In addition to my work for the Herfsttonen festival in Okkenbroek (November 2009), I now released a Herfsttonen album through my record label. It features studio recordings of the compositions made by Paul de Jong (The Books), Bram van den Oever (Gluid) and MiaMia. Order Herfsttonen overhere!

I did the design and the photography for the handmade digipak and booklet.

In Okkenbroek you’ll find four hiking trails with a length ranging from half an hour to one and a half hour. They’ll take you to some of the most beautiful spots of Salland. With the input of Landtonen your walk gets even better.

Several artists, writers and composers were commissioned by Landtonen to make a poetic impression of these walks.View the impression, read the text, enjoy the images invoked. And then follow the same trail. You’ll see things through different eyes, hear with different ears and smell with a new nose. These poetic impressions were made in a limited edition. They are for sale in Noaberhuus Okkenbroek and in Kunstenlab Deventer.

But… because Noaberhuus is closed on Sundays (which are excellent hiking days ofcourse), I was commissioned to design some kind of device to distribute the poetic impressions (including a map) in another way. Could have been a very simple assignment I guess, but I decided it was more fun to distribute them with sound. Partly because Landtonen roughly translates as ’showing land’ but also as ‘land tones’. And partly because of my earlier involvement in Landtonen.

So I took the assignment a step further and came up with four cabinets that play the flute when you open them. All four cabinets are playing a different tone. So when you combine them, you actually have a very basic musical instrument to play with! The construction is completely mechanical and works with bellows, no electricity needed.

As you can see there’s a red, blue, yellow and green cabinet which corresponds with – you guessed it – the red, blue, yellow and green trail. The outer casing is made of beechwood. Since Okkenbroek is a small village located in a rural area where decency (and social control) is still common good, you pay for your poetic impression by putting the right amount of money in one of the canisters on top. This system is used by farmers throughout the area. The same decency should also prevent extreme vandalism. This is why the cabinets are sturdy, but not vandalism proof.

I just received conformation that my logotype for OE-DA! (Overijsselse Erfgoed Design Award) has been approved by KCO. Now working on the OE-DA! website. Should be online soon.

In short the goal of OE-DA! is to offer a fresh perspective on cultural heritage in Overijssel, in order to make it more appealing to new target audiences. They do so by organizing a design award for young designers and artists, inspired by this cultural heritage. Five winners (selected by jury) get supported in the realization of  their design with 5000 euro and coaching.

My label esc.rec. just released it’s 24th. A compilation of tracks that Transfolmer has made together with (or inspired by) artists he met online. A collection of remixes if you will. And a fine collection at that. Melancholy oozes out of every song (again). The new influences, sounds and voices on this release enrich and replenish Transfolmer’s sound. Leaving you with a warm (and free) soundtrack for the fall.

Liesbeth Kok made the artwork and I designed the cover.

Download at will!

Friday, September 18: The 8th edition of ass-crack stage-hack is comprised of solo and duo performances by Jozef van Wissem and James Blackshaw, preceded by another exclusive three course diner by Jean Klare. This time the ass-crack stage-hack quite literally hacks a stage, because at the same time the video manifestation ‘Prognosis for the Future‘ takes place in Havenkwartier Deventer.

Jozef van Wissem (US)
Jozef van Wissem is a Dutch minimalist composer and lute player. He is renowned for his unusual approach of the Renaissance and Baroque lute, probably the most unlikely instruments in the world of contemporary music. Van Wissem wrote out mirror images of hundreds of classical lute tablature pieces, copying them out from the bottom right to the top left corner. To these inversions he added new themes, accents and rhythms. He then applied the ‘cut up’ technique of writer William Burroughs and cut, shifted, mixed and pasted the parts together to create new works. One critic has compared this work to that of German painter Georg Baselitz, who paints upside down.

Van Wissem has accomplished the strange feat of bridging the idiom of seventeenth century lute literature and twenty-first century contemporary music Although he uses subtle electronic sound manipulation, he has largely stayed faithful to the particular timbre, resonance and playing technique of the lute.

Together with James Blackshaw Jozef van Wissem forms the duo Brethren of the Free Spirit.

James Blackshaw (UK)
Initially inspired by the guitarists of the 60’s Takoma label to teach himself fingerpicking, James Blackshaw writes long-form pieces primarily for solo 12-string guitar and piano that are heavily influenced by minimalist composers and European classical music and which use drones, overtones and repeating patterns alongside a strong inclination for melody to create instrumental music that is both intelligent, hypnotic and emotionally charged.

His fingerpicking mantras are as melodic as a music box, gliding through dizzying tempos like clockwork… Such is the silky control he exherts over his instrument, Blackshaw often sounds more like a court harpist than a backwoods strummer. Whereas kindred spirits like John Fahey and Robbie Basho looked East for their Raga-inspired guitar diversions, Blackshaw instead sounds more East-Coast: his long-distance guitar tunes recalling NY minimalism, or Sonic Youth, as arranged for chamber orchestra. Mesmerising stuff, and proof that less is often more.

Goesting-Jockey Jean Klare
If you do not only want to treat your ears to a feast, but also want to have your culinairy senses stroked, please join us for a meal! Amateur-caterer and ‘goesting-jockey’ Jean Klare prepares extatic pleasure for the taste buds this evening; a three course diner, including an excellent wine selection, for only 25 euro. You do however need to make a reservation for this culinairy treat. Just send an email to harco@escrec.com.

Entrance: 5 euro (30 euro including diner)
Date: vrijdag 18 september
Start diner: 19:00 hrs
Start concerts: 21:00 hrs
Location: Havenkwartier Deventer