I fell in love with the clarinet quite late (’97) when I borrowed a plastic Bundy from Paul Klotz. Instantly I was captured by the wayward instrument and when I managed to produce a tone of some sort, I went out to get some lessons. Rik Meesters, my classically schooled but adventurous teacher, introduced me to the conventional method of learning how to play clarinet with books like “A Tune a Day”. But being as undisciplined and untamable as my instrument we had much better fun just playing together, so the lessons soon turned into improvisation sessions (more about the Grondtoon sessions in a future post!).

At the time Rik co-owned a wind instrument repair shop and as we both became more and more interested in the history of the clarinet, we planned our first trip to the Vogtland in Saxony, Germany in 2000. The Vogtland has a unique heritage of European instrument manufacture and the last Master Instrument Makers still reside in its picturesque villages.

One of the nice things about Germans is that they take cultural heritage quite seriously. So apart from several museums, an international school for instrument making and all kinds of musical festivities there also is a research institute for instruments made in the Vogtland, the IFM in Zwota. The IFM has a very nice library, does acoustical and psycho-acoustical measurements, wood value analysis and much more – very interesting stuff! It was at the IFM that Rik and I obtained a list of registered clarinet makers in the region on our second trip.

Our first mission in 2000 however was to learn about the differences between Boehm (French) and Oehler (German) clarinets, apart from the obvious system variations. And to try to find Rudolf Gottsmann in Wohlhausen, the maker of the Reform Boehm clarinet I acquired after trading my Noblet bass clarinet.

The Gottsmann (B-clarinet) had an exceptionally dense and rich tone. Nothing like my first and very own Parisian Paul Dupré, nicknamed the Tank, which sounded much more extrovert. In hindsight I do regret the trade-in of my bass clarinet, but at the time I felt I had to choose my specialty. Also, I would have never found the Vogtland – my home away from home –, my present clarinet and most important its makers Winfried Otto Nürnberger and Nico Sämann at Fa. W.O. Nürnberger.

Something was wrong with the Gottsmann though. Somehow its tone was restricted and its flow reduced. Rik and I suspected the original barrel joint was replaced and decided to find Rodulf Gottsmann from Wohlhausen to request him to make a new one. Unfortunately Herr Gottsmann had past away, and the man answering the door at his workshop thought we were a couple of vague and not to be trusted Czechoslovakians. So we had to find someone else to make a new barrel.

When the new barrel was sent to the Netherlands some weeks later, I hoped I would be able to capture the full potential of the Gottsmann. It was months, numerous other alterations and mouthpieces later that I finally gave up trying to revive the Gottsmann.

A second trip was planned for 2001. This time we decided to visit as many Master Clarinet Makers as possible, guided by the list we got from the IFM. I got to play the very best soloist clarinet models made in the Vogtland. Würlitzers, Adlers, you name them. It was an eye-opener to actually meet the makers of all these magnificent instruments and be invited into their homes to play on their clarinets. At the second day of our stay we drove by Fa. W.O. Nürnberger. Somehow, they were not on our list. But we decided to ring the doorbell anyway.

At first Herr Nürnberger was a bit confused with my visit. I explained that I was searching my future clarinet and he asked me whether I was a soloist or an orchestral member. When I replied I was neither, he gave it one more shot by asking if I was a jazz musician. In all honesty I did not think of myself as being a jazz clarinet player either, and in a last attempt to assess me and my interest, he asked what I would be willing to spend on an instrument? I replied that if the instrument was right, the price would not matter.

About fifteen minutes later I had a life changing experience. Laying before me was pure gold. I instantly knew, without even having played the clarinet, this was the one. My clarinet. And playing it was an epiphany. Never before had a clarinet been so willing in my hands – and I did not even know how to play Oehler system clarinets!

I went back the next day to make sure that what I experienced was real and promised to return as soon as possible to order a clarinet built by Herr Nürnberger. But more on the Nürnberger in Part II!

2011 came and went without much news from yours truly. Accept for the third performance of “Dance in a ricecarpet” I mostly studied and worked to finally become an audicien (audiologist in English, by lack of a better translation), my day job. I spent quite a few hours working on this here brand new website and took very little time to actually play my clarinet. All of which is okay, really. Creativity flows in waves, as does creating.

My artistic plans for 2012 are simple, yet abundant! First up is the long awaited release of “Narziß und Goldmund“. It is in the final stages. Sander Bolk is mastering the recordings, making them sound better than they ever have, while I am finishing the designs for the cover and booklet. This will be the first release available on CD as well as in any digital format you can possibly desire. And I will be making the booklets and CD’s myself, at home, one by one, hand made to order, one of a kind in numbered editions.

