No magic kingdom compares to my NASA visit back in 2017. As close to space as it gets (so far ;)) Yesterdays launch sure brought back some great flashbacks.
So CongratZ to the Artists of Space and science. Yesterday a new chapter in universal history unfolded, written in the stars.
Poor next door neighbours up north, this was supposed to be their moment of glory after their second (solo)win in history last year with Arcade by Duncan Laurence.
Feeling sorry for their temporary loss and to ease the pain a bit, I ‘d like to pay them this small but sincere tribute on ArtistCongratZ.
Starting by a top collection of Dutch winners and all time favourite candidates. No ranking, just toppers.
Bonus 1: one extra hymne out of category but never of date from🇳🇱 to 🇧🇪 “alles voor het goede 🎯 “ nothing to do with ESC but it surely meets all the requirements 💘
Bonus 2: Keep reading till the end to find proof of my surprise encounter on Dutch soil with the most unstoppable Eurovision Song Contest winner of all times 🇦🇹😊
But first things first: Top collection Made in Holland
Seven songs for seven days:
Edsilia Rombley (1998) (also cohost ESC 2020)
“Hemel en Aarde https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=q2eMrD8XR7g
Teach In (1975)
“Dingedong” (Eddy Ouwens, Dick Bakker, Will Luikinga)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=sI78Bqp6z6g
Duncan Laurence (2019)
“Arcade” (Duncan Laurence, Joel Sjöö, Wouter Hardy, Will Knox)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Eztx7Wr8PtE
Ruth Jacott (1993)
“Vrede” (Henk Westbroek, Eric Van Tijn, Jochem Fluitsma)
https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=vrede+ruth+jacott
Common Linnets (2014)
“Calm after the storm” (Rob Crosby, Ilse DeLanghe JB Meijers, Matt Crosby, Jake Etheridge)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=I-y735l7Iho
Maribelle (1984)
Ik hou van jou (Peter Van Asten-Richard Dubois)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=gPEBOXtGt04
& last but not least my treat to this made in holland classic by Henk Westbroek, one of my favourite Dutch composers👌🎵🎶▶️
“Alles voor het goede 🎯
https://m.youtube.com/watch?gl=BE&v=MTVnMO6cRfg
See you next year dear Eurovisionfans around the globe 🌎 🇪🇺💙💛❤️
Landscapes and music, more than ever a powerful combination 🎶🛤
Thank you Down The Track for bringing Landscapes into homes.
This classical trio formation driven by Belgian composer Pieter Hulst (🎹-cello – 🎻) treats to music for non existing film. Dreamy and unique melodies often carrying a kind of Scandinavian melancholy.
Even though this project is classical, Down the track makes music that touches people and not only those who are fascinated by classical music. Yours truly included.
AC: Strings attached please, You are paying a tribute to these instruments 🙂 CongratZ on the new album!
Pieter: Thanks!
AC: Landscapes listens like a musical journey we all would like to escape to even more these days…Can you tell more about the actual inspiration for this “road trip” ?
Pieter: You are right, it is a musical journey. Before recording the album we liked the idea of using images to create new music. Jacques, Wouter and I come from very different backgrounds. We wanted to use the right tools, and all we wanted was a simple thing that would create a melting-pot of opportunity’s in music and most important of all…that would blend all our influences together. Seems we found the right key to finish the job. Once we got on the right ‘track’ the music came quite easy. Jacques way of composing and playing the piano inspired and pushed me to go further in my idea’s of writing pianomusic.
AC: You call this music for a non existing film, but imagine it should exist, what scenario do you have in mind?
Pieter: We wanted to use the album to show people in the film-industry what we are capable of. Our dream is to get our music on film, we already use the images, so film would be the next step. Everyone who’ll listen to the album will recognise our filmic style, we love it for sure.
AC: I have a soft spot for Epilogue and Man with a suitcase, they seem to sound even more movie like? How do you create this effect?
Pieter: We needed a positive note to end the album. Epilogue was perfect because it comes as a surprise, the only waltz on the album.
When we played it live for our audience a lady came up to me after the show and said that she could see a young girl going up and down on a carousel ride at a funfair… Here I realised how great it is to make people dream with your music.
AC: Not being able to play in public in these strange times, I can imagine that new music is being born as we speak?
