Gnot - Encyclopedia Galactica -1994- (Cassette, Self-Released), Netherlands

 

OCCII Amsterdam 30th Anniversary celebration post!

OCCII (Onafhankelijk Cultureel Centrum In It) is one of Amsterdam's last standing autonomous cultural venues that revolves around the elements of inclusivity, DIY action and a wide variety of live music as well as political and social activities. Besides local indie bands, jazz or world music it's also a home for free improvisation, psychedelic electronics, noise, punk and much more. OCCII emerged from the Amsterdam squatting scene of the 80's and later gained a legal status. It slowly but surely established itself as one of the true free spaces for music heads in town built on community principles.

Thanks to its many volunteers, it has a consistent weekly program of music, children's activities, workshops and talks. Throughout the last 30 years OCCII as a venue has gained a cult status among many international underground musicians that came to play. Simultaneously it has built a broad audience that reaches far beyond Amsterdam. To celebrate the 30th anniversary today, the 14th of September 2022, it's time to share a live recording from the early days of the venue. Moreover, there are not many recordings from that early period, so if someone happens to have any other material from that time feel free to get in touch.

Gnot was an Amsterdam based ever-changing free improvisation and noise rock collective founded by Arjan van Sorge that was active throughout the 90's. During their live performances they also added a few theatrical and dance elements. Encyclopedia Galactica is a live recording of Gnot at OCCII Amsterdam that took place on September the 30th, 1994. On this occassion the band consisted of Arjan van Sorge (Drums), Bram Hessels (Guitar), Peter Verzijl (Guitar), Joe Williamson (Bass) and Pisti Benecz (synthesizer).

The concert was improvised and later divided into individual tracks with different titles and released privately on cassette in limited quantities. It's a little relic from the 90's underground scene of Amsterdam when free improvisation had its connection with the local squatting scene and different artist communes as well as autonomous (pirate) radio stations while the soil was being laid down for local underground venues like OCCII. Some other impro-noise acts from around those days were the Amsterdam based ex-Yugo acts of a.o. Gone Bald and De Reizende Verkoper and ofcourse the many ofshoot acts of the late great The Ex.

Long live the OCCII! 

This post is dedicated to everyone that has played a part at OCCII over the last 30 years.

Check out OCCII Amsterdam today.

From the collection Allard Pierson/NPI

Get it HERE

Hi-Fi - Zauberklang -1985- (Cassette, Cruel Grannies), Netherlands

 

Here is another mysterious project from the Dutch home-taping culture. Hi-Fi was from Amsterdam and apparently related to a small circle of other obscure musicians from the city. Despite its hi-fidelity name, the Zauberklang (magic sound) of the band consists mostly of lo-fi damaged rock and roll and electrified experiments. A Velvet Underground starting point is deconstructed into dark and almost mechanical soundscapes fusing the lines between post-punk and psychedelia. As if The Index, 39 Clocks and the early incarnation of Skullflower would play together in some small basement. Distorted home-taping music with a strong druggy beatnik culture influence for people wearing their sunglasses in the dark. Hold your horse...

Within the Dutch home-taping culture of the 80's there's not a whole lot that sounds like this. A band I can think of is Roy G. Biv that was also Amsterdam based and looked for similar synergies of psychedelic rock with analog drums, synthesizer sounds and trancelike repetitions in their music. Then there was the band Vovokai from the city of Eindhoven that had a similar approach. Last but not least the mysterious Alien project qualifies for the sound as well. It remains surprising that these type of bands existed in the Dutch underground, probably even seperate from each others' influences. 

I'd like to dedicate this post to FM Shades.

From the Collection Allard Pierson/NPI

Get it HERE

Roy G. Biv - Prince Spaghetti Day -1985- (Cassette, Self-Released), Netherlands

Roy G. Biv (Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet) was an Amsterdam based home-taping project and sound & color improvisation band created by Dutch musician and visual artist Robin Deirkauf in collaboration with Edward Vunderink (guitars, voice) and Frans Evers (keyboards).

