Germany - Berlin Part 2

 We'll start the second part of our visit to Berlin with something a bit more traditional.  Violin duo Trad Töchter (Trad Daughters), consisting of Berlin-born Vivien Zeller and Ursula Suchanek, take their inspiration from the traditional dance music of Northern Germany and give them their own twist with their own compositions and arrangement.  This is a tune called Sturmflut (Storm Surge) from their album Neue Geigenmusik:

Klezmer trio Sukke seems to have been just a one-off collaboration of 3 of Europe's most in-demand klezmer musicians, accordionist Sanne Mörike from the Netherlands, clarinettist Merlin Shepherd from England and bassist Heiko Lehmann from Berlin.  They keep their klezmer sound fairly traditional, but add own compositions.  Here is the opening track from their one and only 2011 album Introducing Sukke called Beygele:

Australian David Stewart Ingleton, American Jason Serious and Chilean Tomás Peralta met in Berlin to form the Americana and Bluegrass band Yonder Boys.  They sometimes give their interpretations of the genre  hints at 1960's psychedelia, hence the title of their 2021 debut album Acid Folk.  Here is the opening track of the album called Rabbit Song:

Now in complete contrast something more calming from Celtic harpist Andy Ozbolt alias Andy Aquarius, who is of German and Croatian descent.  His music is reminiscent of Celtic new age music and could be used as ambient background music at a yoga session, but it holds enough melodic and rhythmic interest to hold your attention.  Here is a song from his 2021 album Chapel called The Phase Has Changed.  Why do I always feel like a Guinness when I see a Celtic harp?

And while we are on harps, Harfenduo Zirla consists of Daniela Heiderich and Merit Zloch playing music on Bohemian hook-harps inspired by old dance tunes with influences of Latin, jazz, rock, pop and world music.  Quite a combination and quite a groovy sound.  They have released one album in 2019 called Abfahrt in 5 Minuten (Departure in 5 minutes), which is only available on CD, and here is a tune by them called Cila:

That's it from Berlin for the time being, next we're heading to Saxony and Lower Saxony for some tunes.  In the meantime you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.

Netherlands - The Southeast

An old church in the village of Mill in North Brabant

 

As we come back to the province of North Brabant, the eastern half this time, we arrive in Ravenstein, where singer/songwriter Alex Roeka was born.  Training and working as a psychologist initially he came to music relatively late in life during the 1990's.  His music is mostly about his poetry, which I'm not going to translate here, but it's in style the closest the Dutch have to chanson.  Here's a song from his 2008 album Beet Van Liefde (Bite of love) called Wat Is Toch de Liefde (What is that love)

Singer/songwriter Gerard van Maasakkers was born in 1949 in Nuenen in the province of North Brabant and sings folk in his own regional dialect of Brabants.  He has been active since the 1970's and has released his latest album Ik Loop (I'm walking) in 2019.  Here is the title song from the album:

Next we are heading to Helmond in North Brabant, where the members of Jazz trio the Rosenberg Trio, Stochelo, Nous'sche and Nonnie Rosenberg, hail from.  The band has been going since 1989 and they are inspired by the Gypsy jazz of Django Reinhardt.  They have collaborated with many great musicians from all over the world, including Jan Akkerman, Stéphane Grapelli, Herman van Veen, Toots Thielemans, Shirley Bassey, Randy Crawford and Luciano Pavarotti.  Here's a tune featuring on their 2007 album Roots called Valse a Rosenthal:

Brabant humoristic folk band Dommelvolk was mostly active between 1977 and 1984 with a brief revival between 2000 to 2005 in Eindhoven.  They finally called it a day with the death of their lead singer Ad van Genechten.  They took their inspiration from farmer's songs and didn't take themselves too seriously.  Their albums are hard to get hold of these days, but their most successful one was Ptazzie.  Here's a live version of a song from that album called Woensel Kermis with a rather long intro in Brabant Dutch, so apologies to non-Dutch speakers, which I hope will give you an impression of their fun style.  It's essentially about the going-ons at a fun fair in the Eindhoven district of Woensel.

