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Anderson
Meet the Bensons – ten estranged relatives living separate lives across the globe. Like all families, they can’t seem to manage with or without each other, being miles apart, but sharing their deepest feelings through the occasional postcard.
To refresh your memory, ANDERSON is an indie-pop duo from The Netherlands, consisting of Bas van Nienes and Jeroen van der Werken. Their debut album we radio anderson was released by Dutch label VOLKOREN (16 Horsepower, at the close of every day) in 2005. A mix of singer/songwriter-pop and fizzy electronics, the album drew rave reviews from the music press, not just in Holland, but throughout Europe, and even in Japan, where it was released by Thistime Records. Successful tours followed through western Europe, the USA, and Japan.
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at the close of every day
late 2002 at the close of every day made their debut with their album “zalig zijn de armen van geest” (“blessed are the lowly in spirit”), which was received well worldwide. the band acquired a cult reputation with the 2004 “the silja symphony” album, which was labeled ‘album of the year’ by dutch national radio show 3voor12. in the same year the atcoed also presented their live cd/dvd “the sound of someone watching me” (recorded live in brussels during their european tour supporting 16horsepower, featuring david eugene edwards on guitar), as well as singer/drummer minco’s solo record “the wagon fair”. atcoed’s most recent work, the fully dutch-language hymnal “de geluiden van weleer” (“the sounds of back when”), which again was very well received in the netherlands and belgium, dates back to october 2005. the fall of 2007 saw the release of remix-album “leaves you puzzled”, occasioning a number of befriended electronica-artists to dissect a number of selected songs from atcoed’s previous albums and glueing the pieces back together. on troostprijs (their last album as of yet) that appeared in the spring of 2008, atcoed again went to battle with its paradoxes. a winner new album with “consolation prize” as a misleading title? an english-language ship sailing under a dutch flag? a winter record in spring? liturgical artwork covering a raw, mundane record? and that’s just the outside. troostprijs cannot be translated, but is universal as a language of reflection. troostprijs appropriately stops the counter at thirteen songs. if that’s no guarantee for luck, we don’t know what is...
late 2010 the band performs 3 more times, together with different bands for 'de speech' project (a new song will be released on a 'speech' ep, guiding this tour) before they will take a long break to focus more on their other projects and families. nevertheless, they have tons of great new songs waiting to be recorded somewhere in 2012. we will keep you in the know.
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Brown Feather Sparrow
Brown Feather Sparrow was formed around singer-songwriter Lydia van Maurik-Wever in 1999. In ten years they recorded three albums which were very well received by the Dutch and international press. On top of that, many songs of the band were used for Dutch TV-programmes like 'Netwerk', 'Nova' and 'Zembla'. Brown Feather Sparrow performed many shows in The Netherlands, but also in Belgium, Germany, Denmark and Sweden. They conquered the hearts of many dedicated, quiet music fans. Their songs are like short stories, beautifully told, sometimes fragile like a baby, sometimes strong like an angry storm. ' Brave' was their last album as a band. In the fall of 2010 they will complete their career with one last (Christmas) album, working together with more than twenty befriended musicians.
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Charles Frail
Charles Frail is an Amsterdam-based singer of suites and serenades. As a youngster, it was old rock & roll that was luring at his soul. After years of pleading, his mother finally gave in and promised to give him an electric guitar. But on one condition: in exchange for the electric guitar he would have to be able to perform ten songs on a 'hopf filigrana', an acoustic guitar that had been a heirloom of some sort. Frail soon fell in love with this instrument, the electric guitar was anon forgotten. Withal, he came to realize that he was unable to sing given songs without altering them unrecognizably; that writing his own songs came easier to him than performing songs of others. He would later dedicate his first work to his mother (the self-released EP "My Mother the Great") as an offering of gratitude.
With ‘My Mother the Great’ Charles Frail performed in most of the renowned concert venues in the Netherlands: Paradiso (small and main hall), De Melkweg, Patronaat, Hedon, 013, Effenaar, Vera; as a support act for Architecture in Helsinki, Micah P. Hinson (‘endearing performance’, VPRO 3voor12), Joan as Police Woman and Daniel Johnston (!). For VPRO 3voor12 he did showcases at Noorderslag/Eurosonic (as part of the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild), Motel Mozaique, he was Hollandse Nieuwe (monthly Dutch promising artist), was a guest for the 3voor12.tv (broadcast on Dutch national television) as up and coming artist for 2008 and represented ‘folk’ for 3voor12’s music icons project. He did a series of living room concerts in Belgium, one time opening for Josh T. Pearson, toured in Norway twice where he was announced as: “en stemme fra en annen verden” (a voice from another world).
On his contribution to the Amsterdam Songwriters Guild compilation, folkforum wrote: ‘the most remarkable is perhaps Charles Frail … Intriguing, fragile, intimate and someone to watch’. On the final song of ‘My Mother the Great’ Kindamuzik wrote: ‘He’s got better things for you’ is the last song of the record. A folktraditional that Frail found on Harry Smith’s Anthology of Folk. In this impressive song Frail’s vocals reach unprecedented fragile heights’.
Frail took his time to work on his debut record and ended up writing three full-length works. He shuns song structures used by most contemporary songwriters in his compositions and instead tries to make every record a single work in its own right. This arduous task that most would shy away from in his hands becomes a lucid approach towards song making in his hands.
Charles Frail’s presents now ‘Morning, it Breathes’. This record is the first part of a triptych of which ‘Mirror River’ and ‘City Fire’ form the subsequent parts.
On ‘Morning, it Breathes” Frail tries to capture the tranquil dynamics of dawn, the interplay of slumber and sleep, the strange ways a dream can take when you wake up and fall back asleep over and over again. The morning world - that, as if draped in a cloak of sleep, is never seen by so many - on this record is emblematic of all that gives birth, rejuvenates and redeems.