Man with a suitcase is one-off. A very complicated signature combined with love for Russian traditional music. Even when I never had a chance to travel on the Trans-Siberian railway I always had a man in mind. He’d be waiting at the station platform with a suitcase in his hand and a remarkable hat, not knowing where the journey would end. This is also the song that came the closest to our name, down the track, it all makes sense in a way.
Glad you liked it, it has been on my mind for a very long time before putting it down on record.
Pieter: Landscapes is only the beginning. We needed the album to move forward on new ideas. As soon as things slow down we start playing live and this means also experimenting with new music.
Pieter: Jacques and I needed ‘Down the track’ to create the music that had been sleeping in our bloodstream for a very long time. Bringing in Wouter and his violin was only a matter of time, he created the missing link to give our classical background that folky-twist we were missing. “Down the Track” is a reference to and imaginary journey, and the images you see from your window is the music you can hear on the album.
Our plans for 2020 are simple. We want to play and bring our music out there. Corona made us all realize that we need to slow down, that we need our friends and family and not so much the artificial life on social media. You may ask yourself; When did you take the time to listen to an entire album? Just sit in the sofa and get bored? Well we’d hope that you’ll put on some music while you get bored 😉 … take your mind someplace else where it can slowdown and enjoy the beauty of doing nothing. I just hope that we, as humble people, can learn something from all this.
Looking forward to more down the track! Take care.
Down the Track draw their influences from the minimalists and their music is also an ode to heroes such as Yann Tiersen and Ludovico Einaudi. Enjoy:
https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/downthetrack
YouTube: https://music.youtube.com/channel/UCuazYR2dDHBEBso98bGezlw
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/1156529189/playlist/2IEBA0PB0569wPCmwn2RFc?si=b1ugXVrGQ2WxFopNK6areQ
Video :https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo3tlLbMQGc
Facebook: Https://Facebook.com/downthetrackmusic
Afterwards I got the chance to talk with them about their inspiring journey so far.
Continue reading “Indie from Finland 🎶 Karina: “We like to mix opposite genres””
Bo: I want to tell stories. Since I was two years old, I make them up. Little books, texts and drawings. I think that songwriting, playing guitar and singing is just one way of telling a story. These 6 songs are an expression for myself.
AC: If you don’t mind me saying so but “Melancholia” seems like a loaded title for such a young girl.
Bo: All the songs are biographical. I’m actually saying goodbye to a period in my life, when I was happy and sad. And now I’m also sad and happy that I’m saying goodbye to it.
Some songs are written by a younger me but that doesn’t mean I can’t find myself in the lyrics right now. I’m touching global themes.
There’s a song about loneliness and not giving up, one about saying goodbye to experiences and people (Wonderland) and another one about being drunk from love, like a drug. You idolize a person you’re in love with and he or she becomes a “Work of Art”.
AC: That’s beautiful, I also got a soft spot for “Bitter Times” and “Lonely Girl”…
Bo: “Bitter times” is actually about loving and hating somebody at the same time. We all know that feeling of being in love with a person and asking ourselves “but why this person?!”
I think a lot of people will recognize themselves in the songs.
Bo’s first steps in music were practically written in the stars.
Dad Jo Cassiers is a wellknown composer, musician and producer, and her uncle and cousins are also musicians.
Bo: My dad bought me a guitar for my first communion. After a while I got bored and it stayed in the corner for a few years. Until I felt the need to play again. It was different than before. I realized I wasn’t practicing the guitar itself but actually telling my stories.
AC: So you compose the songs mostly on guitar?
Bo: They are all written on 🎸 but sometimes in production we leave it out. At first I thought the guitar is a must but later, during production, I also became a fan of soundscapes. It fits more with particular songs.
Writing songs comes naturally for this young artist. She also works parttime in a cheese shop. Leaving her enough time to create things like these visuals that go with the songs. They look like little moodboards with images and colours that Bo picked and actually formed the canvas for the making of “Melancholia”.
AC: Not all songs seem melancholic, some sound rather cheerful while the lyrics are not.
Bo: Sometimes the words can be sad indeed but not the music. That’s the contradiction, maybe that’s the melancholic part in it.