The band played hours of psychedelic jam sessions in which repetitive guitar riffs, cosmic electronics and post-punk experimentation were brough together. Roy G. Biv released around 10 different cassette albums during the 80's. The early work by the band can be placed in a more cosmic electronic Krautrock tradition, while the later albums blend a psychedelic sound with different music influences from the 80's. A variety of spectral color schemes and color symbolism were an important dimension of the band. Visual art and conceptual ideas around colors were used and developed for live concerts and for the releases. Conceptually it reminds me of the direction Sonic Boom took with his band Spectrum after the Spacemen 3 period. You can read more about Roy G. Biv in a previous blogpost.

 

Prince Spaghetti Day (named after an American spaghetti commercial) is a later release by Roy G. Biv from 1985. It's less dreamy and overall more rhythm driven. Yet another nice album of psychedelic jams mediated through a home-taping minimal synth sound, reminiscent of bands like 39 Clocks or Circles.

RIP Robin Deirkauf 1946-2019

From the Collection Allard Pierson/NPI

Get it HERE

Various Artists - Truuktape -1984- (Cassette, Truuktape), Netherlands

Here is another totally obscure compilation of cassette-culture from The Netherlands on Truuktape (Trick Tapes). It compiles Dutch and Belgian home-taping artists of which some are known and others have sank into obscurity. Present on the compilation are: Unovidual (Flemish home-taper Henk Wallays who played great minimal synth), Totallos, Zyklon B, Oefening Kunstbaardt (mythical Rotterdam project that released one of the most sought after 7 inches of the Dutch minimal synth underground), Johan Schaaphok, Bert vd Kerk, Jan vd Einden and Lorraine.Tru.

It's a great compilation that really displays the Dutch underground zeitgeist of the period. Half of it is electronic minimal synth experimentation and the other half is collage and experimental tunes with subversive poetry and such. On the B-Side there is a moment that we hear the Dutch former queen Beatrix speak to the parliament about the greatness of the country. Within the Dutch squatting scene and punk circles it was very common to ridicule the monarchy. During her inaugaration in 1980 a war broke out on the streets of Amsterdam between squatters and the state. The riots were known as Geen Woning, Geen Kroning, meaning No House, No Coronation. Even the Dutch army had to intervene at a certain point. It was a time when alternative lifestyles and anti-authoritarianism were peaking in Holland, the legendary Staaltape shop (dedicated to DIY cassettes) was right around the corner of the Royal Palace on the Dam Square of Amsterdam and half of the city was squatted and inhabited by underage punks and junkies. A moment of a no-future mentality, nearly no employment for the youth plus the threat of nuclear warfare between the big East and West powers.

Truuktapes apparently hailed from Amsterdam and did this great compilation combining the forces of the musical DIY-attitude from those days and capturing a certain mentality just by using the right political and poetic sound bits and pieces. A way of undermining control, sharing a certain mentality with the listener and displaying the little means you need to be creative. This truly shows the power of the home-taping scene and the cassette as medium. You start playing the cassette and you get surprised by a collage of musical madness of empowering nature that you can tap into immediately and contribute to the same day. It's not made to be the greatest music, it's a message.

I left this cassette unindexed in its A and B side because there is no tracklist available and I don't know which band is which. Also in its statement as a collage of many sounds and tracks I present this here in its purest cassette form. As a compilation. Without knowing what to expect. It reminds me a bit of the pirate radio squat tape I uploaded a long time ago.

"I plant a knife in the ribcage of conscience, in the twist of thought of the executive power of the constitution, let's tolerate the fellow man like we were once cherished by the motherboard of desire. Let's cut the throat of the damage that always disposes us. Let's humiliate ourselves by self-destruction and torments of our souls. Let's become crazy and give ourselves to institutions or to the Russians near the Maas River. Give me a gun and I'll kill the queen and hurt morals.... etc".