The first 500 copies of ‘Morning, it Breathes’ are entirely handmade by Charles Frail. He bought a sewing machine and a hundred meters of cheesecloth, asked the lady who owned the sewing machine shop to teach him the ropes and ended up making a work of art that in its authenticity beautifully befits his music. All in all, a wonderful acquisition to the already versatile VOLKOREN company!
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Jonas David
In june of 2011 volkoren records presents ‚Keep The Times‘, the debut album of the young german artist Jonas David.
The material for ‚Keep The Times‘ took shape during an intense two week period in which Jonas David experienced intense and cinematic dreams. Upon waking up, the plot had escaped him; however, the melodies and soundscapes remained crystal clear, ready to record.
This way of creating something that has seemed to flourish deep inside a stirred soul was not new to Jonas. Every now and then a little black notebook gets flooded within minutes with complete songs. It seems that Jonas‘ subconscious is diges- ting everything into encapsulated parcels. And as soon as they are tied up strong enough, they come out.
This german boasts an exceptional voice, which seems to be very versatile. Moving from a studier clear voice like Glen Hansard or Damien Rice to Justin Vernon‘s mellow and sometimes sharp falsetto, his voice seems able to change within se- conds. Always carried by beautifully mellow harmonics, his voice transports temper very honest and sensitive.
‚Keep The Times‘ sounds the way it came about. It‘s an intensely passionate liste- ning experience, resembling more a soundtrack than a pop album, all the while wa- shing up powerful and timeless songs onto the shore of your mind. On stage Jonas David relives his cinematic dreams and puts himself back into the feelings he had when he wrote. Should you come to listen, be warned – you‘re in for the journey.
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ME
Minco Eggersman takes his time and creates space for a melancholic 80’s record.
Minco Eggersman presents what will be his fifth solo-album RESERVOIRS under the guise of ME – where ‘solo’ is relative, considering the musical journey Eggersman has made over the last few years, and which has landed him in a filmic niche all of his own.
RESERVOIRS takes its point of departure in ME’s more filmic work, but also unabatedly hints at the late 80’s, and could well figure in a stray episode of Twin Peaks. The typical, synthetic sounds of the Yamaha DX7 synthesizer, the electric chorus (bass) guitars and the Hammond melt together with the many acoustic instruments in a beautiful reverb unique for the reservoir in which ME recorded this album.
ME’s youth hero Lothar Kosse found some time – while recording in Nashville with Genesis/John Mayer drummer Nir Z. - to add some subtle guitar parts. To complete the picture, audio guru Eelco Grimm of Grimm Audio offered to master RESERVOIRS after listening to Hamden.
Thematically, RESERVOIRS is about illusions, estrangement, dreams, nightmares and memories. The atmosphere of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks series (one of ME’s favorites) is always close by, with the angelic voice of Mariecke Borger – who fills in more and more leads - starring as ME’s own Julee Cruise.
When most record labels try to make the cheapest products possible, ME comes with his most beautiful limited edition ever which does honor to the highest quality of audio. RESERVOIRS takes its time and creates its own space. RESERVOIRS forges the depth of introspection and the wideness of a gaze into the open into a work of art, that does not wear off by the rust of time, but rather finds its shape. A record that shares itself with its listeners, and that its listeners can become part of.
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Mensenkinderen
Mensenkinderen
A surprisingly intimate project by Bas van Nienes, lead singer of Anderson
One might call it a luxury problem. Bas van Nienes had travelled all over the world over the years, together with his musical companion Jeroen van der Werken (the other half of their electro-pop duo Anderson). Tokyo, Berlin, Los Angeles and Stockholm: been there. The hippest clubs and festivals, radio and TV shows: done that. Loads of new friends and acquaintances: bought the T-shirt.
After the intensity of touring – seemingly endless flights, hours and hours of driving, surviving on fast-food and sushi, adrenaline days, sleepless nights – the trip would end where Bas had started it: at home.
Bas had lost the desire to take on the world. Maybe the time had come to drop his former career plans and start on something new. He got into his garden-shack-turned-recording-studio and locked himself in. And as he did so, his darker doubts and fears soon started surfacing.
Bas decided to turn to his old diaries and rediscovered his own ponderings of years before. There was unmistakably a bit of poetry to be found in those scribbles, too. He remembered the country of his youth, back when his world was yet small, but his faith knew no boundaries. Very gently, whispered glimpses of new melodies introduced themselves to him.
So Bas moved a cartload of instruments into his back-yard barn and locked himself in again. He needed some background tracks for his stormy stream of consciousness.
No high hopes, no excited expectations. He wasn’t going to put together any elaborate pop songs – and he wasn’t going to subject his writing to any radio editing either.
Fortunately, blood is thicker than water. Before long, Bas had completed a set of sublime miniature pop songs, breathing Anderson’s familiar indie-electro style, but much more intimate and ramshackle. Bas named his new project Mensenkinderen (Children of Men).
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Ponoka
Sunny and modest, but also rough-edged and rather lonely. That's how you might describe Ponoka, the small farming town in Alberta, Canada, where singer/songwriter Rick de Gier grew up. It's also how you might describe the music of his band with the same name. Eels, Pavement, Sparklehorse, Bright Eyes: those are the references that pop up in reviews, which so far have been unanimously favorable, often raving. While debut album Hindsight (2007) is mostly a solo effort, successor Built to Fly (2009) presents a well-oiled six-piece band in action. According to leading newspaper De Volkskrant, Ponoka, really joins the front ranks of the Dutch rock scene, with this last record, but more ambitious steps are up ahead: in 2011 the band is set to release a twenty-track companion piece to a novel. But more about that later.
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