Last year I created the Vrystaete label for sounds I am interested in and that did not fit in the existing series of Enfant Terrible. For a part these sounds it goes back to my long love for traditional music… what one few people know for example is that I dj’ed folk music for quite some time and that I released a compilation cd with contemporary folk music back in 2004 in collaboration with Folkwoods Festival.
For a part I neglected folk music due to the focus on Enfant Terrible… but I have always listened to some folk sounds… especially to the weirder stuff from Fonal, but also to classics as Pentangle and Steeleye Span and to some more modern stuff like Hedningarna, Garmarna and more recently to the darker side of folk by Wardruna…
Vrystaete is not meant to be a “folk label” but I am releasing some folk related sounds on it… like the Niedowierzanie already was and the upcoming Diamantener Oberhof and Brunnen also have some links to folk music in their own ways…
Some people asked me about the name Vrystaete where it comes from and what it means… if you translate it into English it would be “Freestate”… when it concerns my label it means that the label is a freestate (for me) to release adventurous music on… so to speak “free spirited” music… no cliche sounds and not music which is genre and style bound… it is also music for people with an open mind and taste and who like to hear new sounds and are not bound by any subcultural dogma’s… thus simply people who have a true interest in music…
The spelling of Vrystaete relates to the part of Holland where I live and the Vrystaete label is established… in my village are many old estates which were built at the end of the 19th century and early 20th century. These estates were from people who lived and worked in Amsterdam and came here in the countryside to stay for the weekend and for hunting for example…
These estates have names spelled in old Dutch which reflected either the family name of the owner or what the estate was used for… so often names related to hunting and leisure time… so when I created the Vrystaete label I took a name which is related to the estates here and which reflects the free state of mind with which the label is done…
Anyway… here is one Diamantener Oberhof song…
And here is one song by Brunnen…
Both tracks are from the upcoming albums… more information and sound previews can be found here…
Tobias Bernstrup… of course a familiar name for those who know my label… his next album is called ‘
Also I ordered the Tindersticks album ‘Ypres’ from last year… one of those records I forgot to order when it came out… this is an album the band did for the World War I museum in Ypres in Belgium. What you get served is beautiful soundscapes… a bit of modern classical music… rather moody (of course I would like to add)… this could also serve as soundtrack to a WOI film for sure… it has the tension and mood fitting perfectly… although military sounds pop up in the background from time to time the music is all about an atmospheric music experience and not at feeding you with explicit military sounds and music as is often done in WOI (and II) inspired “pop music”… but as said… this is more modern classical music as pop music anyway…