The shock effect in writing is the impotence of poetry.

From the Collection Allard Pierson/NPI

Get it HERE / Mirror link

Betty Arden - Movements -1985- (Cassette, Sound On Sound), Netherlands

Betty Arden is an Amsterdam based musician and home-taper who released a couple of cassettes during the 80's. As a skilled multi-instrumentalist her musical output has been a combination of folk, new wave, minimal synth, ambient soundscapes and gloomy pop. I'm not sure whether Movements was her first release but I do know that some other cassettes came out later than this one, like her album Music for Films. In 1986 she also contributed a track to one of the mythical Oscar's X-Mas Carols compilations, which were created and compiled by Dutch music journalist and cassette expert Oscar Smit. During the 80's he wrote informative reviews about newly released cassettes for the Dutch music magazine Vinyl.

On Movements we hear great inventive and gloomy compositions (she plays all instruments by herself) quite reminiscent of the ethereal sound of groups on the 4AD label (Dead Can Dance etc.). That sound is comprised a.o. of electronic atmospheric elements, melodic acoustic guitar structures in combination with melancholic songwriting and other folk elements. It's a certain new wave sound of the 80's that was more composed in its musical approach, but also found different interesting ways of merging the atmospheric pieces with songs and composition all together on one album.

In that light Betty Arden's music also incorporates those elements, but she also shows she can be playful with her melodies and the usage of minimal synth sounds. Her compositions remind me somewhat of The Durutti Column or Deux Filles, but also of the Dutch new wave group Qua Dance I posted years ago. But ofcourse there are many examples in that musical realm.

It's always good to shed light on a female home-taper of whom we didn't hear much so far! I had to take a picture of the inner cover from a certain angle to reveal the information, because I couldn't get a right scan of that peculiar golden cover.

From the collection Allard Pierson/NPI

Get it HERE



News and message:

I'd like to take the opportunity to inform you about a few developments related to music, the blog and my own activities.

First:
Next month on May the 22nd a stunning vinyl compilation is being released by the Belgian StroomTV label that focuses on the musical output of Dutch home-taper Hessel Veldman (Y Create). I'm honored that I was asked by both the Label and Hessel Veldman to write the liner notes for this particular release. Hessel Veldman is also of great help to this blog and someone I consider as a musical mentor so I hope some of you will keep an eye on that release. Pre-orders are here: https://stroomtv.bandcamp.com/album/eigen-boezem

Second:
Next month on May the 25th another vinyl reissue will be released by the new and highly promising Futura Resistenza label. It's the first ever vinyl reissue of Jacques van Erven's Tunes & Scenery (Hard To Whistle). Van Erven is a Dutch multi-instrumentalist and artist who made this unclassifiable and incredible cassette in the 80's. Also in this case I am very honored to have written the liner notes. Definitely keep an eye on the future releases of this label too. You can pre-order your copy here: https://futuraresistenza.bandcamp.com/album/jacques-van-erven-tunes-scenery-hard-to-whistle-lp

Third:
My long time friends Oscar Olias and Matas Labašauskas from Berlin and Vilnius (creators of the Empty Brain Resort, Sucked Orange Gallery, Braille Satellite Festival and what not) have started a new label called Bigbandalone. They just released a marvelous double vinyl by the German home-taping duo Delta-Sleep-Inducing Peptide (Dieter Mauson and Siegmar Fricke) that existed during the late 80's and early 90's. These recordings show another missing link of music that was bridging the gap between the home-taping culture and the psychedelic dance-trance infusion that was rapidly seeking its way into the nervous system of the 90's. The vinyl compiles 28 tracks selected from 14 tapes. Find it here: https://www.bigbandalone.com/

Last:
Lately, by the kind grace of others, but also because of years of doing this blog I got a great opportunity to share yet more material with all of you. But because most of this material is Dutch, the overall consistency of the blog will perhaps be less varied. Ofcourse I will do the best I can to keep Archaic Inventions as international as possible in terms of content, but don't be surprised to see more Dutch tapes passing by here: I don't think it will underwhelm.