I think everything has a reason. Without these melancholic feelings I wouldn’t have made this record.
AC: So your next record might be very cheerful?
Bo: Maybe, could be…(laughs)
Don’t miss out on Bo’s performances In 2020. You can follow her on Instagram as Bo Vera August.
On top of her wishlist:
A gig @ AB club and supporting acts for musical heroes like Tamino -that should fit as his music is as mysterious and dreamy as her own-, London Grammar, Lana del Rey, Joni Mitchell or First Aid Kit.
AC: How do you see yourself evolve as a musician in the future?
Bo: Improving, I’m happy that I can release my debut now, to become better and to be able to start something new.
AC: Who’s your first sounding board?
Jo (Bo’s dad) fills in: Her mom has an exceptional taste in music. She finds all the new stuff.
Bo: And she is critical too but that’s good. My boyfriend is a bassplayer, he’s also my sounding board.
He played along on this EP. It’s not always easy to work with someone you’re so close to. You have to trust in the process. You can’t expect immediately what you want. You have to let it grow.
Bo’s father played keyboards, arranged and did the mixing.
Jo: It was difficult, because I’m used to getting the best out of an artist. Here it’s my daughter so I had to take a distance, more than with another artist. I couldn’t refuse but it took a while to figure out our canvas…
I asked her to make a canvas: “this is what I’m about”, “those kinds of lyrics”, “that atmosphere”, “electronic or acoustic”…
AC: Would you be able to do it again for a next EP?
Jo: I would, but I don’t want to force anything. She needs to explore opportunities with other artists.
“Melancholia” is now available on Spotify, I Tunes and Apple Music.
Choosing her full name as an artist is a tribute to her godmother and godfather who passed away recently. Bo Vera August: I would have taken this name aniway but now it has even more meaning. They are and will always be my muses.🎶
You don’t get a chance to meet a perfect son every day. Although mine could come close 😉 he’s not the one I’m referring to in this post.
Just two weeks ago I was lucky to discover some more about this new alter ego of singer/producer Tobiasz Billinski 🇵🇱
As Perfect Son he played his first showcase outside of Poland and got nominated for a Music Moves Europe award at Eurosonic.
Hours before this Mecca for new music in Europe presented these awards, I found out more about Perfect Son and his roots.
Tobiasz: My roots are kind of complicated. My nationality is Polish but my parents moved to Norway during communist times. I have kind of a love hate relationship with Poland but it’s my home.
I stayed very connected to Norway for a very long time. Going there a few times a year it became like a second home.
“An atomic shelterstudio”
Tobiasz: The very first songs I wrote and recorded in Norway. So I think that definitely influenced me.
Around 2007, I was in high school in a little quiet town. Beautiful and very boring but that’s where I made my first EP. Cool though; there was this atomic shelter which was transformed into a music studio/rehearsal spaces. So it was like being put into a rock. Really creepy and awesome at the same time.
I had like a $1 million studio cause Norway is a super rich country.
It’s a nice memory and it probably shaped my creativity in a way.
“In control”
AC: A lot of artists don’t like to define their music…
Tobiasz: It’s not our job to define our music. You just make something and give it to the people. They kind of love it or hate it. Let them judge and define it.
I work with other soundengineers who help me to achieve the sound I want. But I have my own vision for everything. Which is kind of a pain in the ass most of the time (laughs) Many engineers don’t like that. They just want to do their job…
AC: So you have to negociate with them?
Tobiasz: Yeah, some of them think I push them around. (Laughs)
I just have a very specific vision when it comes to songs. I don’t think they would work in any other vision. Might or might not be true. But I’m kind of a control freak, I have to sit at the master mixing.
AC: Aniway the result of your hard work is bearing fruit, since you are now nominated for this award. Not your first nomination?
Tobiasz: I was nominated for smaller awards by the mayor of my hometown (laughs)…but things are starting to happen in 2020. My agent is getting us some gigs. I’m making a new EP that I want to release soon and I am going on tour with The Dears (indierockband from Montreal ed).
AC: Are you writing constantly?Recording melodies on your phone?
Tobiasz: I try to do this on a regular bases, but I also just had a new babyboy…
AC: Congratz!! The perfect son?
