem's long form, graceful melodic lute layers, preceded by suspenseful deep bass movements, create a transcendental and pastoral. Wissem's is a world where hypnotic minimalist figures are repeated to slow the act of listening. Nihil Obstat (Nothing Hinders) is performed on Wissem's custom black lute built by Michael Schreiner. LP pressed in an edition of 800. "New classical lute music that sound as if it always existed, as if it h…

"In December 2011 I recorded the album Stroomtoon, which was released by the French Nuun label the year after. The music was constructed using recordings from improvisations with a setup that I was trying out for upcoming live performances. It's the same setup that I still use nowadays, mainly consisting of an old Phillips analogue tone generator and a selection of effects units. When making Stroomtoon, it felt like moving into new territory that was worth explore more. While that album is very …

Both of these projects hardly need an introduction. Merzbow is since the late 70s the project of Masami Akita working in the field of noise music, having released a few hundred CDs/LPs/cassettes by now.In 1987 Kapotte Muziek was then the solo project of Frans de Waard, after Christian Nijs left the group early '87. De Waard concentrated on working with other musicians, and started trading tapes with a few musicians he was already in contact with, and one of them was Merzbow. The first release w…

Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek is a master of self-made sound and time-stretching, sensitively handling organic recordings and samples on countless releases, and regards preset sounds in an organ or a cheap keyboard as a tonal find, as a part of the cacophony of everyday life. These bontempi-rhythms plus the computer-stretched sounds of saxophone (Espen Reinertsen) and voice (Mariska Baars) are the base elements of "Vergezicht 1" and "Vergezicht 2." It is stunning how Zuydervelt man…

Consisting of one side of solo lute material by Van Wissem and one side of new pieces by the duo. Film maker Jim Jarmusch plays electric and acoustic guitar and does tape on one piece. Van Wissem plays lute and 12 string electric guitar. CD edition.Jim Jarmusch and Jozef Van Wissem met on the streets of New York in 2006.  Finding that they shared many interests, both a friendship and a musical collaboration was soon born.  The duo has released two albums of lute and guitar compositions: Conce…

Beautiful new work from Machinefabriek. Secret Photographs was composed as a soundtrack to accompany a film made by Mike Hoolboom using photographs taken by notorious bank robber Alvin Karpis. Filmmaker Mike Hoolboom discovered a batch of Karpis' photos for auction on eBay. He was the lucky winning bidder. With his newly found treasure, Hoolboom began working on a film consisting of still images, slowly dissolving one into another. Intensifying the slow, hypnotic pace and transitions, the musica…

Both of these projects hardly need an introduction. Merzbow is since the late '70s the project of Masami Akita working in the field of noise music, having released a few hundred CDs/LPs/cassettes by now. In 1987 Kapotte Muziek was then the solo project of Frans de Waard, after Christian Nijs left the group early '87. De Waard concentrated on working with other musicians, and started trading tapes with a few musicians he was already in contact with, and one of them was Merzbow. The first release …

Now this a strange one. I never would've thought I would be paired with Jaap Blonk... it seems an unlikely combination. But when Tijs van Trigt asked us to perform at his AMPsnacks event in Arnhem, we had such a blast that we decided to do some recording together. This cd is a selection of three hours of improvisation we recorded at STEIM in Amsterdam. Quite a rollercoaster I'd say!

Film director Chris Teerink asked me to make the soundtrack for a documentary he would be making about American artist Sol LeWitt. This was in 2009. Chris and I agreed that the music and the images should both be equally important in his film. We didn't want the score to overpower the images, but neither did we want it to become solely background 'muzak'. I searched for a certain openness in the sound, while at the same time keeping a directness to it. Musical references for me were the piano pi…

Prolific collaborator Rutger Zuydervelt (Machinefabriek) marks another notch on his laptop in this improvised live recording with One Man Nation aka Marc Chia. Their fifteen minute performance was captured at the Bimhuis, Amsterdam, December 8, 2011, for ethnomusically-minded gathering, The Future Sounds of Folk, and manifests a minimal sound sculpture of clicks and pops ballasted by quaking bass and free-roaming electro-acoustic diffusions. Machinefabriek's own remix, done after the moment, red…

Celer & Machinefabriek are having a great year. In addition to their separate releases, they’ve toured, released a download set of the tour, and completed a trilogy of fine vinyl singles, of which Hei/Sou is the final piece. Perhaps the most exciting thing about their collaboration is the extent to which each seems to have been inspired and invigorated by the presence of the other. By pushing each other into new territories, they’ve each upped the ante, as best demonstrated on Celer’s late…

While these performances occurred on opposite coasts, the source material is closely aligned in both concept and process. These works highlight Gregg's ongoing preoccupations with sound and setting, incorporating the focused blend of acoustic and electronic sources that Kowalsky is already well known for. 'Electronic Music for Square and Sine Waves' documents Gregg Kowalsky's contribution to the 2011 Activating the Medium festival in San Francisco. This commissioned piece continues Kowals…

Lichtung is a collaborative project centered around an audio-visual installation. Sound artists Steve Roden and Rutger Zuydervelt (aka Machinefabriek) composed the audio, while the video element was provided by the German visual artist Sabine Bürger. The Mindelsee Lake, situated just a few hundred yards away from the gallery, became the natural focus of the installation. During their stay, Sabine and Rutger recorded the video and audio footage that became the foundation which Steve Roden res…

Beautiful new collaborative work from Jozef Van Wissem & Jim Jarmusch between Dutch lutenist Jozef Van Wissem and American filmmaker & guitarist Jim Jarmusch. Jarmusch's previous collaborations with Wissem have not prepared the eager listener for the expressivity and emotional depth of his playing on these duets. Respectful of one another's space the pair weave layers of melody and waves of feedback while acoustic guitar and lute wrap together with a subtle depth expemplifying an austere u…

Ghost Lanes (the A side) was recorded during the first ever duo session that Gareth and Rutger had, at STEIM, Amsterdam, June 2009. The two hadn't met before, but immediately there was a strange chemistry between them, and without much discussion, it was plug-in and play, and two albums and an EP were recorded. Ghost Lanes was then released as a very limited 3-inch CDr. A year and a half later, they settled at STEIM again, for another fruitful session. That's when Mackerel Sky was recorded. A pe…

Ltd ed of 500 copies, first edition "New release from baroque conceptualist and improviser, Josef Van Wissem, who, for more than a decade, has been quietly but surely reinventing the vocabulary of that most unlikely of instruments, the lute. With the exception of the odd Renaissance preservationist context, the lute, which was once the most popular portable instrument in the Western world, has all but disappeared from our musical landscape. Despite the arcane associations of his chosen ins…