But enough with the talks. Enjoy the music! Stay safe and sane out there! - Bence AI

Arthur Berkhoff - Spectrum Analysis At The Computer -1983- (APB5, Cassette), Netherlands

Arthur Berkhoff was a Dutch representative of the international Neoist movement who was heavily involved in mail-art and the home-taping culture. Neoism is a specific art movement that was based on playing with collective identities, the reproduction of artworks as well as the usage of fake art and plagiarism. Most of the neoist artists create and publish under the name of Monty Cantsin, a name that was created in the late 70's and mostly adopted by the Hungarian artist István Kantor as the identity for an "open" popstar to be used by others. Actually neoism has a great concept that could be applied even today to topics like the dissolvement of identity, open source platforms, collective art projects, copyright etc.

Neoism and its Mail-art output ofcourse also flourished within the home-taping circles and many protagonist home-taping artists have used neoist concepts and contributed to the movement. From Graf Haufen to Monte Cazzaza and from GX Jupitter-Larsen to Vittore Baroni just to name a few. Dutch artist Arthur Berkhoff was making art and cassettes in Amsterdam during the 80's through which he established his own futuristic "Pregroperativism" movement. It was a strange one-man mythology that consisted (from what I can tell) of a mix of space, technology, cybernetics and neoist art concepts. All the music was recorded in his Orguna Laboratory and most of the tracks are long improvised experimental electronic pieces with voices and noises.

Spectrum Analysis At The Computer is another great cassette from the Dutch home-taping culture of the 80's and a real alien piece of music. The music also reflects Berkhoff's strong dedication to his Pregroperativist universe. Some of his other works can be found over at No Longer Forgotten Music and check out a collection of his conceptual films over here.

This is some cyberpunk avant la lettre (or at least an early example). 

From the collection Allard Pierson/NPI

Get it HERE

Roy G. Biv - Yellow -1980- (Tape, Self-Released), Netherlands

Roy G. Biv (Red Orange Yellow Green Blue Indigo Violet) was the home-taping project and sound & color improvisation band of Dutch musician and visual artist Robin Deirkauf who sadly passed away last year. I think the first tapes were solo-projects and later the project was joined by Edward Vunderink (guitars, voice) and Frans Evers (keyboards). Yellow is one of the first three tapes by Roy G. Biv from 1980 and just like some of Conrad Schnitzler's work it was dedicated to a specific color. The band also did a red and a blue cassette (I have never seen or heard the blue one). Here's a brief and interesting biography I found on Deirkauf's personal website:

"In his early childhood Deirkauf grew up in the Caribbean, where his father was an antiques dealer, mainly specialized in African and Asiatic art. The exotic colorful underwater world at that time and the antiques has had a profound influence on his later drawings and paintings.

Sign, symbol and script are recurring elements in his sometimes eclectic work, it is characterized by ancient, primordial pictoral power, mixed with modern constructivist elements and bright colors. After this period he turned to a more formal and conceptual way of analizing the image, resulting in the development of a matrix used to create a pictographic alphabet consisting of primary colors and forms.

During the late 70's and early 80's Deirkauf founded the experimental sound and color improvisation group  Roy G. Biv for the realization of the multimedia art project phase III with Edward Vunderink and Frans Evers, what resulted in 10 music albums."

Roy G. Biv's Yellow tape is a great improvised jam-session like endeavour of cosmic electronic soundscapes reminding me of Krautrock groups from the 70's like Agitation Free, Ash Ra Tempel and other Manuel Göttsching works. It's also highly influenced by minimal music and because of the color themes, the Conrad Schnitzler analogy remains a given ofcourse. Not too often do the early home-taping cassettes from The Netherlands lean more towards the psychedelic and cosmic electronic side of the musical spectrum instead of the more commonly found industrial or minimal synth tapes from those times.