Second, in 2012 I plan to release all my albums this way. Every single one remastered with its own sleeve. All worth every bit of work, considering the gratitude I feel for having been able to make this music.

Third, and perhaps most important, I will play as much as possible this year! Apart from my day to day solo musings at home sessions are being planned with a couple of great musicians as well as performances with husc later this year. So stay tuned…

Last, but not least, there is my photography. As it happened I found quite a bit of inspiration at the start of this year opening new perspectives to gathering views of my surroundings. Here is a little hint on a project I hope to start any day now:

“…  the essential contradiction of the front garden is how the laws and tendencies of the plant ecosystem act as a countertendency to the social forms of visuality. “

Hopefully it will be a long project, like all of the others. Taking tremendous amounts of time and effort, and bring an equal sense of completion and satisfaction as well as something nice to enjoy and remember it by, afterwards.

Boyriver is a music project by Paul van Gogh that began in the autumn of 2009 and ended in the autumn of 2011. During a period of twenty months ten songs, which were all recorded at home, ended up on the album ‘Home recordings’.

Paul is my closest musical friend to date. After our first home session sometime in ’98 or ’99 we started the NEBO sessions in 2000 and rigorously dedicated ourselves to improvised music. The NEBO sessions ended somewhere in 2001 after which we completed our “improvisations of the cold soil”, resulting in “Offret” with Silvia van Heugten on violin in 2002.

In 2005 we started the Rainbow sessions and in 2007 we recorded “Valendas / Stalen sessions” during a journey through Switzerland. So in short, we took quite a trip, musically. The final chapter (or is it?) is to be released in a month or so on “Narziß und Goldmund“.

Much of the music Paul and I have made together is quite abstract and not that easy to listen to. But in “Home recordings” I am hearing a completely different Paul than the Paul I knew banging away – with impeccable timing – on the grand piano. And it makes me appreciate him even more. As a close friend as well as an excellent musician.

So please reward all his hard work, as I know it must have been, and give this album a spin. And know that I am very grateful that I got to play the final solo on “All the love”.

“A gorilla on the roof of the National Bank”, a music theater piece by Dirk Elst, premiered in 2009.

Together with Dirk Elst (words & percussion), Lode Vercampt (cello) and myself (clarinet) “A gorilla on the roof of the National Bank” brought a story that is a cross between a concert and a monologue, a radio play and a performance. Gospel, blues and poetry were interspersed with improvisations.

A radio play from the time when the whole family gathered around the radio. Balancing between seriousness and hilarity, serene and wild. About a gorilla who is visiting the metropolis of man and forcedly climbs the roof of the National Bank. – Dirk Elst

We gave two performances of the Gorilla in 2009 and 2010. But with all the crises developing in the world today, it seems to me that we were ahead of our time. “A gorilla on the roof of the National Bank” was born from the idea that when the last wild gorilla dies, things could end badly for mankind as well. As the gorilla visits the capital of man, to see what has become of our species, the reality he finds defies his imagination. Alienated from himself the gorilla seeks refuge on the roof of the National Bank. The shapes remind him of the high mountains. Below the masses converge and one of their leaders, a man, gives a speech. The speech is surprisingly existential, as if mankind should justify its existence.

Last Saturday I was privileged to visit this years November Music festival. The most important international festival for contemporary music in the Netherlands. Together with Dutch composer Dyane Donck, all-round music lover and excellent graphic designer Marc Heijmans and my fiancée, artist Sabine Bolk I attended “ECM Artists in Concert”. Dyane was asked to review the concert for Radio 4′s blog about contemporary music and asked me for some information about ECM. I ended up writing my first ever review of a concert, and got to do so about music that I love made by musicians I deeply respect.

If you would like to read the review in Dutch, you can do by visiting Eigentijds, the blog of Radio 4. For everyone else I attempted to translate the review to English.

ECM Artists in Concert

During an international festival for contemporary music ECM records, short for Edition of Contemporary Music should not be missed. The qualities of ECM at all levels – from musicianship, production, sound engineering to the special design of the covers – is internationally recognized.

The English newspaper “The Independent” described ECM as “the most important imprint in the world for jazz and new music.”. In 2007 ECM won the MIDEM Classical Award for classical music, and the Jazz Journalist Association award. In 2008, Manfred Eicher was voted producer of the year and ECM was voted label of the year by Downbeat Critics Poll in 2008 and 2009.