Accordionist Carel Kraayenhof was born in Aalst in North Brabant.  His specialist subject is the tango and he plays any kind of squeeze box.  His big idol was Argentinian tango accordionist Ástor Piazzola, who peronally urged Kraayenhof to come to Broadway to work on the musical Tango Apasionando.  Here's a recent piece in duo with folk singer Leoni Jansen called Cucurucucu Paloma:

And finally for something completely different from Maastricht in the province of Limburg.  This is where psychedelic band Yin Yin hail from around Kees Berkers and Yves Lennertz, who share a fascination of Thai sounds.  They place their music somewhere on a tropical island between the Netherlands and Southeast Asia.  They released their debut album in 2019 entitled The Rabbit That Hunts the Tiger.  Here's a hypnotic funky dance tune from the album called One Inch Punch:

That's it from the Netherlands, next we'll head into Germany, where I have spent most of my youth.  As usual you follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.

Netherlands - The East

In the province of Overijsel we come to Deventer, where we meet No Blues.  You've heard of Americana, and if you read my post on Brussels you might have heard of Europeana as defined by Belgian band Jaune Toujours.  No Blues have coined the term Arabicana, a blend of Oriental roots music and American blues.  The members are from Palestine and Sudan as well as the Netherlands.  Here's the title track from their 2010 album Hela Hela:

Moving on to Wageningen in the province of Gelderland where traditional Dutch folk band Folkcorn have been going since 1972.  The repertoire of the quartet is mostly sourced from Flemish and Dutch music ranging from the 14th-19th century taken from old song books.  Their instrumentation is mostly traditional and includes plucked dulcimers, recorders, bagpipes, guitar, kazoo and harmonium.  This is a song from their 1978 album Goedenavond Speelman (Good evening musician), which I don't think is available any more.  The song is a drinking song from the city of Haarlem, Haarlemsch Drinklied:

Dark Nordic folk band Sowulu hail from Arnhem in Gelderland.  They claim to celebrate our pagan heritage creating music linked to shamanism and spirituality from traditional and modern instruments around composer and producer Faber Horbach.  If this is your thing, here's a track from their 2016 album SOL called Ginningagap:

Next we are heading to the university city of Nijmegen in Gelderland.  This is another place apart from Rotterdam that I frequently visited as a kid due to relations living there and I still visit occasionally.  This picture was taken on a visit a few years ago of the old town:

Here Dutch folk trio Twee Violen en een Bas originated.  They are exactly what it says on the tin, namely two violins and a bass and they play old Dutch dancing tunes from the 1700's.  They have been going since 1978, albeit with some changes in personnel.  Here is a wee tune from their 2010 album De Graaf van Buuren called De Brandblusser, d'Oude Sige:

That's it for today, I don't want to make this too long of a post.  We'll definitely finish off with the Netherlands next time in the southeast.  Meanwhile you can follow my virtual trip on my Tripline map.

Netherlands - The North

 Heading north but still in the province of North Holland we arrive in Hoorn where my Facebook friend Martijn lives, who has recommended the next act.  Now I had planned to go to Hoorn once on a bicycle on a tour around the Netherlands, but when we got to the beginning of the 30 km long Houtribdijk connecting Lelystad with Enkhuizen a snow storm ensued.  As we didn't fancy cycling on an exposed dike into a blizzard we were stuck in Lelystad, quite possibly the worst place on earth to be stuck in as it is a city built on reclaimed land by planners who were clearly on acid.  Anyway, so I never got to visit Hoorn, which by all accounts is quite a pretty town.

So Hoorn is where bluegrass band The Oldtime Stringband hail from.  Here's a song from their 2019 album Pretty Little Horses called Cluck Old Hen:

 

Next we are crossing the Afsluitdijk into Friesland, where they have their own language.  Friesland or Frisia (yes, where the Frisian cows come from) is a distinct region along the North Sea coast stretching from the northern part of the Netherlands via the northwestern part of Germany into the southwestern part of Denmark.  There are 3 sub-regions all with their distinct dialects of the Frisian language, West, East and North Friesland. 

