FEAN - DEVENTER

FEAN started as a musical artist-in-residence project in a little church in the Frisian village Katlyk. The group consists of Piiptsjilling (Jan Kleefstra, Romke Kleefstra, Mariska Baars and Rutger Zuydervelt). For FEAN they are accompanied by Belgian guests Annelies Monseré, Sylvain Chauveau and Joachim Badenhorst.

The Piiptsjilling members are used to perform and record together, and adding the three Belgian guests (who didn’t play together before) added an extra dimension to the group’s dynamics, resulting in a concentrated yet playful series of improvisations, that were later mixed and edited to two FEAN albums.

The FEAN project gets its inspiration from the ecological decay of peatland in the Dutch province Friesland and in other parts of Europe. Agriculture and peat extraction are threatening the landscape severely and with long term consequences. This forms the underlying thought for the improvised performances.

On September 6 2019, the group (minus Sylvain Chauveau) played at the big Lebuinus Church in the city of Deventer (the Netherlands), organized by De Perifeer and Vondst. With its reverberant acoustics, this was a perfect space for a FEAN concert. The concert was recorded, slightly edited and published on the site of Alienocene. And although this 20+ minute recording doesn’t come close to the live experience, it might convey at least some of its magic… Check the live recording here .

In memoriam Paul Dokter (1961-2020)

The week started sad when a message of a friend woke me up last Monday, saying Paul Dokter had passed away. Dutch music lovers who read this know who I’m talking about, but those abroad may have no idea. He’s been quite important for the music I am making.

 

Paul Dokter, together with Theo de Jong, was the songwriter, singer and guitarist of The Serenes, a band from around here (province of Friesland, where I live) with which he made the beautiful, timeless album "Barefoot and Pregnant" in 1990. That record is on Spotify, it is on YouTube, listen to it, more than once!

I remember the first time I heard The Serenes. It was on regional radio, probably in 1990, where they played the song "Homeland" from their demo cassette. The song struck me, because in terms of sound and sphere it was close to songs I was writing myself at that time. A few months later "Barefoot and Pregnant" was published and I saw the group perform several times. All gigs quite impressive. I listen to the album every now and then, especially when the lyrics and music bring comfort when I need it, also recently. Especially songs like "Beneath The Canopy", "Abiding Place" and "The World Is A Woman's Breast" – all sung by Paul - motivated me to form a band for my own songs. When I was about to start that band with a befriended bassist, I heard that Paul had quit The Serenes and the band was looking for a guitarist and bassist. For a moment I and the bass player hesitated, but still we founded our own band. A missed opportunity?

In 1994 Paul came back temporarily with Sunstone Cruiser, who made a wonderful demo cassette, on which the influence of Spacemen 3 and Galaxie 500 was clear. Then it went silent. I met Paul a few times then. Really nice, modest, calm guy, same taste in music. In 2003 I heard  some new recordings of a renewed collaboration between Paul and Theo, a bit kinda Spititualized. That collaboration came to a standstill until a few years ago, when Paul and Theo put new music on Soundcloud under the name “Volvox Colony”. A little more experimental, and vaguely it reminded me of Tarwater. Volvox Colony disappeared from Soundcloud and a new song and clip appeared on YouTube in 2018 under the new name “The Family Acid”. A full album was to follow later that year. We will probably never hear that record... Last Friday, at the age of 59, Paul died completely unexpectedly of cardiac arrest. Have a safe strip, Paul. Sunstone cruising forever! (Romke Kleefstra)