Tobiasz: It’s funny, I came up with the name before I knew my wife was pregnant. So that was a weird coincidence. Fate I guess…
I work on music all the time. As I said I’m a control freak and also a perfectionist. So it takes a long time to finish anything. If I am actually able to finish what so ever.
“Almost mine”
Tobiasz: Of my 2019 record this is my favourite song.
It’s a very simple one. A very slow like ballad. But I’m proud of it and I really really like it.
It’s the last song on the record. Not many people probably heard it.
AC: What’s the story?
Tobiasz: I used to date a girl that had a small kid. He was almost like a son to me. But then we split and I never got to see the kid again. Kind of a sad story.
AC: Sad stories can make the most moving songs…
Tobiasz: True, although there are some great songs that have happy lyrics.
AC: With your former project Coldair you played in Belgium but yoy haven’t performed in Norway yet? I can imagine that’s on your bucket list?
Tobiasz: It is, I really would like to perform at the Øyafestivalen in Oslo.
*
How I came up with the name Perfect Son? It’s an inside joke between my mom and me. I changed so much over the past few years. A few years ago I was not that nice. I was like a grumpy shitty dude with issues. I was on a really bad path of substance abuse. Suddenly I turned around. Now I am a husband and a father. I even have a dog and I always said I didn’t want one (laughs)
I don’t expect people to take it seriously. Although some do, and even compare me to Jesus. (laughs)
Having fun in the studio can have serious consequences. Especially with Meduza in da house anything can go sky high!
The Music Moves Europe Talent Awardwinners 🏆in popular and contemporary music 🎵 were announced last Friday at ESNS music festival in the Netherlands.
After their steamy 🔥showcase later that evening I got the chance to congratulate them personally and have a chat with producer Matt Madwill about what moves Meduza besides their catchy Italian spirit 🇮🇹🎵
Matt: “Basically, it all started in a studio in Londen with our songwriter, who is now in Australia writing his own album. At the time we were just talking to each other through the mic.
We didn’t know the mic was on (recording) by accident. But we ended up using what we recorded as a track. So what you hear in the track is basically what we said to each other in the studio.”
« Living the dream »
Matt: “Amazing how just having fun in the studio can become a song. This track completely changed our lives.
It’s like the Americans say, just living the dream. So I think it’s the most important song in our lives.
We do this job as our passion. It’s what we live for. The best thing ever in the world.”
Also looking forward to Meduza’s new single in 2020?
Another fun inspired feature coming up by the end of February! Next albumrelease: march 2020.
Since 2019, the annual Music Moves Europe Talent Awards celebrate emerging artists who represent the European sound of today and tomorrow.
The prize is implemented by Eurosonic Noorderslag (ESNS) in partnership with Reeperbahn Festival.
“ESNS was a massive step in my career” @D u a L i p a states.
That also applies for Sam Smith, Sigrid and Hozier. Keep the vibe alive and let them take you to church… As in one of the popular concertvenues of this massive musicfestival/conference called ESNS. Place to be: Groningen the Netherlands.
Discover t h e a r t i s t s of tomorrow and their stories.
Selection of internationals coming soon on ArtistCongratz…but Let’s start with a humble first timers impression 👀day 1 coming up North 🎶🎧. 
One of Lauren’s first animated shorts will run in theaters in the U.S. in 2020 but currently she is working on a series of drawings about two adorable creatures.
Who Are Sami & Fox? Go check them out on p.o.expression… and find out more about this young artist…Congratz
Science Fiction meets one thousand and one night?
“Airships are organisms” reads like a fairytale but feels like a road trip on the silver screen. Discover how it all began from the “director” himself…
AC: CongratZ on the new “baby” dear John Ghost! How did you come up with this “musictale”?
John Ghost: For this album I made music for a long time. Some of the ideas are over 4 years old.
Mostly I start from lots of ideas and I try to make a collage with the strongest ones. I usually start at my instrument and continue things on my computer. So an album of ours is mostly eclectic. It even could be that different songs share similar ideas because they’re often derived from each other.
This seems very sterile at first sight but I try to work with all kinds of images to create a story. Landscapes passing in a train ride, visual ideas from animated movies (Watership Down, The BFG…), situations in real life…
Those images feed me to create a common thread and a story with the musical ideas. I look at it as escapism.