From the small town of Oudkerk (Aldsjerk in Frisian) hails Ernst Langhout.  He had a long and chequered musical career, starting in various bands playing Scottish and Irish folk followed by New Wave.  In the 1990's he went solo and from 1996 he began singing in his native Frisian language, although oddly mostly translations of Bob Dylan songs rather than digging into his own traditional roots.  Here's a Frisian version of the Beatles' Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds called Lutske Laket:

It seems to be a bit of a thing to translate popular pop songs into Frisian as Veenwouden-born (Feanwâlden in Frisian) Elske DeWall shows.  She sang a Frisian translation of Leonard Cohen's song Dance Me to the end of Love called Dunsje My de Leafde Ut, which appeared on a 2008 album Cohen in het Fries:

 

Moving on to Groningen folk group Törf is altogether more rooted in traditional music of the region, basing their songs on poets from their city.  They have been going since 1975, but their music is rather tricky to get hold of outside the Netherlands.  Here's a song of theirs called De Monden:

Also based in Groningen are Celtic folk band Rapalje.  Whilst mostly playing Irish and Scottish folk here's a song in Dutch originally written in French by Jacques Brel called Stad Amsterdam, which features on their 2010 album Rakish Paddies:

That's it from the north of the Netherlands.  Next we are going to finish off our tour of the country in the south-east.  As usual you can follow my virtual travels on my tripline map.

Netherlands -Amsterdam

 Almost every time I tell someone I am Dutch they will say something like: "Oh I've been to Amsterdam and found this cute little place, you probably know it" or "I'm going on a stag do to Amsterdam soon.  Do you have any recommendations of places we must see?".  I then have to patiently explain that my family are from Rotterdam, that the people of Rotterdam don't like the people of Amsterdam much, so much so that none of my large and sprawling family live there and I have only briefly visited the place about 3 times in my life, twice in the 70's and once in the 90's.  So don't ask me for any recommendations of places to visit in Amsterdam!

Right, now that I have that out of the way, I have to admit that Amsterdam in the province of North Holland is the capital of the Netherlands and as such a magnet for tourists and artists from all over the world, so I shall acknowledge some of the mostly international music acts from this city.

Whilst I did say I wouldn't do any recommendations, one tourist attraction is the Anne Frank House, where the young Jewish girl wrote her famous diary, while hiding away from the Nazis.  This demonstrates the ongoing Jewish connection of the city, which is also reflected in some of the music, such as The Amsterdam Klezmer Band, who have been playing their modern danceable sound of klezmer combined with Balkan, Jazz, Gypsy and hip-hop since 1996.  Here is the opening track from the 2006 album Remixed called Sadagora Hot Dub:

 

Amsterdam-based Turkish psychedelia band Altin Gün are a band consisting of Turkish and Indonesian immigrants as well as Dutch musicians performing music inspired by Anatolian folk infused with 80's psychedelic pop.  Here's a track from their upcoming album Yol called Ordunun Dereleri:

The Mauskovic Dance Band might sound like another klezmer band, but the varying members of the Mauskovic family produce an electronic dance sound with psychedelic Afrobeat and Cumbia influences. This might not be everybody's cup of tea, but here is a live clip of some of their hypnotic grooves:

In 1995 Jazz drummer Lucas van Merwijk founded the Cubop City Big Band in Amsterdam, who have been in the forefront of the Salsa and Latin dance scene in Europe.  Given that the full ensemble consists of some 20 musicians, it must be tricky to get them all together at one place at any one time, which is perhaps why they have only released 7 albums during their 25 years in existence.  Here's a track from their 2003 album Arsenio with music by Arsenio Rodriguez called Mulence:

Boi Akih are a jazz and world music outfit around Dutch guitarist Niels Brouwer and Indonesian vocalist Monica Akihary that was established in 1997.  Akihary sings both in English and her father's native Haruku, an endangered language of the island in Indonesia of the same name.  Their musical style combines musical traditions of the Molucca Islands, Bali, Dutch jazz, improvised music, Indian classical music and traditional African music.  On their latest 2020 album Storyteller they are joined by Hungarian recorder player Dodó Kis and Ivorian kora player Sékou Dioubaté.  Here is a small session showcasing 3 songs from the album:

I first came across Selma Peelen from Amsterdam several years ago when I heard her singing Turkish folk.  In her latest project she teamed up with Johan Visschers to form folk duo Mankes.  They named themselves after Dutch painter Jan Mankes (1889-1920).