It's nice to find out about the existence of different and more cosmic music from Amsterdam from a time when half of the city was filled with squats with punks and new wave had already arrived both in fashion and music. I suppose Roy G. Biv shows the musical transition from the 70's with its psychedelic sounds to the DIY sound approach of the 80's and carries both decades in its spirit. Maybe that approach is also interwoven into the story of the Dutch wave and ultra band Mekanik Kommando that later turned into the psychedelic group The Use of Ashes.

Most of the Roy G. Biv albums were uploaded on No Longer Forgotten Music some time ago. Wonderful stuff. And ofcourse rest in peace Robin Deirkauf. Maybe some reissues have to be done in his memory.

The red tape will also be uploaded to the blog one day.

Get it HERE

Orkest De Volharding - In Het Woud Is Veel Te Doen -1977- (LP, Cineclub Vrijheidsfilm en Solidaridad), Netherlands/Uruguay

Orkest De Volharding (Orchestra Perseverance) is the oldest Dutch "Democratized" jazz and modern composed music orchestra that was founded in 1972 by probably the most innovative and important modern composer of The Netherlands, Louis Andriessen. He played together with many important Dutch jazz and improvisation musicians like Willem Breuker (who later also revolutionized Dutch free jazz with his legendary Willem Breuker Kollektief), Willem van Manen and Bernard Hunnekink and many others.

De Volharding was founded in the aftermath of the Nutcracker actions (Aktie Notenkraker): directed actions against the classical music establishment and its musical conventions. These conventions had to be cracked and hierarchical structures in music were criticized (for example getting rid of the conductor to give musicians their own space). During the late sixties and early seventies there were many emancipatory cultural movements and actions in Holland, in theatre there was Aktie Tomaat (Action Tomato: drama students going to the theatre to throw tomatoes at the actors). These sentiments partially derived from the legendary counter-cultural Provo Movement (1965-1967) that in its political urgencies, freedom thought and its critique of the capitalist state and economy (causing environmental problems etc.) can be seen as a precursor to Hippie movements worldwide. They pioneered the potential of happenings and subversive yet pacifistic actions to make political statements in The Netherlands.

Another reason for these cultural actions aiming at radically changing the values of society was the Vietnam War and the discontent with post-war conservatism. At that moment lots of people saw the direct results of the west-block (capitalism) versus east-block (communism) and for many young people in the west socialist and Marxist ideas became subversive, but also more appealing as a result of the cruel Western warfare and the undesirable excesses of capitalist society (environment, social inequality etc). Orkest De Volharding also had many musical pieces favoring the socialist side. They  did the music for many theatre plays of the left-wing cultural sphere.

In 1977 De Volharding did this album called "In Het Woud Is Veel Te Doen", meaning: "In The Woods There Is A Lot To Do" ("En La Selva Hay Mucho Trabajo Por Hacer"). The music was composed by Bernard Hunnekink and played by Orkest De Volharding. The music on this record is actually a soundtrack created for an Uruguayan Children's movie with the same title. On the A-Side of the record we can hear the instrumental version and on the B-side again the same piece accompanied by the Dutch lyrics (to my ears still less interesting than the instrumental, even though I speak Dutch).

The text is for children and it's about wild animals in the forest that are being captivated by a hunter that wants to bring them to the Zoo. Later they manage to escape by boat and the story concludes with the moral that says: "Nobody should be ever taken from his or her home. Never again like how it used to be before." Not sure if this is also a metaphore for something in the Uruguayan political history: probably.

