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 Flevoland / THE LAST PROVINCE When we wanted to sail from Utrecht to our last destination, province Flevoland, the weather changed and the forecast wasn't positive either. We had to cross open water and could not sail the Nenuphar with heavy weather. We made a stop in our harbour in Vinkeveen and had to wait a few days before we could sail off again. In Almere we got Rick v/d Heide on trumpet & bügel, and Will Sophie on guitar. Rick is the main man of the local big-band. His wife was ill and that's why his three young children joined us on board. It wasn't easy to play the trumpet and at the same time watch your children from drowning. He did it! The following morning Will Sophie came by. Most musicians wanted to hear the loop a couple of times before we could record. Will's guitar was on the spot right from the beginning. He's a great guitarist! Pierre van der Linden is the drummer of Focus and he will do a session later on. He had to play in London. We now sailed every province of The Netherlands. Sometimes the weather was great, sometimes awful. It was great to have so many different musicians aboard. The Netherlands have many hidden treasures. A lot of virtuoso musicians and a lot of terrible but colourful musicians. All musicians had one thing in common. They all wanted to join us on this project just for the fun of it. The Nenuphar will now be towed on land for a few dabs of paint and I will cut 'n paste songs with head and tail during the winter months.