Mankes self portrait

Mankes (the music duo) describe their style as cinematic folk with a hint of the Orient and a healthy dose of noisy and dark texture.  Here's a song from their 2019 album Chant called You're Loved (since it was Valentines Day yesterday...)

That's it from Amsterdam.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.

Netherlands - Utrecht

 Singer/songwriter, actor, painter and author Herman van Veen was born in Utrecht in 1945 and has had a glittering career in the Netherlands and Germany.  I have many a fond childhood memory of him as he created fun children's programmes on TV.  His songs were and still are always full of depth and straight from the heart and his live shows full of energy.  I remember seeing him live in Germany in the early 1980's, where he spent 2 hours bouncing around the stage, even climbing up the stage curtains, whilst juggling a multitude of instruments, reciting poetry and singing.  Here's a chanson-like song he performed on his 60th birthday concert called Laat Me (let me go my own way, that's the way I have always done it):

Also from Utrecht, folk band Wolverlei were formed during the 70's folk revival, but only lasted 4 years and 2 albums.  Here's a tune from their self-titled 1978 debut album called Las Las / Het Grote Bed:

Trumpeter Maité Hontelé was born in 1980 in Utrecht.  She began playing the trumpet aged 9 and was so enamoured with Salsa and Latin music, she went to live in Colombia for several years.  Do a nice summer salsa around your locked down living room with Me Da Igual from her 2015 album Te Voi A Querer:

Accordion duo Accordéon Mélancolique have been squeezing their boxes together since 1984.  The duo is based in Driebergen-Rijsenberg in the province of Utrecht, consisting of Cherie de Boer (born in Jakarta) and Jean-Pierre Guiran (born in Vlissingen).  They take most of their inspiration from French musette, but incorporate folk influences from all over the world.  The highlight of their career was when they were asked to play at the celebrations for the 50th anniversary of the Marshall Plan in Rotterdam in front of US president Bill Clinton and the Dutch crown prince Willem Alexander and the then prime minister Wim Kok in 1997.  Here is a tune from their 2012 album Gratitude called Gratitude III:

Balfolk trio Lirio are from Nieuwegein in the province of Utrecht. They consist of Wouter Kuyper (accordion and bagpipes), Sander van der Schaaf (guitar) and Gerdien Smit (violin).  Here's a tune from their 2013 album Hanterdroom called Mazurka voor een Mus:

That's it for today from the province of Utrecht, next stop the capital of the Netherlands, Amsterdam.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.

Netherlands - South Holland

Rotterdam old port and cubic houses

Although the members of folk quartet Pekel hail from both South Holland and Friesland, they are based in the South Holland village of Greup just south of Rotterdam, which is described as a small village on a dike.  I must have cycled through it, but have no memories of it.  Pekel have been playing folk inspired by the sea since the early days of the Dutch folk revival and are still going.  Here's a track from their 2006 album Dijfolk entitled De Stilte Voor de Storm (The calm before the storm):

 In 1973 prog folk band Chimera were formed in Rotterdam around what was to become husband and wife team Marry and Bas Verkade.  Starting off they played English folk, but soon switched to Dutch folk blended with of folk rock and psychedelia.  They only recorded 2 albums in their initial period, until 1983, but both were very successful.  They broke up, because the couple wanted to concentrate on their family having had 2 kids in the meantime.  However they resumed playing as a duo occasionally 5 years later eventually releasing a new album in 2016 with their son Marijn called Gestolen Lente (stolen spring).  This is the title track from the album:

Rotterdam is where my family is from and as one of the biggest ports in Europe it has always been quite a multicultural place.  Whilst I grew up in Germany I spent all my holidays as a kid in Rotterdam, which wasn't a pretty place in the 1960's and 70's with it's heart bombed out during the war and the port dominating the economy, it was a bit of a rough place with non of the charm of rival Amsterdam.  Our family visits always included (apart from the obligatory visits to grandparents, aunts and uncles) excursions to Blijdorp zoo, a trip to the seaside at Hoek van Holland, maybe a stroll through the woodlands of Kralingse Bosch, shopping at the Lijnbaan, the first pedestrianised shopping street in Europe and finally always a Spido harbour tour, complete with having your photo taken as you boarded, so you could buy it off the photographer as you arrived back.  Here are 3 of those photos ca. 1967, 1970 and 1975:

