During a one week residency on the Dutch island Terschelling provided by Oerol Festival we could work on this lovely spot around a lake that hosted a group of natterjack toads.
This beautiful trailer was made by Gerrit-Jan Moes from Terschelling TV.
Each performer made his own set-up. Using modular synths, guitar effectpedals and a slide guitar.
Although we were able to create some beatiful moments and nice musical textures we learned that not every sound or structure is suitable - however great they could sound.
In fact most of the ideas that would work well inside a concerthall don't work to very well here. Because we need to relate to all of the sound that surrounds us. Natterjack toads, but also wind, birds, mosquitos, airplanes...
Anything that sounds like a composition makes the natural environment automatically sound like just that: environment. But making the distinction between ourself and our environment is our default mode already - it's not something we need to confirm.
What we are looking for is a way to add our voice to all the voices that are out there already. We need to work on two things mainly: our sound material (the instruments we are using) and our musical structure. This is work for the next year.
The process is documented on the next pages.
First outside test with Zwerm.
A few things become clear pretty soon: the speakers don´t have to much low-end. And whatever low there was inside is now lost in space.
Luckily our amps have a dedicated bass output. So in time we will need some passive subs.
Apart from that we are faced with some good old 'artistic' questions: what are we going to play. And also: what are we going to play it with?