Then the band kicks in and lots of magic things happen! They really make the music and the story comes alive! As well as Jorgen Traeen (Jaga Jazzist, Hubro), our producer. He added the smallest of details and really made the right choices for the recording,…. and so this tale existed! It was a pleasure working with him!
(c) Leon De Backer
AC: How about the first encounters with the main “characters” of your story? A royal from Arabia and a surrealist from Syria…
John Ghost: I never met the princess…Mohammad Zaza (cover-artist ed.) told me about her. We searched for a long time to find the right image for the cover. I already had a strong visual concept in mind because of the making proces and that made it a bit more difficult. But we saw the work of Zaza on the internet, scrolling on pinterest, and immediatly found a match. Zaza had made a series of large paintings. The series was called: ‘A call to reflect on the method of the installation and design of machines’. Some of the paintings were called: ‘The face of the machine’. This concept, as well as the paintingstyle itself, really matched with our concept and we decide to contact Zaza.
Lucky for us he works and lives in Brussels from time to time and we met him at his workplace. Finally we bought a license to use a painting from the series for the cover, but the actual painting itself was bought by the princess in Mohammads galery in Jeddah (Saudi Arabia).
With Jorgen Traeen it’s a different story. We are all fan of the band Jaga Jazzist and we knew Jorgen produced some of their albums. We were very into the soundpallets of these albums and saw similarities with our music.
So we decided to contact Jorgen. Our piano player Karel was studying in Copenhagen at this time and managed to get in contact with him through a masterclass.
We skyped a few times and find out Jorgen was interested in our music and wanted to work with us. We recorded in Gam-studios (Malmédy, Belgium) and we mixed the album at his studio in Bergen (Norway).
AC: How do you compare this album with previous ones? Knowing that you are constantly seeking for new sounds…
John Ghost: For this album we wanted to incorporate the production into the live-feel of the music more and more. Our music is mainly focussed around live playing, but behind the scenes there’s always a story or a strong concept. It was important for us not just to capture a live-performance that would be recorded in good quality. We also wanted to try all the tricks the studio has to offer.
We wanted to learn from that process and take these new ideas to the stage as well. For this it was great working with Jorgen.
Before the recording, Lieven (our bassplayer) already made some electronic versions of the songs. Also everything that was written on score 🎶 was at that point already exported as midi.
Jorgen had a good sense to work with this material. We often started with live-capture in the studio, but added lots of the original ideas and details form the midi material and the electronic mixes. This in contrast to our debut album, that was mostly a captation of how we play the music live.
There are also many more choices for each of the musicians in the newer compositions. The compositions are still fixed in a way, but every musician has a free choice to interprete each part.
AC: Surrealism and Science Fiction are never far away. How did you find the perfect match between the music and the artwork?
John Ghost: By coincidence actually, after searching for a while.
We were fortunate to find the work of Zaza and lucky he had made this collection from a similar idea. He was searching for the connection between nature and the design of machines. Our album-title, “Airships are Organisms” (machines and organic things, mechanics and biology) already existed at that time.
So it was a wonderful coincidence, and we found a great connection thad made it all come together at that point!
If I would have to try to explain the original image I had for the title; For me the airships are like photons (particles of light), enlarged into an animated image of plain-like vessels with an organic cargo, .. carriers of light!
John Ghost: The most interesting feedback we got since the album was released? That this music could be used as a soundtrack for a Tim Burton film…I’ll take it as a YES!
AC: The year only sounds science fictionlike, definitely your cup of tea…What does it have in store? What are you looking forward to mostly? New stage- or studiostories? How was Ghent by the way?
John Ghost: We’ve played our release-show recently in Handelsbeurs (Ghent). It was a wonderful experience! Lots of people and I think we succeeded in what we had in mind with the music. I feel we did take the studio-vibe along with us on stage, and I am very happy that the concept and story of the album translates good in a live-context.
In 2020 there are a bunch of new concerts coming up as well, which I look forward to. I am also recording another project (Endlingr), which is a rock-trio.
Besides that I am writing some solo-stuff as a guitarplayer, and off course I’m already working hard to make a new John-Ghost-Tale happen in the future. Time to short…
https://m.youtube.com/results?search_query=airships+are+organisms
ArtistCongratz 