But perhaps more importantly, the artists, writers, poets, photographers, filmmakers, artist and designers are central in every release of ECM.

Northbound

At the start of the concert by the Iro Haarla Quintet the Finnish composer, pianist and harpist Iro Haarla told us that she and her quintet would carry us over seas, through landscapes to many different places. Sometimes fickle, sometimes tropical. Haarla, said to be the inner architect of his ensemble and chamber works by drummer and composer Edward Vesala, knows exactly how to bring her spherical landscapes across. The room is flooded with peace when the firmly bearded Norwegian saxophonist Trygve Seim committed to a full, warm and silent sound. Accompanied by the in origin British but raised in Norway trumpeter Hayden Powell, the legendary Norwegian drummer Jon Christensen and Norwegian bass player Ulf Krokfors, Haarla’s compositions flow over us. Much too short our trip lasts, but it does make us remember that behind every great release of ECM, its equally brilliant artists deliver their experience best to us in person.

Craig Taborn & Yuri Honing

Rarely there was a more unlikely combination of two great instrumentalists than the American composer and keyboardist Craig Taborn and our own Dutch saxophonist Yuri Honing. Evenly matched? Sure. “Soulmate” Honing tweeted after the concert with Taborn.

They met for the first time that day, in person as well as in music.

The improvisation session forms a stark contrast to the concert of the Iro Haarla Quintet. The tension in the room is tangible. We experience all stages of the improvisation session and sympathize with the musicians, their careful explorations and the surpassing of their tonal conventions, and witness the creation of music. New music, the repetitive patterns tending to abstraction and gentle sounds of Taborn unite with the deeply rooted and very genuine sound of Honing. An absolute highlight of the evening.

Dimensions

From the birth-land of jazz Craig Taborn, the young bass player Thomas Morgan and drummer Gerard Cleaver bring us the next chapter in its history. Taborn’s unerring sense of atmospherical abstraction comes to its full advantage with his trio. The apparent ease with which their intriguing patterns develop, transform and fade away, lead to a long climax that frees us from waiting.

Chiaroscuro

Light-dark and the name of Arve Henriksen’s second album with the Norwegian label Rune Grammofon. Together with drummer Audun Kleive, and both accompanied by the necessary electronics Henriksen plunges us into a full soundscape. As if we can see the sun break on the waves above from the dark depths below. The masterful, at times muffled, sometimes ethereal trumpet sound and voice of Henriksen weaves into a tapestry guided and broadened by Kleive’s timeless rhythms. They share a very personal and intimate journey with us, through strange faraway places and new lands. And when during the encore Trygve Seim sits down and a new improvisation session between old friends starts, the evening comes full circle. Fulfilled by so much beauty in one evening we continue our journey, home.

The past few months I have been trying to travel light. I used the word “no” more than I ever have, spent most of my spare time trying to relax and let go of ideas and plans, procrastinated quite a bit, delayed the start and finish of all kinds of projects trying to lift some weight off my shoulders. Somehow all of the above has had an adverse effect on my piece of mind. I have had lapses in my creativity before, but this one is somehow more profound and makes me wonder whether my usual relaxed attitude is still the best answer.

I would like to think that I am the kind of guy that faces what is ahead, embraces hardship and does not worry about problems that can not be solved (because it is rather pointless to do so, same as worrying about problems that can be solved). Instead minor unimportant, but quite demotivating problems keep popping up draining more energy from my reserves, often triggering disproportional responses which drain even more energy. I almost forgot that I do not run on a battery and no ‘recharging’ is required other than eating and the occasional bit of sleep. That, and playing music, inspiration, dedication and the flow of creativity is and forever will be my therapy.

It so happens that during one of my past periods of seclusion I felt I uncovered some of the fundamental values on which I base most of my creative decisions today, in playing and otherwise.So whatever the outcome will be this time, in spite of all the things going on in this world and my life – most of which not as encouraging as I had hoped – I trust it will be worth while, and perhaps even a bit cathartic.

If you want to have a listen, or treat me to a coffee by buying it, I have released a new album of old recordings called “Ocean Wave”. Initially named after Bas Jan Ader’s 12½ foot sailboat on his journey “In Search of the Miraculous”, a daring attempt to cross the Atlantic. After the 11th of March 2011 however, the name “Ocean Wave” has gained a whole new meaning to all of us. Hence “Draupner Wave”, which is a rogue wave, as the most important track on the album.