This saturday there’s a swell party at Zaal De Unie as the ConClub throws a good one starring Panico (a wild band from Chile), Parisian DJ/musician Cosmo Vitelli, In Flagranti (New Yorkian), dutch performance artist Gabriëlle Barros Martins and the film ‘Wild Combination’ about disco avant-freak Arthur Russel. Enough reasons to show up. Limited tickets available thru the ConClub website.

campaign design (HuMobisten, 2008)
client: Int. Film Festival R’dam & Kunstgebouw
October / November 2008

We were asked (for the fourth time) by the International Film Festival Rotterdam and the Kunstgebouw to design an identity for their annual educational project called ‘Meet the Maestro’. During MTM, a super talented and obstinate film director will be the focus of attention.

When it came out I already wanted to say something about this beautiful album, but then I forgot and there wasn’t a real reason in quite some time. As if I need a reason?! Well, I guess I somehow do. Anyway, what better reason than letting you all know about the Edison, a prestigious musical award, Benjamin Herman recently won for his album ‘Campert’. An album based upon the original score Herman made earlier for a documentary my friend Jeroen S. Rozendaal had been working on named ‘tijd duurt een mens lang’ about dutch poet and writer Remco Campert.

Many people know Herman as being the band leader of his legendary New Cool Collective and NCC Big Band, but the alto saxophone player Herman is above all a jazz cat. He’s the only young musician I ever heard who’s able to combine modern jazz with a sort of nostalgic or pure feel one has when listening to jazz dinosaurs Ben Webster, Charlie Parker or especially Sonny Rollins (who I admit is least of a dinosaur of the three but who still is born, unlike Herman, in the year 1930). His influences notably vary from Jaki Byard and Mischa Mengelberg to Defunkt’s Joseph Bowie or James Chance, but I somewhere overheard he recently is into Fleetfoxes as well. So I guess why he‘s such a great musician is pretty obvious: he simply loves all music, a quality seldom seen by at least the jazz musicians I know.

The moody ‘Campert’ reeks of fallen autumn leaves, stifled heart ache and the joy of einzelgangin’ and is already being compared to legendary jazz soundtracks like Miles’ ‘Ascenseur pour l’Echafaud’ and such, but it reminds me most of all of Gato Barbieri’s Soundtrack for ‘Last Tango in Paris’ (orchestrated by Oliver Nelson). Anyway, it’s just a really, really awesome record which can be played at least four or five times a week when the wheather’s right. Much respect for all musicians, but extra special credits go out to piano player Gideon van Gelder who genuinely plays with the subtlety of someone who does little, but is probably capable of lots.

‘Tell me about the loneliness of Good, He-Man…
Is it equal to the loneliness of Evil?’

Here’s a poster design we did for the WATT december club nights.

cause it’s November…

Check out this work (and the rest) I have made at gallery Cokkie Snoei. This is the last weekend you can see the Han Solo show. Well last weekend, I heard rumors that Cokkie is going to add another week to the show. If you still want to see it, you can. But only by appointment.

F=mg, Gyz La Rivière, 2008
photo by: Frank Hanswijk

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