I'm the little one in the back

Striding ahead this time

In cool denims

Enough of the reminiscing, as I said, before I got side-tracked, Rotterdam is a very cosmopolitan place.  Here's one example, the Senegambian-Dutch music collective Dandana.  Band founder Bas Ackermann surrounded himself by 2 other Dutch musicians as well as musicians from Senegal and the Gambia to play a fusion of electronica and traditional sounds from West Africa.  Here's the title track from their latest 2020 album Free the System:

In 1972 legendary folk band Fungus came to being in Vlaardingen just west of Rotterdam.  Like many Dutch acts during the 70's folk revival they started with English and Irish folk, before digging up traditional Dutch material.  This led to them gaining somewhat of a cult status.  When they reverted back to English language songs towards the end of the 70's, their popularity wained and they soon broke up with only a brief revival in the early 2000's.  Their albums are now difficult to get hold of.  Here is a cheerful song originally written in the early 1900's and recorded in 1974 on their self-titled album about shrimp fishing, Garrenkwak:

Finally, for something a bit more contemporary, singer/songwriter Eefje de Visser was born in Voorburg just outside The Hague in 1986.  Her music has been compared to a young Joni Mitchell and she has garnered quite a following in the Benelux countries.  Here's a song she recorded for the Festival aan de Werf 2012 in Utrecht, called Dat Kan (it's possible) with some nice shots of Utrecht:

This is it from South Holland, next we will neatly be heading towards Utrecht.  As usual you can follow my virtual ramblings on my Tripline map.

Netherlands - Zeeland and western North Brabant

 

A new year and a new country, my home country, the Netherlands.  First  of all a clarification: the official name of the country is the Netherlands.  Holland are only the 2 provinces of North and South Holland in the west, which contain the main urban centres of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, but still exclude large parts of the country.  Calling the whole country Holland is equivalent to calling the United Kingdom England.  Secondly the nationality and language of its citizens should be Netherlanders and Netherlandish respectively.  The term Dutch originates from a common Roman term referring to the Babarian tribes north of the Alps and still finds itself in the German name of their country Deutschland, but we'll stick to the more commonly used Dutch for both the nationality and the language.

We begin our musical journey through the country in the southwest in the province of Zeeland.  Jazz saxophonist Paul van der Feen and his 7 brothers and sisters grew up in a musical family in the the pretty seaside town of Middelburg.  They all started playing music from an early age and began performing when still in their teens during the 1990's.  Most notably they performed as the Paul van der Feen Quartet with Paul being joined by his brothers Mark, Matthijs and Clemens.  Here's an extract of them performing a live gig in Amsterdam:

In 1978 Dutch instrumental music ensemble Flairck was born around guitar virtuoso Erik Visser, who was actually born in Indonesia, but moved with his family to Ulvenhout in the province of North Brabant, where he grew up.  The band played a blend of folk, jazz and chamber influenced music and were very successful and productive until about 2004.  This is the title track from their 1978 debut album Variaties op een Dame: 

In 2017 they re-formed under a completely changed personnel with some Belgian influences, including the already featured violinist Anouk Sanczuk, but without Erik Visser.  So essentially its a brand new band, but the philosophy remained the same.  The end of last year they released a new album called Back Alive!  Here's a track from the album, which is a good one to reinforce some Dutch stereotypes: Stoned Wedding:

Moving on to the city of Tilburg in North Brabant, where we come across folk band Wè-nun Henk, who were active between 1995 and about 2008.  They very much show off the folk traditions of their home region.  They only recorded 4 albums in their time including the 2002 album Bar.  Here's a a live recording of a song from the album called De Vagabond.  Apologies for the sound quality:

As we are just into the New Year here is Een Vrolijk Nieuwjaarslied (A happy New Year's song) from the same album:

On this note, a happy New Year to you all and see you next time in South Holland.  As usual you follow my virtual ramblings on my tripline map.