The music reminds me of many Dutch modern composed records I posted in the first years of the existence of this blog. It even reminds me a bit of certain compositions by Ennio Morricone, who also should have had a small influence on Louis Andriessen. The album also reminds me of the "Alemania-Bolivia" tape that No Longer Forgotten Music just posted: strange conceptual music for, and partially by Children about the differences between a children's life in Bolivia as opposed to a children's life in Germany. Actually the German political Krautrock band Floh De Cologne also did a concept album about the Chilean coup d'état in the early 70's called "Mumien". There were many examples of albums that were conceptually and musically combining the Latin American and Western European world within their 1970's (political) context.

There are lots of nice drawings of animals for children included on the record cover that I cut up and all put in the video below. I end with the liner notes from the sleeve about them:

These drawings were not made to be published: Actually they were a sort of dialogue. The only way in which a comrade could think to break through the bars of his jail cell. As such he managed to send out a little black pigeon with a little red beak. And with a message of battle and hope it reached his little daughter. Every mother, every father everyone who is being incarcerated in a "Zoo" at the moment could have made these sketches. Every one of them hopes to see their children. They all know: "How much there is still to be done in the forest". To this parent and their children we dedicate this story. 

Not on Discogs.

Get it HERE



Update:
I was invited by students of the Amsterdam University and the EYE Filmmuseum to a private screening of this animation film and many other films from the Cineclub Vrijheidsfilm, cinema militante, archive. I will update the information about this release soon. You can watch En La Selva Hay Mucho Trabajo Por Hacer in its original Uruguayan version below:

Jodi Gilbert, Michael Moore, Ernst Glerum, Алексей Левин ‎- The Voice Is The Matter -1999- (CD, Ramboy Recordings), Netherlands/US/Russia

The Voice Is The Matter is a beautiful CD-only release from The Netherlands that was created by American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist and composer Michael Moore, singer Jodi Gilbert (voice, dulcimer), Dutch double bass player and member of the Instant Composers Pool Ernst Glerum, Michael Vatcher (drums) and Russian composer and jazz musician Alexei Levin (piano, accordion). All of these musicians are based in Amsterdam.

The album The Voice Is The Matter was recorded in Amsterdam on March 11, April 18, May 24, 1997, but got released in 1999. Musically it's a mixture of free-jazz improvisation, experimental scatting, poetry, smooth-jazz and Macedonian and Bulgarian folk-song interpretations in which voice is emphasized. All musicians present are also pinnacle figures in the Dutch and international improvisation scene already for decades and have released dozens of different records. I suggest you give some other releases a listen too when you can. The album is also reminiscent of The Schismatics that I posted before on the blog.

Actually the fact that it doesn't reach too heavy 'impro moments' combined with a hollistic album approach causes this recording to be quite dreamy, listenable and comforting. Just the right soundtrack for necessary tranquility during the winter month of December we are finding ourselves in. 

Get it HERE

Support and buy HERE

Dionys Breukers - Koer Locale -1992- (LP, W139), Netherlands

This is a record with compositions by Dutch keyboardist Dionys Breukers. It was released through W139 which is a gallery and art space that is located in the center of Amsterdam. It was established in 1979 mainly to offer space to artists outside of the established art world in The Netherlands. W139 still functions today somewhat in the same way and places a large emphasis on art installations inside of its building. You can still find surprising exhibitions there if you want to escape the tourist inferno of the red light district.

From the liner notes of the record:

Koer Locale is the third project of the series called De Centrale, that is being realised by the W139 foundation in Amsterdam. Three artistic leaders are connected to it: Bas van Tol, Madje Vollaers and Pascal Zwart. In the spring of 1992 they created a hull from different elements a.o. a rotating wall, a cascade and a bar. Based on this composition various participants of different disciplines were asked to create a weekly new order by adding different "building blocks". One of these building blocks was provided by Dionys Breukers. In his contribution, to be heard on this LP, he led himself by the notion of background music: muzak. Basically this is opposite to the intention of the interior-project: to fill in a background was out of the question. But don't worry: the muzak of Dionys Breukers is not real muzak, but an original composition. During Koer Locale his musical building block was constantly to be heard from the bar (one of the art components of the space). - Jozef van Rossum, Amsterdam May 1992

The A-side of this album mostly contains compositions that are being played by Breukers himself while on the B-side there are also own compositions but often being played by others. A curious fact is that on the track Mais Non there is a guest contribution by canterbury legend Hugh Hopper, the great bass player of Soft Machine. Still I credited all tracks to Breukers to keep it simple.

