Liesbeth Esselink

During the course of the summer of 2008, Bart van Poppel and Elisabeth Esselink trekked the numerous rivers, lakes and waterways covering the twelve provinces of the Netherlands by an old motor boat. In each province a different cast of musicians were invited to climb aboard and purely a l'improviste, create a homage to the Dutch landscape. On returning to her home base in Amsterdam, Esselink took the resulting material full of noises, moods, voices and rhythms back to her studio where she set about processing the recordings into twelve separate sound-image com­positions, one for each province. Solex Ahoy, or better still, The Sound Map of the Netherlands is a reflection of the perilous route. A homage to the Dutch waterways. DIARY: Solex Ahoy - province Brabant / ALL HANDS ON DECK Richard Slegers (Het Beukorkest) was the first to board in province Brabant. He was accompanied by Timo van Veen, singer/guitarist of Stuurbaard Bakkebaard. They just returned from a big party in The Ardennes-France. Richard gave away some unconventional improvisations on guitar. No chord sounded like the next. Why use just one guitar-sound when you've got 800 to choose from? And he was absolutely right! The next day we arrived in Oosterhout where we recorded Kaz Lux. Late sixties, early seventies he was fronting the famous rock-band Brainbox (with Jan Akkerman on guitar). 'Dark Rose', 'Down Man', 'Summertime' and 'The Smile' were just a few of numerous hits. Not only he's a fanatic karate-kid, he also played the guitar like never before. He's a genuine hero! As we sailed further into the province the days became colder and colder. When Kees Schoone entered the boat with his hands pulled back into his sleeves he reminded me of pianist Glenn Gould. It is often claimed that Gould never shook hands with anyone and always wore gloves to protect his hands. And though Kees shook hands, I think he's the best accordionist in the country. Gloves or no gloves...all hands on deck!