Solo bass clarinet – Music & Short stories, based on Vivaldi, Wagner, Gershwin, Mahler, Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Ellington. I played this set in Sils-Maria (Switzerland), Cangas (Spain/Galicia), and at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam (Netherlands). Here’s one introductory talk and one piece from my solo set at the Bimhuis on 18 May 2019. Recorded by Marc Schots for Bimhuis Radio. Listen to the whole set here.

 

 

 

I am very happy to be playing with this highly remarkable person. Out first record ‘Icarus’ just came out! Go to STORE to order your copy or download.

Check out this video at Han’s art exhibition in Bergen:

 

As a result of the 2016 North Sea Composition Assignment, I wrote a 75-minute suite for bassoon, drums, bass, piano and clarinets. The idea was to combine this music with Nietzsche’s parable of the rope dancer from Thus Spoke Zarathustra. I recorded this music in January 2020; it will be released in the Spring of 2021.

For Nietzsche, dance stands for freedom. It stands for a suspension of old habits and thoughts and not getting stuck with them. Nietzsche wants us to dance in this metaphorical sense: we need to dance in order to ‘become who we are’. We should dance when we play music, but also when we write, think, speak, etcetera. A rope dancer stands for someone who is not afraid to go different places and to take risks. His feet are light: he loves the unknown and the distant future – he loves his fate.

Rope Dance features Bram van Sambeek (bassoon), Martijn Vink (drums), Clemens van der Feen (bass), Bram de Looze (piano) and myself (clarinets/compositions).

Graphic design slides: Lucas van Eck

 

Matt Penman (bass), Ted Poor (drums).

We started playing in 2009, and recorded two albums since.

Jesse van Ruller (guitar), Clemens van der Feen (bass), Joris Roelofs (clarinets)