The album indeed contains elements of experimental collage, cocktail music, Dutch jazz, a few maybe dated keyboard sounds and even funky notes. Sometimes it kind of hints to what would become known as Nu-Jazz during the nineties, but it also definitely has a lot of cheesy elements. Normally they would bother me a bit too much, but since the whole concept of the album revolves around the theme of muzak, maybe that was the whole point... I'd say: decide for yourself what to make of it! The record is a bit crackly but it was probably published in very limited quantities, I've never seen another copy.

Get it HERE

De Reizende Verkoper - Aguardiente -1999- (CDr, Self-Released), Croatia/Netherlands

De Reizende Verkoper (Dutch for The Travelling Salesman) was an obscure freak jazz improvisation band created around Croatian avant-garde musicians who settled in Amsterdam during the nineties (maybe late 80's). The band consists of guitarist Razorblade Jr., drummer Marc and sax player Kafka (Damir Prica). Some members were a.o. also involved in the no-wave group Blisters and the highly recommended experimental group Pink Noise Quartet.

During the 80's and the 90's there were quite some Eastern European underground musicians that came to live in Holland. Many of them came from Ex-Yugoslavia. An example could be the great Croatian experimental punk band SexA. All these musicians brought a new energy to the Dutch and mostly Amsterdam local underground and improvisation scene. I know a lot more about this scene because I knew some people in person being a child, but I rather keep that personal.

Aguardiente is a great album of experimental improvisation and no-wave with free-jazz freak out moments. It was recorded in a matter of a few hours in an Amsterdam basement in 1999, probably with some good quality aguardiente involved. It's a pure example of the vivid Yugo impro scene that had an important influence on what maybe can be viewed as the last real vibrant time of music in the Amsterdam underground. At least it's a scene that was never properly covered or given the right attention in music history. Luckily some of the protagonists are still active!

Obscure impro greatness all over!

Get it HERE

Amsterdam Stringtrio ‎- Dodekakania -1986- (LP, DATA Records), Netherlands

The Amsterdam Stringtrio was a one-off project formed by Cellist Ernst Reijseger, Violinist Maurice Horsthuis and double bass player Ernst Glerum. Three Dutch string instrument musicians that recorded this album in Amsterdam for the occasion. All of them have been members of the ICP Orchestra and have played with many other respected improvisation and jazz musicians, from Lol Coxhill to Derek Bailey.

To me this album is a bit too much substantiated with classical music influences, instead of the anarchic improvisation I usually like. But nevertheless it's still very atmospheric and gets into more adventurous parts throughout its progression. In any case it's another piece of the Dutch avant-garde music puzzle that I try to give attention to on the blog every now and then. It reminds me a bit of Louis Andriessen's soundtrack Golven, Harry Sparnaay's Bass Clarinet Identity II or the Brazilian MEC 70 compilation: all posted here on the blog a long time ago!

Another highlight to me is the incredible artwork of this album which was designed by the artist Maryke de Vries and specially printed by artist Zeger Reyers. Dodekakania was limited to 500 hand-numbered vinyl copies.

 Get it HERE

 

Message:
There's a chance the blog will run out of material in the near future, although there are still posts to come. It is getting increasingly harder to find material and I have been doing this for quite some years now. I'm not saying that this blog will shut down, but I need to see how the future will develop regarding Arhcaic Inventions based on new material and the future developments in my personal life. It might also somehow elevate or expand into something new, yet similar. Let's see!

Simon Vinkenoog - Liefhebben, Zien en Proeven (Poezie en Muziek) -1966- (LP, Sigma Relax), Netherlands

             Merry Christmas and an Archaic New Year to all followers and friends of the blog! 

This record (which is rare as hen's teeth) is one of the most important documents of the Dutch countercultural psychedelic movement of the sixties. 

Simon Vinkenoog (18 July 1928 – 12 July 2009) was a Dutch author, poet, elocutionist and pioneer of the psychedelic revolution of the last century. He published his first poems around 1950 and kept working his way into the Dutch literary world from the fifties on. In 1959 he willingly tried LSD under medical supervision and later became a protagonist in the world of mind-altering substances, Dutch literature, happenings, free music and advocated for a world in which people lived in astonishment of the universe we belong to and the richness of culture and nature on planet earth. Because his early involvement in the counter culture combined with his literary career, Simon Vinkenoog can be seen as a European example of the Beat Generation. In 1966 he hosted an iconic poetry manifestation in the Royal theatre Carré showcasing a new generation of fresh poets in the Netherlands. If you understand German, check Simon Vinkenoog out in this panel on LSD and Gegenkultur in Europe in the sixties.

William S. Burroughs with Simon Vinkenoog

In 1968 Vinkenoog took part in the making of the mythical album Woorden (words) together with two other Dutch poets where free form music was combined with poetry. The album was only distributed through literary book stores and the first ´coffeeshops´ of Amsterdam, back when those places where not yet polluted with mass tourism and irresponsible behaviour. In that time Amsterdam was an important international centre of free-thinkers, alternative gatherers and hippies comparable to San Francisco in the US. It's ironic that Amsterdam is often perceived as a freedom city because of the endeavours of sixties and seventies and that now almost nothing relates to those values anymore. The Woorden record is seen by many as one of the most striking examples of the Dutch hippie-movement and spaced out sixties. Also it's one of the most rare albums on the legendary NWW-List. 

Anyway, this even rarer record here dates from before Woorden. Liefhebben, zien en proeven (meaining: To love, see and taste) is from 1966 and in record collecting circles often regarded as a literary album. But as the back of the record reveals, this is not just spoken word. The album was recorded on the 30th of December 1966 (literally 50 years ago!) in the in Dutch Royal Tropical Insitute and contains sitars, tabla's, gamelan gongs, indonesian flutes, indian bells etc. It's interesting how the interest in cultures and ethnic instruments of these crazy dope smoking youngsters was still regarded within an anthropological frame. The Tropical Institute was probably delighted that young people wanted to explore their colonial possessions and dig into exotic cultures. 

I know most of you will not understand a word from this album, but hopefully you can appreciate it with the given context. The poems are about life, death, rebirth, love, human potential and much much more. One of the poems is about DMT (in 1966 already.. man). I think I saw him one time in my life during a demonstration at the Dam square of Amsterdam on a stage speaking against the ban of magic mushrooms in Netherlands. Vinkenoog did millions of things in his lifetime: he wrote numerous poems, many novels and also frequently wrote on so called 'pseudo-scientific' topics in various magazines. It's important to note that Vinkenoog is not just some hippie-poet, he is ranked amongst all the important writers of the Dutch literature too. 

He made two albums with Spinvis (the Dutch Beck?) in the 00's which were his last musical recordings. In the video below I included scans from a little sixties underground book that Vinkenoog compiled. It was called Moksha, a timebook for the alteration of consciousness and drugs. Simon Vinkenoog, a very inspiring person and icon of the Dutch counter-culture. From the liner notes:

I wish that the human heart would beat faster. I wish that I could tell everyone everything I know at once: how the battle between light and dark is won by the light. I wish that people carried the sun with them. I wish that cheerful light would shine from all houses. I wish so many things, I still want so much: peace, peace, peace. I can't say it differently than with words: I don't want to persuade, convince or entice - I Just want you to listen, so you can find your own answers. Listen. And also stop the record, so you can listen to yourself! Have a good trip!

Get it HERE